Enjoy Cup journey
COUNTY boss Jim Gannon reflected on a “great cup journey” as The Hatters eased into the First Round proper of the FA Cup with a 2-0 win over neighbours Altrincham at Edgeley Park.
In a bright and breezy affair in Stockport on Saturday, goals either side of the break from Frank Mulhern and Matty Warburton handed County a long first round trip to League Two strugglers Yeovil Town in three weeks time.
Despite the visitors, backed by a healthy away following, controlling much of the first-half, County went in at the interval with a one goal lead thanks to Mulhern’s poacher’s finish from captain Ash Palmer’s knock-down.
And boss Gannon credited the “hard work” of his side for getting the hosts a foothold in the game, which was eventually sealed thanks to Warburton’s capitalising on a mistake by former Hatter Connor Hampson mid- way through the second half.
Warburton collected Hampson’s overhit backpass, before rounding the remaining Altrincham defence and slotting past the man on the goalline.
“I’m really pleased for everybody involved. We made hard work of it in the first half, but we worked our way into the game and were able to reassess at half-time with
‘It was really a group effort to get us into that first round’
the lead thanks to Frank’s goal.
“We were much better in the second half, we’ve got players who work very hard each week - there are high stats in terms of running and hard work from the likes of Sam Walker, Elliot Osborne and Adam Thomas each week.
“Credit to Matty because his quality was there throughout, and it wasn’t a simple finish having done the work to get past the goalkeeper.”
Altrincham came close to taking a first-half lead on a number of occasions before County eased their way into the game, with ‘keeper Ben Hinchliffe called into action several times before Mulhern eventually poked Palmer’s flick-on home.
And former Motherwell chief Gannon, who saw his side make it six unbeaten in all competitions with their latest cup exploits, admitted that there was still “much more to come” from his squad.
“We wanted to play on the front foot but you have to credit Altrincham because they’re wellorganised, and we did have to do the ground work in terms of Ben making a few good saves and keeping them out, so it was a really group effort to get us into that first round.
“There’s lots more to come from this group of players - we could certainly help ourselves in our decision-making and if we do that, who knows what kind of side we could be?”
In the First Round draw broadcast live on BBC this past Monday, The Hatters were pulled out of the hat by former Premier League striker Dion Dublin to make the gruelling journey to Somerset in three weeks time, likely to be played on Saturday 9th November at Huish Park.
And County - who’ve made it past non-league high-fliers South Shields, Corby Town and divisional rivals Alty to make it to the first round - will soon feel the impact of their success, with rescheduled National League North trips to Blyth Spartans amongst others pencilled in for winter midweek dates.
But Gannon refused to allow the ever-growing fixture list deter from his improving side’s cup success, claiming The Hatters would be heading to Yeovil “full of confidence” 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 competition, Gannon‘s Hatters ran out 5-0 winners back in 2009!
“When this great cup journey ends, I’m sure we’ll have fans complaining that we’re mid-table again!
“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.
“We would have been surprised to get a team below us, or an easy game because we’re one of only around 20 non-league clubs still left in the hat.
“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.”