FA CUP FOURTH ROUND DRAW – REACTION AND REPLAY PREVIEWS
LUKE YOUNG reckons Wrexham‘s thrilling FA Cup win at Championship Coventry City felt like a ‘moment’ – but says their follow-up National League victory over Bromley was even bigger.
Phil Parkinson’s Red Dragons booked their place in the fourth round – and a date with Sheffield United – by taking the game to the Sky Blues and coming out on top 4-3.
Young believes you earn your own luck in this game and while they had to ride it as ten-man Cov chased a leveller, the final-whistle roar from the travelling support made it all worthwhile.
“You want to test yourself against the best players possible – as an individual, a team and a club,” Young told The NLP.
“We had that opportunity on Saturday. We didn’t go there thinking, ‘No one is expecting us to win, let’s just turn up and if we win, happy days, if we get beat, no one was expecting it anyway’.
“We could have sat back and tried to soak it up. But we had a go at them. Whether they were expecting it or not, I don’t know, but we believe in ourselves as a group. We’ve got unbelievable players, an unbelievable squad.
“It’s a great group who go out there and work hard for each other on top of having talented individuals in the team who can change a game like a switch.
“We certainly put ourselves out there against top opposition.
“Without getting carried away and thinking we are better in the league we’re in, we can only take massive confidence from that game and think: We can mix it with top teams.
Mentality
“It was a nervy last 15 minutes, don’t get me wrong! But to hear the final whistle when you’ve got 4,500 fans behind you roaring you on, it’s incredible. It’s nothing we as players don’t deserve – more importantly the fans deserved that dayout. You’vegot to enjoythosedaysand occasions.”
Young admits their leaguegame on Tuesday nighthad a 1-0 defeatwritten all over it if they didn’t s howthe ment a l i t y required to avoid a cup over.hang- Theyfound a way tocome back from agoal down to win 2-1 and close the gap at the top of the table after Notts County drew with Boreham Wood. And Young belives the result says a lot about the group.
“It’s bigger because the hype and the buzz after winning that type of game at the weekend was all well and good,” Young says. “But it would only be better if we got the result on Tuesday night which, in the end, we did.
Atmosphere
“The performance? We canholdourhands up asplayersand say,
‘It wasn’ttothe stan- dards wehave been perform- ing atrecent- ly’. Butit’s the result we wanted.
“ Wehad to get three points to makeSat- urday’s perfor-mance andresult look even better. Out of the two games, Tuesday was the most important because we know our priority is the league.
“The old cliche is good teams find a way to win. We did that without playing as well as we can.
“The effort everyone put into Coventry, do you take that into consideration? Yes. Do we use it as an excuse? No.
“We ground it out and got over the line with three points. That could be a massive result come the end of the season.”
Away trips to Maidstone United and Gateshead are to come before they welcome the high-flying Blades to a packed Racecourse.
“It’s a great draw for us – we’re at home against a top Championship side,” Young says. “We will be testing ourselves against unbelievable players.
“There will be a different atmosphere than league games, it always feels slightly different in cup competitions.
“We’ve got that advantage at home. Obviously one of the stands is being rebuilt – if that was finished, my god, how good would it be. But it’s going to be a great atmosphere and a tough game for them. It’s a great game for the club to have, getting to the fourth round for I don’t know how long, it’s a great achievement.
“And why not? We did it against Coventry away, why can’t we cause another upset at home against another top Championship side?
“There’s plenty of water to go under the bridge between now and then. Until that game comes around, the focus is on the next games.”
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