The day after the night before. The FA Cup has lived up to its name again, this is why it's so special. Before I joined Crawley Town the furthest I'd ever progressed was to the 2nd Round. At this club there's a different belief that I haven't experienced before. People may of looked at how we did last year and thought it was luck and yes part of it always is but we are proving to all that we aren't a team to be taken lightly. Every Saturday we go into a game as if it's a Cup Final because every team wants to beat us. Yes there's a lot of hype about the club off the pitch which seems to fuel the opposition to want to beat us even more but I think it's a testament to the players and staff that we step up to the challenge that's thrown at us continuously. I don't believe it's by chance that we have achieved what we have so far. The lads have worked their socks off since the first day of Pre Season and all that hard work and graft has confirmed to me that you can create your own luck.
Last night we beat Championship side Bristol City 1-0 in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup. If you were one of the 3,779 that attended then I'm sure you'd agree with me that you couldn't tell the difference between the teams. From start to finish we gave everything we had and in my opinion dominated the game for the majority. We hit the woodwork twice and had plenty of chances to win by more without giving hardly any opportunities to an opposing side finding themselves in a good run of form themselves. Some of the Bristol players even said that they had prepared for the game knowing exactly how we play yet they still couldn't deal with our threat throughout the game. The gaffer has designed an ethic and mentality that if we work harder than the opponents then half the battle is won already and I feel this epitomises last nights performance. Don't get me wrong I'm not trying to gloat or offend anyone all I want is to get my thoughts across whilst still buzzing from the magic of the Cup. We approached this game with the same mentality as every other game. When the draw was made I straight away thought it would be tough but teams find it hard to come to the Broadfield Stadium and deep down knew we could beat them if we were all on our A game...and we were.
Tubbsy deserved all the credit he got for his goal and I think the celebrations showed how much we enjoyed it. It's always nervy being 1-0 up but we dealt with City's attacks and managed to hold on to well earned win. You could tell the supporters enjoyed it as much as we did...
In the dressing room the atmosphere was nice and I managed to get a few photos to take in the moment. Here's the boysies showing some love...
Tubbsy and Kyle having some bromance...
Me and one of my Car Skool pals Dannie Bulman catching our breathe...
It's always hard to sleep after a game and even more so when it's a Cup win. I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone that has sent their support through twitter to me and the lads. I try to reply to everyone so if I did miss you then apologies. I've made some good friends from twitter and it's always nice to meet them so I'll take this chance to thank Stephen North for not only his support but also supplying me with some of the best coffee I've ever tasted for the last few months. No matter how much I offer to give him something in return he never accepts so I want to show my appreciation here, thank you.
So the 4th Round draw has been made and we have Hull City away. They have a very strong squad and not long ago were in the Premiership so it will be an extremely tough task. The last time I played there I lost 3-0 with Leyton Orient so I feel I have a personal point to prove. It's a few weeks away yet so until then it's on to the league and our next hard test of Bristol Rovers away.
Since my career starte I've had highs and lows and every once in a while felt that the game I love so much wasn't showing the love back to me but times like last night always keep me reminded of why I wanted to be a footballer. I share this experience with you as the FA Cup doesn't come around often and so I feel I want to savour the moment. A footballers career flies by so I try to record the memories. We've made it to the next stage and last year we wrote history playing Man Utd in the 5th Round at Old Trafford, we couldn't do it again...could we???
"Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it. I've missed over 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot...and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
Michael Jordan.
