Weeks on from the FA Cup third-round draw, inside Weston-super-Mare’s modest clubhouse at their stadium, there is still a tinge of incredulity at what might have been. Bridget Bolland, operations manager, relays how visiting teams normally have their post-match meal on a bench beside the skittles alley, sausage and chips usually the offering. The thought of Bruno Fernandes or Erling Haaland tucking in here is yet to fully evaporate.
But the draw meant Weston, the promotion-chasing National League South side who have reached this stage of the Cup for the first time, have been preparing for a different challenge: a tie at fourth-tier Grimsby Town, who beat Manchester United in the Carabao Cup in August. “As a United fan, I hated them that night,” says Weston’s manager, Scott Rogers. “I was going mad at the TV. But I’m hoping we can do something similar. There’s always an upset in the Cup: why can’t it be us?”
Weston, the joint lowest-ranked team left in the competition with National League North side Macclesfield, overcame division rivals Chelmsford City in the previous round. Louis Britton scored both goals. After the match the team joined supporters at a pub near their opponents’ ground. “We had a few beers with them and it was brilliant,” says Michael Smith, the 37-year-old full-back. “That’s what this level is all about.”
The squad comprises players at both ends of their careers, from builders and teachers to labourers and lecturers, such as captain Emlyn Lewis, who works at Cardiff Metropolitan University. “Luckily, we had enough time to put annual leave in,” says Lewis of travelling north on Friday. Jacob Cane, the club’s longest-serving player, has made more than 400 appearances across 11 years and remains close friends with Ollie Watkins, whose signed Aston Villa shirt adorns the clubhouse.
Rogers bought a crate of beers from Morrisons for the bus home after the Chelmsford win and called his parents before joining the party. “I just sat on the coach on my own and it was nice to have that moment,” Rogers says. “I had my notebook for the game, squiggles everywhere, and when we got to the 83rd minute I just wrote: ‘Please, God.’ Great memories. And I’ve been doing a lot of praying lately … come on, give us one more.”
