Biggleswade hope Cup run will speed return home

Amir Hadi brought Biggleswade level with a brilliant finish

Biggleswade FC hope their FA Cup run will speed up their bid for a new ground in their home town.

The eighth-tier non-league outfit were beaten 3-1 by York City of the National League - but not before Amir Hadi scored one of the best goals of the final qualifying round.

His back-heeled finish made the score 1-1 and Biggleswade were still in with a chance of forcing a replay until York's Ollie Pearce settled the tie with his second goal of the game in the 89th minute.

A club record crowd of 1,180 watched the game at Bedford Town FC, where Biggleswade groundshare, and co-manager Mark Inskip said: "This has now given us a platform."

He told BBC Three Counties Radio: "Biggleswade is expanding, it's gone from 16,000 in 2016 to 24,000 now, with another 1500 houses to be built. The leisure side of things is languishing very badly. It's crying out now for facilities.

"With facilities, we could go back there as a community club, seven days a week, make it thrive, boys and girls football, walking men's football. What we're hoping for now is that the powers that be look at this crowd and what we've achieved. Things on the leisure side should, and need, to be built."

Hadi's brilliant finish gave the home fans plenty to cheer about after Biggleswade opted for a positive formation in the hope of making an impact, even though that could have made them vulnerable at the back.

"If you'd said to me and (co-manager) Dave (Northfield) when the draw was made that we'd have a crowd this size, we'd lose 3-1 and we'd be coming away using the word 'if' I'd have probably have bitten your hand off.

"The lads were superb to a man, the tactics we set out were spot on. There were a couple of lads who'd probably have played in a normal league game but we wanted to be more attacking, (with) more flair," said Inskip.

"All we wanted was the opportunity to score a goal when it really counted, no point scoring it at 5-0. It made it one-all and gave everybody who came a great moment, a great lift."

Biggleswade FC have only been in existence for eight years and have already won two promotions and are now targeting a place in the Southern League Division One Central play-offs - they are currently 14th in the table after six games.

York boss Adam Hinshelwood was not impressed with his side's efforts despite the result.

"Paying full respect to Biggleswade, if you look at our standard in the game, it was poor," he told BBC Radio York.

"With people sat behind the ball, we haven't got enough players willing to take risks. We don't have enough players when games are tight that are making a difference at the moment."

Hinshelwood also paid tribute to Hadi's goal for Biggleswade, describing it as "unbelievable".

He added: "I thought he was a real threat all afternoon, a real handful for us. He took his goal well."