With an FA Cup final medal as a coach and a quarter final appearance as a player, it’s fair to say Darts Manager Ady Pennock knows a thing or two about the FA Cup.
As First Team coach with Stoke City, Ady took the team to the final, while playing in the quarter final as a player a decade earlier.
And as he prepares his team for the first qualifying round match against Bracknell Town tomorrow, he says he would love a cup run for everyone associated with the Club.
He said: “I love the FA Cup. For me, it’s the best cup competition in the world. Even when I managed in Brunei, everyone was watching it.
“I’ve had some success as both a player and coach. We lost to Chelsea in the Quarter Final in 2001 when I played for Gillingham. We were a Division One team at the time and beat Sheffield Wednesday 3-1 in the round before, who were also a Premiership team.
“We lost to Manchester City 1-0 in the final with Stoke in 2011 – Yaya Toure scored the winner. It was Stoke’s first FA Cup Final and an amazing occasion. We beat Bolton in the semi-final 5-0 to get there, another incredible match.
“They are unbelievable memories. Memories that stay with you forever.”
Ady’s love affair with the FA Cup began in the 70s – although he feels as though the cup has lost some of its magic in recent years.
He continued: “Being an Ipswich Town supporter, my love affair with the FA Cup began when Ipswich Town beat West Brom 3-1 in the semi-final in 1978 and then went on to beat Arsenal in the final.
“The FA Cup weekends were always a massive part of football. Back-to-back matches on TV and the upsets when the smaller clubs got through.
“But I think they have ruined it a little bit. Taking away the replay opportunities in later rounds mean a lot of the money that the smaller clubs can generate from them has been lost. It’s a lifeline for many clubs.
“Some of the bigger clubs don’t take it seriously enough in my eyes, too. They need to take away the last Champions League spot in the league and give the FA Cup winner a Champions League place to give it that extra lift.”
Ady has had a difficult start to the season, hampered by a slew of red cards and injuries.
But he feels it’s a situation where reading the riot act isn’t always the right approach.
He continued: “I was fuming about the goals conceded away at Ramsgate. Some of them should have been avoided and I made my feelings very clear.
“But with the red cards, I feel at least three of them haven’t been deserved. You can’t call us a dirty team. We aren’t elbowing, fighting, grappling or going around doing two footed challenges. We have appealed Sam’s straight red, so we will have to see what happens there. We appealed another that wasn’t upheld.
“My worry is that we become a target for refs who think we are a dirty team. We aren’t getting the rub of the green right now with refs. I’m not sure why that is, but you have to hope it changes.
“People say it’s a hard job being a referee, but it’s a hard job on the other side, too. Supporters go home unhappy. The players don’t get to play 11 v 11. Jobs are on the line.
“Not only do we have to have less players on the match day when they go off, you then have the suspensions. It’s very disruptive, especially when I have felt most of them haven’t been warranted in the first place.
“Saying that, I thought the way the team battled on with nine men was amazing on Monday. They were incredible. They didn’t stop and we should have had the penalty at the end which would have won it for us. You can’t fault their commitment. We’ve scored eight goals in two games. We just need to get the defensive side right and we will be some team again, I’m sure of it.”
For now, Ady’s focus is solely on the FA Cup tie this Saturday.
He added: “I’d love a cup run. We haven’t had one for a long time. The chairman, directors and supporters, deserve one.
“We will approach it like any other game. I want to win every game. Nothing will change and we’ll give it a good go.
“I will be pushing the players to give it their all. You need the luck of the draw. We have drawn a team on the same level as us, so it’s going to be hard. But we will give it our all and hopefully it’s enough to get us through to the next round.”
