After a fantastic victory against Mid-Cheshire neighbours Northwich Victoria on Monday, 1874 Northwich continue their journey in the Emirates FA Cup this afternoon with a home tie against Stocksbridge Park Steels.
The Green’s controlled large parts of Monday’s encounter against their Winsford based neighbours, bouncing back immediately from the disappointment of elimination in the FA Vase two days previously. ’74 boss Chris Herbert hailed the players performance as his side look towards hosting higher ranked opposition this afternoon.
“The lads put in a real professional shift and deserved the 3 points.”
“Of course it makes it even sweeter when it’s against our local rivals. That was one for our fans, who were amazing all the way through the game.”
“It was so important to get a response from Saturday’s poor performance at Wakefield and we got one.”
One player who particularly stood out in Monday’s victory was Scott McGowan, who showed his fantastic awareness and composure when grabbing two of the four goals. Herbert was quick to praise his performance and the standard that he set leading from the front.
“Scotty was excellent and he got his rewards for a real workman like performance.”
“He was unlucky not to get a hattrick after his overhead kick hit the bar.”
“Scotty will always score goals in this team because we create so many chances. His running stats were brilliant as well and that was from never giving their lads a second on the ball.”
Moving onto this afternoon’s fixture, and for the first time this season, 1874 will take a more underdog status when hosting a side one league above them in the football pyramid. Herbert explained that despite this, the approach to this fixture will be no different to any other, as they look to qualify for the second qualifying round for only the second time in the club’s history.
“As like with every team we face, we have done our homework on them, and trying to give us every chance we can of progressing to the next round.”
“Stocksbridge are a good team and will attack in numbers.”
“They are aggressive in midfield and will try and play at the same time. They like the big diagonal ball in to the wide men when they get chance.”
“They are very like us in their style of play. We have to take the game to them.”
“It doesn’t matter what league you are in, everyone wants a good cup run to give you chance to put your wits against a higher level opponent and ultimately that dream of facing a league side.”