Takeley on FA site

[Ian_W]

When this season’s FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round draw was released on Thursday, there were a few new names in the hat preparing for their first ever games in the world’s greatest domestic cup competition.

 

Amongst those was Essex-based Takeley FC, who have been building their club up over the last few years and entry to The FA Cup is seen as the next big step in their already long history.

 

Formed in 1903, the club have been successful in their local area over the years, winning the Essex Senior Cup as recently as 2007, but entry into The Cup this season reflects a massive yardstick in their history and is something that Chairman Pat Curran is particularly pleased about having overseen the club's recent development.

 

“We’re all very excited by it, the whole club, and it’s a big, big step for us,” he told TheFA.com after the draw was announced.

 

“There’s been quite a buzz around it all, I’ve had phone calls and text messages from all sorts of people today and I’m delighted for everyone at the club.

 

“We have a lot of people who work so hard for the club as volunteers, so it’s always difficult but this is something we’ve all strived towards and now we’re looking forward to it.

 

“It’s very much still a local, village club with our ground next to the railway station, but we’ve improved things year-on-year to move the club on and I feel we’ve probably got the best ground in the Essex Senior League now.

 

“There’s a long history at the club, and we’ve done an awful lot of work over the years to get to this level, so it’s groundbreaking really and is probably going to be the biggest match in our history.

 

“All of the local area will know about this now, and we can’t wait to hopefully get the cameras down for the game.”

 

The draw has paired Takeley with Hertford Town at their Station Road home, which will give the club another piece of history as they face the Blues for the first time in their history, despite the relative local proximity of the two clubs.

 

“It’s great that we’ve got a home draw,” added Curran. “It’s like a real reward for all of the people who have worked so hard, and it gives a chance for the village to come down and support us.

 

“Everyone who is involved at the club is local, even a few of the players are from the village, so it will be exciting to run out at home in The FA Cup.

 

“It’s a local game for us too. We haven’t ever played against Hertford before, so we don’t know that much about them right now, although our manager says he does.

 

“We’re looking forward to it though and it will be a major stage in our history.”

[johnny bell]

Come on the tractor boys bring on hertford

[Eastside Urchin]

Hornchurch won the Essex senior cup in 2007