Magic of the cup is alive in Corby

Steve Kinniburgh believes the magic of the Emirates FA Cup is alive and well for Corby Town.
Corby Town manager Steve Kinniburgh shows his delight at the final whiste after his team beat Hertford Town 2-0 in the Emirates FA Cup. Pictures by Alison BagleyCorby Town manager Steve Kinniburgh shows his delight at the final whiste after his team beat Hertford Town 2-0 in the Emirates FA Cup. Pictures by Alison Bagley
Corby Town manager Steve Kinniburgh shows his delight at the final whiste after his team beat Hertford Town 2-0 in the Emirates FA Cup. Pictures by Alison Bagley

Having waited nearly four years for a win in the competition, the Steelmen made it two victories in the space of a week as they followed up their 4-0 preliminary round replay success at Dunstable Town with a comfortable 2-0 home win over Hertford Town in the first qualifying round.

The two wins have earned the club nearly £9,000 in prize money and a place in Monday’s second qualifying round draw, which sees the Vanarama National League North and South clubs thrown into the mix.

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And Steelmen boss Kinniburgh insists he doesn’t mind what the draw throws up for his team, who remain unbeaten in seven matches in all competitions so far this season.

He said: “There is definitely a magic about the FA Cup. It’s magnificent.

“It’s one of those cups that gives everybody at the football club that bit of inspiration.

“You just never know what will happen. You play your league campaign which is your week-to-week stuff but the FA Cup lets you take a step out of that and it lets you dream about what might be.

Joel Carta heads off to celebrate after he scored the Steelmen's second goalJoel Carta heads off to celebrate after he scored the Steelmen's second goal
Joel Carta heads off to celebrate after he scored the Steelmen's second goal

“And the longer you stay in it, the more you can dream.

“We are just glad to be in it.

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“We have waited a long time as a football club to be in it like this.

“We have been through two rounds of it now and we will take whatever game comes whether it is home or away.

“Ideally, you would like it to be here (at Steel Park) because we are building this place to be a bit of a fortress and the boys like playing on that great pitch.

“If we get a home draw and we have got a chance of going through then that would be ideal!”

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The Steelmen had few problems as they eased past their Bostik League South Central Division opponents.

Elliot Sandy opened the scoring in first-half stoppage-time before Joel Carta gave them the two-goal cushion with 20 minutes to go.

“We just carried on from Tuesday night, which was the best performance we’ve had,” Kinniburgh added.

“We started well again, we had chances early on but we didn’t quite take them but we managed to get one up at half-time and we looked fairly comfortable.

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“They had a couple of good players who could have caused us some trouble but I thought our defensive shape, our back four and our goalkeeper were excellent and nullified most things for pretty much the whole 90 minutes.

“We will always create chances and take a few and again it was Elliot Sandy and Joel Carta who came up with the goals.”

Wins for both Corby and Peterborough Sports this weekend mean that their preliminary round clash in the Southern League Challenge Cup will go ahead as scheduled at Steel Park on Wednesday night (7.45pm).