FA Cup is huge for us, says Chichester City coach
Chichester City made it through in the FA Cup – and coach Darin Killpartrick called the competition ‘huge’.
City beat Broadfields United 4-1 thanks to goals from Lloyd Rowlatt, Harry Bridle, Brandon Chebby and Oliver Munt, and now face a trip to SE Dons in the second qualifying round on September 19.
The Southern Counties East League Premier side, who are famous worldwide thanks to their social media presence, will present another challenge and opportunity for Killpartrick’s side.
“The FA Cup is absolutely huge for us”, he said. “We take the FA Cup so seriously. It's about bringing money into the club and trying to progress as far as you can in the tournament.
“Then obviously we've drawn a big social media team next so that will give us exposure but it’s another challenge.”
But before then they face Southern Premier South leaders Uxbridge away – and it’s another team City don’t know a huge amount about.
In the Isthmian League, teams were required to upload their games so it was easy for opposition to watch previous games – but that is not a requirement in the Southern League.
Killpartrick, who is known as Dabba, said: “It's really hard to try and get 90 minutes of opposition footage with a good camera angle. We are finding it slightly different in trying to find the analysis for the opposition at the moment. You have to rely on friends that have played them, people you know that have played them and what's on YouTube.
“We don't have the finances to send someone to the games, which the majority of these clubs do in our league do. It’s another financial constraint that we're up against to send a paid member of staff to a game to watch the opposition. We don't have those comforts and I would say probably 90 per cent of the teams in our league do.”
Joe Clarke is being assessed on a slight knee issue but he is the only injury doubt.