Dartford boss Ady Pennock has called on his players to look at their weekend Emirates FA Cup tie to make memories that last a lifetime in the world’s favourite knock out competition.
Pennock himself has special FA Cup memories, being part of the Gillingham team that reached the last eight twenty-five years ago as a League One side and as an Ipswich Town fan when they won the competition in 1978.
The Darts boss told us, “For me it really is the Best Cup competition in the World in footballing terms! I love it and have some very good memories of it and hopefully we can have a run this season and create some more. But we know that in Bracknell Town we face a very tough tie especially at their place, they are the same level as us but in the Southern League Premier South, but we are looking forward to it!”
“It’s crazy that it’s that long since the Gills made the Quarterfinals, but they are all very good memories! I thought the fourth one that day was offside,” Pennock joked adding, “it was fantastic, and the memories are great.”
Pennock is in a unique position when it comes to the way the Cup is perceived overseas so fondly having managed in the Far East and told us, “Its huge honestly, its massive! It’s just a shame that our FA don’t see it the same way anymore because I really don’t believe that they see it as we see it anymore more as such a wonderful competition.
“In my opinion and the Premier League would never agree and that’s to take that last Champions League place and give it to the Cup winners and that would certainly give it back what its lost in the last few years.
“I bet you wouldn’t see the Premier League sides playing the so called “weaker teams” then and stopping replays after the qualifying rounds is, again in my opinion wrong! They become money makers for the lower league, and the Premier League doesn’t help at all!”
“But all the time the public still thinks it’s a fantastic competition to win, the magic will stay there. When Ipswich won it when I was a boy, it was amazing, absolutely amazing! It is an incredible competition that has been spoiled by people above.”
The Darts go into the weekend off the back of an incredible 4-4 draw at Ramsgate on Holiday Monday when Pennock’s side finished with nine men.
“We’ve had four red cards in our first five games and to be three-one down, playing with nine at Ramsgate just shows that this side has a never-say-die attitude and that’s something that you cannot coach.
“We were very poor defensively on Monday and we can coach them to be better as we can be better and be coached to be better going forward too, but the never-say-die attitude and togetherness that they showed you cannot coach and I’m delighted that we have that.
“It was great for the fans, their fourth goal I thought was exceptional but to be three-one down away from home with two sent off, I would have snapped your hand off for a point and that’s what we got! The players left on the pitch were exceptional and then I do believe that we should have got another penalty after we made it 4-4; it was more of a penalty than the one we got!”
“But that’s football and why we all love football and that meant four points from the weekend, and we will take that going into this weekend. They had two good results last week as we did and they have players that we know very well – we are under no illusions that it will be a tough tie. We’ll go there and show them the same respect we show every club we face and hopefully we’ll get the win as we want to be in Monday’s draw!”