Linby Colliery first entered the FA Cup fifty-six years after forming whilst members of the local Notts Alliance League Division One, and would go on to be one of the lowest level clubs to appear in the ‘Proper’ rounds of the competition during their short participation in the famous competition.

They started off very well, too, winning 1-0 at Heanor Athletic (Heanor Town) of the higher Central Alliance League in their first FA Cup game. Then Stamford FC of the United Counties League became their second vanquished higher level opponents, this time 3-2 at home in the Preliminary Round. And the debut campaign giant-killing didn’t stop there as Linby Colliery won 3-0 at Central Alliance side Ilkeston Town to reach the 2nd Qualifying Round. There Grantham (Town) of the much higher Midland
League proved a step too far, but the club still only lost that game by the odd goal in three. It was a great FA Cup debut, but a more spectacular campaign would happen just two years later.

The club’s 1950/51 FA Cup campaign started with a seven goal thriller and a 4-3 win at Parliament Street Methodists from the lower Notts Alliance League. Then Retford Town of the Yorkshire League were dispatched 3-0 at home, followed by victory over League rivals Shirebrook FC, 2-0 at home in the 1st Qualifying Round. Then a real shock; a 4-0 victory at Boston United of the Midland League! This was followed by a 2-2 draw at Spalding United of the United Counties League with Linby Colliery winning through the replay 3-1 to be within one step of the 1st Round. In the 4th Qualifying Round they faced the original Nuneaton Borough of the Birmingham Combination, a club that had made it all the
way to the 3rd Round in the previous season. But another 3-1 victory saw Linby Colliery through to the 1st Round ‘Proper’. The club had scored 21 goals and won through six rounds (the same number of victories as FA Cup Winners that season, Newcastle United), and their reward was a home tie against League opposition, Gillingham of Division Three South. Dickie Dulson went down in Linby Colliery history by scoring the club’s only FA Cup ‘Proper’ Round goal in the eventual 4-1 defeat.

Linby Colliery never repeated the feat in their remaining six campaigns, but were only denied from doing so by a 4-2 loss at Yorkshire League side Selby Town in the 1952/53 season 4th Qualifying Round, the culmination of a Cup run that had seen the club twice register its highest FA Cup margin of victory.

They won 6-0 against two Notts Alliance sides, Parliament Street Methodists in the Preliminary Round and Players Athletic in the 2nd Qualifying Round. Linby Colliery last appeared in the FA Cup in the 1956/57 season, losing 3-0 at home to fellow Central Alliance Division One North side Sutton Town, the club’s joint highest margin of FA Cup defeat. The club has since continued to compete in local midlands based leagues, and are currently members of the Central Midlands League Southern Division, a league that is unfortunately just outside the level for which FA Cup entry is now accepted.