On Saturday we welcome Burton Albion to the Mangata Developments Stadium for this winner take all FA Cup 3rd Round encounter. May I wish their Directors, Manager, players and supporters an enjoyable stay with us and a safe journey home.
In truth as we enter 2026 the possibilities for our community football club and our supporters are endless, the year has begun with us being in the top 3 of the National League, in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup and in the quarter finals of the National League Cup.
Saturday though is all about the magic of the FA Cup and the 3rd Round Proper, as we get the chance to welcome Burton Albion from Division 1 of the EFL. Of course, we accept at 3pm that we are massive underdogs but that said it’s a position we seem to really enjoy, as we’ve beaten seven football league clubs either home or away in the FA Cup over the last decade and in truth, we know exactly what to expect from these types of games.
These games are in truth very similar to us playing a number of the bigger ex-football league clubs within the National League, but I feel before you can dream of wins, glory or even a result in games like Saturday, you must firstly compete and match the bigger clubs’ work rate, then impose your attitude, discipline and desire.
Burton Albion will arrive here knowing exactly what to expect from us as they would have done their homework. Having seen them win at Brackley Town in the last round, it was a game that showed if they get themselves in front then you can expect to see them playing with confidence and a bit of swagger.
They will also arrive here with a large and noisy support base and so we need to make home advantage count, which means making plenty of home noise and packing out the North Bank. That said, Burton are now heavily involved in a relegation battle, and that perhaps is far more important for them than today’s Cup tie? In truth we must hope that their league position will add plenty of pressure on their dressing room and lead to possible terrace dissension, as that might just level things up on the pitch a bit and act as a burden to Burton.
In the National League we of course get to play against plenty of ex-football league clubs here – great clubs like Scunthorpe United, York City, Hartlepool United, Carlisle United, Rochdale and Southend United. At all of those clubs there is an expectation from their support base that demands EFL football and in truth some regularly call the smaller clubs like ours “tin pot”.
I can of course argue about their “tin pot” description of us but I cannot ever argue with their amazing support levels. That’s why the 3 UP Campaign does need to succeed sometime soon and why Saturday’s FA Cup encounter with Burton, will give us another chance to show the EFL that the gap between Football League and the National League has closed both on and off the pitch.
It’s why common sense is now needed, and a financial deal must be found – forget the EFL vote without additional monies being offered…..only a financial deal pre agreed with the Premier League, EFL and FA can find a way to unlock the door to give us 3 Up. In truth, whether we are tin pot or not, I feel many of the bigger clubs in our division, are way too big for our league and they deserve, (as we all do), promotion and relegation parity that clubs in the EFL enjoy.
For a small club like ourselves to be going this well as we enter the New Year, is perhaps beyond every expectation we could have had. In truth our current form has been very good, so it means after 24 league games we are where we are on merit. That said, we accept we are a small club with limited finance, so we must remain focused, remain well run and remain concentrated on good recruitment.
We must also rely on Luke Garrard, our staff, the dressing room and all of my sponsors and partners to continue the jobs they are doing. While I now re-evaluate and re-look at the overall club budget and squeeze a bit more out of it for Luke and the first team as we focus on bringing in two or three players in over the next month. In that time, we must continue to embrace both our lofty league position and the possibilities in both cup competitions.
For me at 63 I’m still an optimist and I continue to believe in this town, this football club and in my staff, as I know they love to be a part of yet another chapter in our underdog story and I’m convinced our journey still has some way to go. I’ve always told my staff not to sit on the back of the bus, as with belief they can all drive the bus, and we have throughout my tenure here had a simple belief in what we’ve built together and that belief has taken us to places we could never imagine and it happened because we never complicated things.
As an aside, on the injury front we have some better news to report regarding Erico Sousa, as though he’s out for Saturday’s game, Erico could be back with us within two or three weeks and not out for four months, which means only Tom White is now out long term.
As a small, overachieving community football club we must look ahead, and I fear you are lumbered with me as your long-standing local owner for a good while yet, but it’s not all bad haha, as we have entered 2026 with quiet ambition, with smart and progressive staff, and an academy and football club with no historical debt. In truth this season’s first team budget even with a few more player additions, is still just about manageable whatever today’s cup result might bring and trust me we’re ready to keep going to the end and see where this season might take us.
For me just to get here during my long tenure has taken patience, years of service, years of investment and a long-held vision shared alongside my incredible staff. In that time, we’ve enjoyed so many memories together and had some fantastically loyal sponsors and partners..
Trust me it’s the togetherness, the friendships and the collaborations that has been our strength and it’s our unity that keeps me going, and I feel with some further personal investment that we really could just make the impossible, become possible this season?
Saturday, though, is all about the FA Cup and two very motivated football teams. It means we will go toe to toe with another football league club after dispatching both Crawley Town and Newport County 3-0 in this competition already. I feel this is a game where two very focused football clubs will slug it out and in a one-off cup encounter I say “to the victor the spoils”.
Anyway, whoever you support, let’s hope for an open, attacking game and may the best team win.
Take care,
Danny.
