Newark & Sherwood aim for FA Cup upset at Grantham Town in first qualifying round tie
Newark & Sherwood are looking to pull off another FA Cup upset this weekend.
They travel to Grantham Town this Saturday (3pm) with a place in the second qualifying round at stake.
Town play a level above the Highwaymen in the Northern Premier League Midlands Division.
But Newark have already beaten one team in that league, defeating AFC Rushden & Diamonds 2-0 in the preliminary round.
And they make the journey to the South Kesteven Stadium confident they have another upset in them.
Assistant manager Tristian Spencer is in charge, with boss Romaine Graham on holiday in Jamaica.
The pair have spoken regularly and have a plan.
“It’s a big day in the club’s history,” said Spencer.
“It’s going to be a good game for the boys and a great day for the club.
“Me and the gaffer speak all the time.
“There are still plenty of conversations to be had but we’ve got a very good idea of what we need to do and how we need to apply ourselves to get a favourable result.
“We’ve got a young team in a lot of aspects but the gaffer’s done a great job of bringing some more experienced players into the club.
“The boys work hard and they always apply themselves in terms of effort.
“When you’ve got that, the rest is just applying what we need to do on the day and playing to our standards.
“If we do that, I think we can get a result.
“I don’t think Grantham are as direct as Rushden.
“Rushden were very direct - get it into the mixer and play in your half.
“Grantham have got a long throw that we’re aware of and their winger looks quite talented as well but we’re prepared as much as we can for a game of football.
“At the end of the day, teams play certain ways but it’s just about turning up and doing your jobs.
“There’s a buzz around the place because Romaine’s come in and established his identity on the club in terms of his level of prep, his standards, what we think we can achieve and empowering the players.
“When you’ve got a clear structure from the management, it helps everything.”
Newark & Sherwood enjoyed their record FA Vase victory last weekend, with Luke White scoring twice in a 5-0 first qualifying round win at Sandiacre Town.
Kieran Cummings set the Highwaymen on their way with his 10th goal of the season, while Dior Anderson and Benni Wilson also struck.
“The boys played very well in the Vase,” said Spencer.
“We were playing a lower team but you always have to come to a certain standard and play to your level and we definitely did that against Sandiacre. I was very proud of that respect.
“Luke’s been playing well. He’s probably not made as many goals and assists as he’d like but his game is just coming back to its best and we’re very confident we’ll get a good season out of him.”
Newark & Sherwood went on to lose their unbeaten record in the United Counties Premier Division North on Monday.
They led Melton through Marley Fearon but lost 3-1.
“It was a classic game of two halves,” said Spencer.
“We were the better team in the first half but when you don’t take your chances against top sides, it can come back to bite you and the mistakes we made lost us the game.
“I completely understand how that happens.
“It’s one of those where some of the mistakes me and Romaine have been trying to stamp out since the start of the season, they will bite us against better opposition and the boys got their sample of that on Monday.
“We always take it one game at a time but the truth is we’re in August. We don’t get too high, we don’t get too low.
“As the gaffer says, we’re about where he expected us to be and there’s still a lot of room for improvement.
“We’re in August so there’s lots of football to play.”
