Newark Town manager Luke Parsons wants more FA Vase memories after last season’s run to the third round ahead of facing Kimberley Miners Welfare
Memories of last year’s record-breaking run come flooding back as Newark Town prepare to enter the FA Vase.
Town went all the way to the third round before going out 11-10 on penalties to Daventry last season.
Their success in reaching the last 64 meant they skipped the 2025/26 qualifying rounds.
They join the competition with a first-round tie at home to Kimberley Miners Welfare this Saturday (3pm).
“It was an incredible run last year and it got everybody’s confidence up,” said Newark boss Luke Parsons.
“We’re entering in round one this season and I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, if I’m honest.
“Last year we were playing the qualifying rounds and we just had that buzz straight away.
“Hopefully we’ve got our buzz and we can go on another good run and get the mojo like we had last year.
“It was a great run and I think, as well, from a selfish point of view it kept players at the club because if some were unhappy from being on the bench, it kept them there because they knew there was still that Wembley dream.”
Newark lost 2-0 to Kimberley in the United Counties League Premier Division North at the end of September.
Parsons, whose side lost 4-1 at home to Belper last weekend, hopes they’ve learned from the first meeting.
“They’re a good team and they’ve probably got a bit more confidence than we have at the minute,” he said.
“But I think we’ll take what we learned from when we played them last time.
“From an attacking sense we can’t do any worse, so that’s the aim, to take the game to them a bit more than we did at their place.
“It’s on our home soil and we’ll see if we can reverse the result from the last game.”
Ryan Rushen gave Newark a fifth-minute lead against Belper on Saturday but mistakes were punished as Belper scored four times before the break. There was no way back from there.
“I’ve got to give credit to Belper - they’re probably the best team we’ve played,” said Parsons, who was without key men Scott Loach and Joe Braithwaite.
“But we brought about our downfall at the same time.
“We had a game plan, went one up early, got in a couple more times after that and then allowed it to turn into a bit of a basketball game, which we didn’t want.
“We wanted to control it and keep our shape.
“The first two goals were poor, coming from our own mistakes, which they duly punished us for.
“Then it’s a case of we’ve got to be a bit braver and they picked us off and it was 4-1 at half-time.
“The damage is done and they earned the right to go out in the second half and go through the motions.
“I wasn’t a happy bunny on Saturday. The first two goals, we’ve just given them the ball, and three and four, they’ve just waltzed through.
“I can understand players making mistakes, even giving the ball away, and wrong decision-making.
“But when a player just waltzes through, they’re inexcusable goals to concede.
“I could tell we weren’t right by the warm-up.
“The warm-up wasn’t good enough, we were fighting against it, we had to stop it twice and say ‘come on, come on’.
“We tried to gee the lads up for the game and the lads tried to gee themselves up as they were walking out.
“I had the impression it was going to be one of those days but then we started quick and got the goal.
“But then we gave the goals away and that’s always been our Achilles heel, we just don’t know how to control a game when we get in front and stop it from being a basketball game.”
Goalkeeper Loach and defender Braithwaite are set to return for the FA Vase tie in a welcome boost. Ryan Kamm impressed in Loach’s absence but the former Watford and Ipswich man’s experience is always important.
“To be fair to Ryan, he was one of two players who could hold their heads up,” said Parsons.
“The standard he set compared to everyone else, he was levels above.
“We were missing Joe Braithwaite, as well as Loachy, so taking two of your starting back five out of the team is always a big ask.
“They’re two leaders as well - the ones who will grab the game by the scruff of the neck with their experience.
“Braith’s played 400/500 games at Step 5 and Loachy’s played Premier League and Championship football.
“When you take those two out, we probably lacked a few leaders to try and calm it down and relax.”