Today we welcome our friends from Newport County to the Mangata Developments Stadium for our FA Cup 2nd Round encounter. May I wish their Directors, Manager, players and supporters an enjoyable stay with us and a safe journey home.
We have had possibly the most extraordinary 6 months in the clubs’ history, where we won ourselves promotion through the play offs, where we have started this season very well and sit just two points off the top of the National League, while we’ve already beaten an EFL club Crawley Town in the FA Cup 1st Round.
All of which brings us to today and gives us the chance to go head-to-head with yet another EFL 2 club in Newport County for a place in the FA Cup 3rd Round. With this head-to-head tie being a chosen TV FA Cup game, the broadcasters in all honesty are looking for a Cup upset and of course we hope they have chosen the right game.
For me today’s game is tight and more of a toss-up, with home advantage obviously being a factor. Other factors are Newport County’s playing budget, recent managerial change and being an EFL 2 club with a good historical cup pedigree, so for me this game has a 50/50 feel about it.
When you’re a small non-league club and have our recent FA Cup pedigree, expectation naturally rises because our fans know anything is possible in the FA Cup. As such when you’ve managed to get yourself into the 2nd Round yet again, there is bound to be an added importance put on the game and we must all understand how to handle that.
In truth both clubs this afternoon and both sets of supporters already know what victory, coupled with a fantastic 3rd Round draw, can do to change the landscape of any football club our size and perhaps therein lies a little bit of self-created pressure.
To date we have not felt any pressure this season because after promotion, in all honesty, everything’s gone like a dream and the football we’re playing has been a joy to watch. The last two weeks are a perfect example of that, as we’ve recently beaten Gateshead away 3-0 when down to 10 men for an hour and beaten a decent Leicester City U/21’s here. We then went and battered Halifax here in front of the DAZN cameras and put another 4 past Wolves U21’s on Tuesday night to reach the last 8 of the National League Cup.
So results at present have been more than we could have reasonably expected, our key staff it appears are happy and working to levels I’ve never seen here before and the dressing room incumbents are simply an incredibly talented group of highly motivated individuals who collectively, through Luke’s leadership, are creating great things for themselves, for our community, our town, our supporters and also for themselves and their loved ones.
As a Chairman, I’m very happy with everything associated with what’s happening here both on and off the pitch, but I’m still quietly trying to improve our business model a tad off the pitch. As such I hope to begin the next phase to complete our facility upgrades, by finally starting the South Stand, its associated facilities and the away fan zone project in May 2026.
There are planning issues that I still need to solve but they are not insurmountable. At present they are being worked through and I’m confident that with my track record here, with my local relationships and with the clubs’ very detailed planning application, that will help HBC’s planning department to make the right decision and look favourably at our submission in mid-January.
Anyway, back to today, there really is nothing like the excitement, madness and glory of the FA Cup for clubs at our level of the game. For me after 27 seasons here in the Chair, it’s now only about the memories, it’s only about the feeling that success can bring you and it’s only about my family, my friends and our fans.
Of course, the money from winning today would be very nice, but if you don’t budget for it, if you never expected it and if you never had it, then trust me you’re not going to miss what you never had. That said, if you lose, you will miss those memories, that feeling of collective success and that feeling of what this club, this town and this community would have achieved together and you miss watching your fans go nuts and trust me money cannot buy that.
So let’s not worry for one second about falling short, let’s just picture the finish line, let’s just picture and embrace the magic of the FA Cup and remember our track record in recent years in the FA Cup, as it tells us we’re more than capable of causing an upset.
Remember if it’s our day, we’ll simply enjoy the moment together and we can take the mental pictures and bank those wonderful memories that only the FA Cup can give you. Remember this is our town, this is our community and this is our club, so let’s embrace and run with our underdog story once again and let’s try and create yet another FA Cup adventure that we can all take to the grave.
For me, as always, I’ll be a bit emotional on Sunday as that’s just me…. I’ll as always be consumed with the memories of my mother and father who both helped build this amazing football club. I’ll look around me on the day and see my partner, my family including my sister, cousins, my kids and my daughters-in- law. I’ll also be surrounded by many of my 17 grandchildren as this is also their club and they are in truth the air I breath.
My best friend of well over 50 years, Ian Fryer, is also getting himself down to the club (a club we both played for so badly 40 odd years ago). Plus, there will be lots of our Campions, Holmshill, Furzehill and Lyndhurst middle school friends dotted all around the Stadium.
No doubt lots of old Wood players and supporters will be here, hopefully to witness an upset and many of the lads we played local football with back in the day will be here. Best of all though, I know the fan base we’ve grown throughout all aspects of our local community will turn out for us this afternoon and these are the days that are quietly growing our football club.
In truth I feel blessed as a local man, whose family has been a part of our football club in some capacity since 1948. So, to be its longest serving Chairman is an honour, and oh what a blessing to still be in the FA Cup 2nd Round once again and striving once again to look to the heavens and cause an upset.
Lastly, and as a gently reminder, if it’s not our day, then we must remember to wipe our mouths, we must accept defeat with good grace, as that’s what the FA Cup is all about, and if we haven’t got the result we hoped for, we will wish Newport County and their supporters the very best of luck in the next round and for the remainder of the season.
Finally, let’s hope for an open, attacking game and may the best team win.
Take care,
Danny.
