TWO North-East football fans are preparing for a 12-hour round trip to West Sussex as their quest to follow the FA Cup from start to finish takes another twist.

Mark Tearney and Andy Fury, from Tyneside, started their Cup Runnings adventures in the competition’s extra preliminary round, back in August.

They saw Tow Law beaten 5-0 by neighbours West Auckland in the first instalment of the their mission to follow the winners of each game they see, culminating in the final at Wembley in May.

As well as Tow Law and West Auckland, they have also visited Harrogate, Whitby, Hednesford and Bristol.

Their travels have been recorded on a podcast and blog – at cuprunnings.com – and will also be documented in a book, due to be published in the summer.

The pair will take in Crawley Town’s second round clash with Bristol City on Wednesday (December 18), with the winner due to face Birmingham City in the third round.

Stand-up comedian Mr Fury said: “We’ve had a great time at all the games we’ve been to so far and I’m sure this will be no different, but I’m not exactly overjoyed at the prospect of travelling the length of England to watch Crawley then getting home in the middle of the night.”

Civil servant Mr Tearney added: “The long journey is enough to deal with, but we’ve also learnt that the game is being shown on television.

“It’s almost like the football gods are trying to torment us by putting us in the most ridiculous possible situation.

“It could be worse, though - at least we don’t have to travel to Yeovil.”