30-09-22. FA Cup 3rd Qual Rd. Match preview Vs Cheshunt FC

Preview: Phil Lench

Our recent form will stand for nothing tomorrow when we come up against Cheshunt FC in the FA Cup. This will be a first ever meeting between the two clubs and it’s also a chance to meet a club at the same level as ourselves but in a league that many think is inferior due to the amount of former football league clubs in either. Eight in the North but none at all in the South.

With ours, and other clubs, pedigree in the National North it’s up to us to make sure that Cheshunt are treated with respect but, at the end of the day, have to be beaten otherwise we’ll never live it down.

On Tuesday evening at Buxton FC we somehow managed to come away with a draw after a weird first half that saw the team ripped apart, not because Buxton were good, but through injuries to important players. The outcome of the game was that Nathaniel Knight-Percival and Joe Foulkes will now be out long term with ankle injuries while at least Ethan Freemantle should be available after he had to have stitches in an injury to his eyebrow.

NKP and Joe will now join a long term list that also includes Tom Owen-Evans and Jack Bearne.

We do have some good news though and that’s the return of Alex Penny at Buxton while we may also see Amari Morgan-Smith at some stage tomorrow. Nathan Lowe is still some weeks away from a return as is Jack Tolley. We still may be a little light on that bench with seven subs allowed and only four truly fit players available.

The other thing in our favour tomorrow has to be Cheshunts very poor form. Stuck two places from the bottom of the table they’ve only won once all season and that was on the opening day at home to Hampton and Richmond Borough. Since then they’ve lost every league game since and conceded twenty seven goals with only twelve scored. Then again we’ve only scored one more goal than they have!

In our FA Cup last time out we beat local rivals Tamworth 1-0, Caleb Richards scored for us, while on the same day our hosts were beating St Neots Town 3-1 with one of their goals coming from the former Hereford FC striker Rowan Liburd. On Tuesday evening they lost 3-0 at home to also struggling Dulwich Hamlet.

That Cup result shows that they can raise their game when they have something at stake. Not to be taken lightly then and, no, I don’t have a clue about their injury list.

UPDATE: Scott Burgess has come in on loan from York City until January

Teams:

Harriers from:

Palmer, Emery, Penny, Richards, Pearce, Margetson, Lowe, Bastable, Leak, Lissimore, Byrne, Brown, Rogers, Martin, Burgess, Freemantle, Tolley, Hemmings, Morgan-Smith, Ceesay.

Cheshunt FC from:

Edwards, Rose, Wordsworth, Williams, Seager, Reid, Mackenzie, McClean, Cracknell, Da Silva, Chima, Ekongo, Flanagan, Gardiner-Smith, Re, Reynolds, Riley-Snow, Stokoe, Woods, Stylianides, Newton, Olarewagu, Golding, Liburd, Beckles-Richards, Camara, Adams, 

Referee: Ms Abigail Byrne. Bury St Edmunds

Talk about the game here

Links to Cheshunt FC websites here

Find Pubs around Kidderminster here