“Tuesday is a bigger game” says Williams as Gloucester City await FA Trophy draw
Gloucester City Manager Daf Williams says that even though his side’s FA Trophy win on Saturday will build momentum, Tuesday’s trip to Tiverton Town is a bigger game for their ambitions this season.
City advanced into the Fourth Round of the FA Trophy for the fourth time in their history, after beating National League South side Worthing on penalties – following a 3-3 draw.
Having trailed at half time, goals from Elis Watts and Joe Hanks put City ahead on the day and after Jack Spong’s penalty, the Tigers re-took the lead through Sion Spence.
But the game would ultimately go to penalties after Spong’s deflected leveller, however City maintained their 100% record on penalties in the Trophy and made it into today’s draw.
After the game, Williams spoke to Butler for BBC Gloucestershire and expressed his pride in the battling performance from his side and how they continue to show composure in penalty shoot-outs.
“I don’t know what it is, I bet you wish your national team had that little bit of that,” joked Williams. “But, we’re delighted.”
“The lads have done well, but it almost became irrelevant [that it went to penalties], really. I was so proud of the performance whether we lost on pens.
My opinion on that performance and my reaction and my emotions wouldn’t have been any different, regardless of the result. I was really proud of the lads in the game today,” Williams added.
Saturday’s game was the first time Worthing had conceded three goals in a game since August and with Kane Simpson cup-tied and King Baidoo suspended, City once again played with Joe Hanks through the middle.
On the bench they had U18s striker Henry Driver-Dickerson, but with three different scorers on the day, Williams admits he never worried about whether his side were able to score goals against a mean defence.
“You know, we’ve got good coverage across the board, really, in terms of goal returns. What I mean by that is we’ve got lots of different players scoring goals – so it was never really a concern, I’ll be honest.
I thought Hanks was magnificent today in terms of his link of play, in terms of the problems that he caused the back line and giving us a platform to get up the pitch.
I thought he was really good, but as I said, I’m really pleased with the return that we’re getting across the board in terms of goals,” Williams said.
Immediately after the game finished, City fans, volunteers and committee members began discussing who they wanted in the next round – with the likes of Dagenham & Redbridge, Southend United and fellow Gloucestershire side, Forest Green Rovers, potential opponents.
But even though the talk was dreaming of a potential big tie and with the Trophy now to one side until the New Year, Williams reminded us all that the upcoming league games are the bigger fixtures – starting with Tuesday’s trip to Tiverton Town.
“I’ve said since day one, the league is a priority. Whilst these competitions we want to do well in, it breeds a winning mentality and also for me, it’s a welcome distraction – especially games like today.
But we need to take the momentum into not only the New Year, we need to take it into Tuesday.
Tuesday is a bigger game than today, so I’ve made that very clear to the players and the players are all aligned with that sort of way of thinking. All of our focus will be on that,” said Williams.
Cover photo taken and copyright Jamie Brain Photography. Visit his Instagram @jamiebrain_photography
