Ahead of the club’s very first tie in the First-Round proper of the Emirates FA Cup, Sheppey United boss Ernie Batten has been talking to the local media about the Clubs big day!
“People love Cup competitions don’t they,” the Sheppey boss told us.
“It’s very exciting and if you can have a run in the Cup. Your normal season is over thirty-eight/forty games and will define where you end up in the League, but Cup football is one off games and if you keep winning, it drives the success and can sometimes be the catalyst of having a good League campaign to get the excitement and get the locals and the crowd involved.”
Batten is a huge Sunderland fan and he reminisced about the Wearsiders Cup win in 1973.
“That’s my biggest Cup memory, not that many can remember now when Sunderland beat Leeds! I was there as a young boy as I got a ticket from Charlton where I was at the time as a young boy, and go and watch Ian Porterfield score that goal and Jim Montgomery make that wonderful double save as he did, and then to see Bob Stokoe the old manager running on with his trilby hat and Bobby Kerr lifting the Cup.
“No one thought Sunderland had a “cat in hells chance” that day, they were second from bottom of the old Second Division and Leeds were the Man City of their day. And there you go a Cup upset as lowly Sunderland went and won the FA Cup.”
“And that created a wonderful thing for me around the competition and an affiliation with it that I will never forget! So, to be involved at this level now as a manager is really a dream come true!”
“I have actually played in the First-Round proper,” Batten recalled, “but it wasn’t televised as it was back in the days when there was only one game on TV and that was the Final. I missed a penalty in the 89th minute against Enfield away and we were one nil down at the time, we lost two nil in the end so hopefully on Friday I can exercise that particular demon!”
“You set records that are there to be beaten, and that’s how you approach life as a competitive manager and player as you look for your next challenge. So, I and we have surpassed our best and now turn to Friday and hopefully we can get something and take that onto another level.”
“It’ll be a matter of staying calm and playing our own game, it’s no good over thinking the opposition. They are four leagues higher than us and are going to be top quality opposition for us, it’s about playing our game and keeping a strong mind and being composed on the ball and not letting the occasion take over the performance. If we can do that, we’ll have the opportunity…”
Batten was asked about the scheduled League game on Tuesday against Beckenham and replied, “Haven’t thought about it at all! The League campaign is something to go back to. The Cup run has taken over, until last Tuesday, I think it was something like eleven Cup games on the spin, so the League really has taken a back seat.
“We’ve still only played five or six games so there’s a big-League campaign ahead of us, I think we’re due two games a week during November and that’s going to be a testing time but if we get through, there’ll be more games to play.”
“We know that at some stage the League is going to become a big thing for us again and we’ll have to knuckle down and get back to.”
“I’ve spent the majority of my life on the Island, moved here when I was seven years old and been in business here, the Island’s been good for me and this is an opportunity for me to give something back to the community which I’ve really enjoyed, I’ve enjoyed managing the Club.
“We’ve had some fantastic years here since we reformed, it’s been a very steep upward curve which has been fantastic.”