Shaw Lane AFC have gone one stage further than one of the previous great Barnsley non-league teams, Ardsley Athletic, who also played Mansfield Town in the FA Cup 89 years ago.

Ardsley reached the fourth round of the FA Cup qualifying stages in the 1928/29 season before playing in front of an estimated 7,000 fans at Grange Lane against Mansfield who, nearly a century on, will now take on Shaw Lane in this year's first round. 

Ardsley, who played in the Barnsley Association League, were the top team in the town as they won four local trophies that season as well as their FA Cup run. They had won 4-2 over Pilkington's Rec, 1-0 against Worksop Town and 4-1 at home to Treeton Reading Room in the previous three qualifying rounds.

The Chronicle report from November 1928 said 'great interest in the Barnsley district centred on the success of the plucky Ardsley team'. In very windy conditions, Ardsley took the lead twice against the Stags but were pegged back, with the report stating: 'The game was very exciting but it cannot be said that the quality of play was good'.

Mansfield won the replay 2-0 and would play in the fourth round against Arsenal that season as well as winning the Midland League before beginning a journey up the higher divisions. Arthur Crowcroft was one of the Ardsley players and his son Denis said: "The game was played at Grange Lane and dad always said they estimated there were 7,000 people there. There were no stands so the fans were all ten deep around the pitch. Mansfield must have thought: 'where have we come to?'

"My dad missed a sitter in the first game but I never knew that until my uncle told me. Ardsley had a few ex league players who had been at clubs like Bristol City and Sheffield United. My dad said they played so many games that season that they had to take time off work to recover."