FA Cup fever returns to Wilks Park as Flackwell Heath target another upset

Photo@ Charlie Carter

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Chris Ayres is confident his Heathens will give a good account of themselves in their FA Cup third qualifying round tie with Bracknell Town on Saturday, having previously risen to the occasion against Lewes and Soul Tower Hamlets FC in the competition. 

While they’re so far unbeaten in the Southern League Central Division, the Heathens have delivered their best - or at least stand out - performances in the FA Cup against step 3 side Lewes and step 5 opponents Soul Tower Hamlets.

Those performances were very different in their nature, and the Heathens had to show different sides of themselves to advance in the competition, but Ayres is confident they can reach those levels once again for the visit of the Robins on Saturday.

Wilks Park is likely to be packed out for the visit of the Isthmian League Premier South side, and while Bracknell come into the tie as slight favourites - by virtue of playing at a higher level - they don’t have the form to suggest they’ll comfortably coast into the next round.  

Bracknell come into this test bottom of their league with only one win from eight matches so far. They’ve been beaten by Walton & Hersham and Evesham United in their last two league matches and recently replaced former boss Jordan Ive with Matt Saunders.

Despite this, Ayres is wary of the calibre of players they have at their disposal.

“Hopefully, now we’ve got last night (1-1 draw at home to Enfield in the league) out of the way we can look forward to it,” said Ayres.

 “We had the final in the Berks & Bucks Senior Cup with them last year and we know the calibre of players they have.

“They have some top players, which I guess they should have with their resources.

 Flackwell were at their fluent best when Step 3 opponents Lewes visited Wilks Park last month. Ayres felt they were the better side throughout, and even when they fell behind late on in the game, they had the character to fight back and win the clash with goals from Connor Young and Harlem Hale.

Their second qualifying round tie at Soul Tower Hamlets was a different test, but the Heathens managed to cope with their hosts’ physicality and came through to win with second half goals from Jack Shakespeare and Lewis Pegg. 

In the league the Heathens have started the season well and sit seventh, however, they'd have loved to have picked up more points from this week's home games against Leverstock Green and Enfield. Harlem Hale scored in both matches as the hosts fought back in the second half for 1-1 draws.

“We’ll look forward to it, and like when we played Lewes of step 3, we’ll hopefully have a game plan and are able to apply ourselves to make a good game of it.

“The Lewes one was a brilliant performance. We won 2-1 and I felt we could have won by much more. Playing against a much higher-level team I thought we were excellent.

“Soul Hamlets was a different game. We had to show fight, character and we had to dig in. They have been our standout performances this year. Hopefully we can replicate something near to that on Saturday and if we do, you never know.

“They’ve kept a core of their players who have played in the National League South. The manager came to watch last night, and he left after 50 minutes. That’s probably a good thing because he’s walked away thinking ‘this will be a stroll in the park on Saturday’. But I’m sure we’ll be better on Saturday and can give a good account of ourselves.”