BUSINESS END NIGH FOR JOHN
JOHN ASKEY reckons the FA Trophy just got serious for York City and the rest of the last eight.
The National League North Minstermen travel to Dagenham & Redbridge on Saturday in the quarter-finals.
York have won NonLeague’s top cup competition twice in the last ten years, the most recent in 2017 against Askey’s Macclesfield Town.
And the former Port Vale boss says it’s at this stage that the prospect of Wembley becomes realistic for all the remaining teams.
“It’s the one cup you can realistically win,” Askey told The NLP. “The FA Cup is obviously important because of the money but the Trophy is the one and to play at Wembley is always special. Every player aims to do that in their career.
“When you get to the last eight the supporters really start to take notice. I think the players are the same.”
The club are subsidising coach travel to east London and Askey says the expected 800plus following will be a big boost against their National League opponents.
“It’s nice for the supporters because it obviously costs a fortune with the amount of travelhard ling they have to do,” Askey said. “It’s good the club have been able to give the supporters something and hopefully we can repay everyone with a good result.
Feelgood factor
“For the players it’s a chance to show what they can do against players from the league above. The expectation every time we play in the league is to win because it’s York City. It’s not many times we go into a game as the underdogs.”
York are a dangerous proposition in their current form. Tuesday night’s win against AFC Fylde was their seventh in a row – five in the league – and saw them break into the top seven. Askey is in interim charge initially until the end of the season following the sacking of Steve Watson – now Chester boss – in November. But he’s certainly got the Minstermen firing and the feelgood factor at a club that has hit times is returning. “The only thing that does it is winning games,” Askey, who guided Macclesfield Town into the EFL on a minuscule budget, said.
“As we all know, if you’re winning then everything seems so much better. You can feel it at the football club that the supporters are really getting behind the players now.
“The players are enjoying playing in front of the supporters and the attendances are increasing. If we can keep doing that – especially when we are at home and even away games we can have more supporters than home – it can make a massive difference to us.
“Even if we go a goal behind they are still sticking with us. It’s been a big turnaround.
“It’s not always easy. I remember we played away at Gateshead, we didn’t have some players available, and although we didn’t get hammered, there was a lot of unrest.
“But since then we’ve managed to get one or two in, a way of playing, and things have gone for us.”