The Sportsman's Road to Wembley has reached the First Round Proper! After we saw South Shields take down National League side Scunthorpe United in the last round, the Mariners now prepare to host League One's Forest Green Rovers.
Blair Adams has played in front of much bigger crowds than the one he’ll see on Saturday. He’s experienced arguably far greater occasions, for both club and country. But there’s something special about the FA Cup first round, especially for the captain of a seventh-tier side preparing to host League One opponents in what could be the non-league outfit’s biggest ever fixture.
The former England youth international is a veteran of over 100 Football League games and has faced the likes of Arsenal and Leeds United in FA Cup encounters of years gone by, but Saturday’s tie between South Shields and third-tier Forest Green Rovers at the 1st Cloud Arena represents a massive moment in his club’s history.
“I’ve had some unbelievable individual memories from the tournament, I’m quite fortunate to have played against some Premier League teams in the third and fourth round,” Blair tells The Sportsman on the latest leg of our Road to Wembley. “I’m 31 years old now and look back at those kinds of games as highlights of my career.
“But obviously to get to the first round with South Shields is quite an achievement in its own right, we’re just wanting to go one step further than a couple of years ago when we lost to Cheltenham Town.”
READ MORE:
- Road to Wembley Part 1: Trafford v AFC Liverpool
- Road to Wembley Part 2: Trafford v Runcorn Linnets
- Road to Wembley Part 3: Marske United v Runcorn Linnets
- Road to Wembley Part 4: Whitby Town v Marske United
- Road to Wembley Part 5: South Shields v Marske United
- Road to Wembley Part 6: South Shields v Scunthorpe United
That first-round contest in 2020 bore none of the hallmarks of what the FA Cup is famed for, with the Covid-19 pandemic resulting in a damp squib of a match in an empty Johnny-Rocks Stadium. Blair knows that this weekend’s match, televised live on BBC One, will be the real deal.
“For the club it’s history made if we manage to go through. The furthest we’ve been was the first round a couple of years ago, and that was in the middle of Covid so we didn’t have our fans there. This time we’ve got the fans behind us, we’ve got the home draw, we’re under no illusions how difficult a tie it will be but there’s belief and a lot of experience in this team.”
They have every right to feel confident too. Not only are they flying high in the Northern Premier League Premier Division – sitting two points off the top with four cup-run-induced games in hand – but they have already accounted for Scunthorpe United on their FA Cup odyssey so far, beating the Iron 1-0 in the final qualifying round.
For Adams, it’s the latest stop on a football journey which has taken in the likes of Brentford, Coventry City, Cambridge United and Notts County. But his first real taste of the big time came as a 19-year-old when he played for England in the Fifa Under-20 World Cup in Colombia, facing the likes of Erik Lamela, Juan Iturbe and Roberto Pereyra in a 0-0 draw with Argentina in front of almost 41,000 people.
“When I played in that World Cup it was a real high-profile tournament and before that I’d only played in front of 500 fans, maximum,” he says of the 2011 event. “So to be going from that to big stadiums over there where it was 30-40,000, it was a big culture shock at the time.
“But I’ve got that experience now of playing in front of big crowds, and we’ve got an incredible fan base at South Shields. It’s not those kinds of numbers, but we’ve sold over 3,000 for this Saturday and we’re looking to break the attendance record at the 1st Cloud. We’re all really excited for it.”
Nobody has scored more goals in this year’s FA Cup competition than Adams’ Mariners teammate Dylan Mottley-Henry, who has five to his name so far including a hat-trick against Marske United. And, having had brief experiences in league football with Bradford City, Barnsley, Chesterfield and Tranmere Rovers, the striker is looking to grab his moment in the spotlight having just missed out on big-game experience in the competition in 2015.
“I’m 25 and I want to be playing against those big Premier League teams and hopefully getting to the third round. When I was at Bradford I was on the bench against Sunderland when we beat them, and I had a quad injury so wasn’t in the squad when we played Chelsea, but that has just given me an incentive to keep pushing and trying to play against those big teams on TV. You want your parents and everyone to be watching you.”
One more win, and South Shields will be in the second-round draw for the first time in their history. Two more, and the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool and Manchester United will be among the clubs potentially waiting for them in round three. It’s the kind of scenario all non-league sides dream of.
The Sportsman will follow the winners of South Shields v Forest Green Rovers into the second round for the continuation of our Road to Wembley.
