The Peacocks continue their Buildbase FA Trophy campaign when they welcome National League South side Concord Rangers to the Viridor Stadium for a 3rd Round Qualifying tie tomorrow afternoon (25th November), kick-off 3.00pm.
Town have already played five games in the competition to reach this stage, with replay victories necessary over AFC Totton and Beaconsfield Town sandwiching an upset against Southern Premier Merthyr Town. It would be an even bigger shock should Town manage to overcome tomorrow’s opponents who sit two levels higher in the non-league system. Concord were only formed 40 years ago from a boys’ team who originally played on a pitch close to Concord Beach on Canvey Island in Essex. Since then they have enjoyed a climb up through various Essex leagues and then the Isthmian before gaining promotion to the National League South for the 2013-14 season. They are currently quite far down the table in 18th spot and have yet to win a league game away from home this term but are unbeaten in their last eight fixtures, seven consecutive draws coming to an end with a 4-2 win over Chippenham Town last Saturday.
Town however will take a great deal of confidence from their recent form, a 14 game unbeaten sequence coming to an end in midweek after the vast majority of the first team squad were rested for the Somerset Premier Cup reverse to Weston-super-Mare. The Peacocks were in superb shape last weekend when winning at Evesham in the Evo-Stik League and will hope for a similar kind of performance tomorrow to give themselves a chance to progress and earn £5,000 in the process. Apart from the prize money, there is the incentive of a place in the 1st Round Proper for tomorrow’s winners, one round further than Town managed last season when they conceded in the last minute to suffer a narrow defeat at another National League South side Chelmsford City.
Manager Leigh Robinson will have the same squad available as last Saturday with the exception of Ryan Brett who serves a one game suspension after accruing five bookings. The Town boss remarked: “It’s a good tie tomorrow and an occasion we are all looking forward to. After reaching the FA Cup First Round Proper last year, if we were to make the FA Trophy 1st Round the season after this would be a hell of an achievement. Of course we’ll be the underdogs but we had success last year at home against sides from a similar level so it can be done but we have to be completely at our best from 1 to 11 in order to give ourselves a chance.”