Fixture pile-up won’t ruin Jim’s cup dream

JIM Gannon says an evergrowing fixture list won’t stop Stockport County pulling off an FA Cup shock.

The Hatters will face Yeovil Town in Somerset in the first round on November 10 after knocking out Cheshire rivals Altrincham in the fourth qualifying round.

But County – who’ve made it past non-league highfliers South Shields and Corby Town – will soon feel the impact of their success, with rescheduled National League North trips to Blyth Spartans among others pencilled in for winter midweek dates.

Gannon, however, refused to allow the fixture pile-up to deter from his improving side’s cup success – claiming The Hatters will be heading to Yeovil ‘full of confidence’ and that an upset could be on the cards. Despite the sizeable gap in the two side’s league positions, the Somerset outfit have won just once on home soil so far this campaign – and, the last time the pair met in FA Cup, Gannon‘s Hatters ran out 5-0 winners in 2009.

“When this great cup journey ends, I’m sure we’ll have fans complaining that we’re mid-table again,” said the Stockport boss.

“But as we’ve seen from our cup run a couple of years ago, once we play those catch up games, it’s certainly all to play for.

“We’ve had a difficult run to get here so I really wasn’t bothered about who we got.

“But we’ve got people looking forward to the first round now and maybe beyond, which is the kind of excitement we want to give our fans.”