It has been a mixed week for Emley, who saw their FA Cup journey brought to an end by National League North side Spennymoor Town last Saturday before responding in emphatic fashion with a 6-0 victory over Brodsworth Main in the Sheffield and Hallamshire County Cup on Tuesday night.

Spennymoor ran out 4-0 winners at the Fantastic Media Welfare Ground, with two late goals adding gloss to the scoreline after the visitors had led 2-0 heading into stoppage time. Tracey admitted his biggest disappointment was that his side did not show enough of what they are capable of against higher-level opposition. He said: “In terms of the result, the last two goals are almost irrelevant. We were 2-0 down at home in the FA Cup, went 3-2-5 to try and get ourselves back into it, and they scored twice in the 93rd and 94th minutes. I thought it was a pretty poor game and, from our point of view, we were poor. We didn’t create enough opportunities and we put ourselves under pressure a few times in the first half.

“I was disappointed with the performance because I genuinely think, if we’d played really well, we would have had a good opportunity of beating the team in front of us. Ultimately, we didn’t do enough to win it. We didn’t do enough to hurt them and we didn’t defend our box well enough. I thought it was pretty even between the two boxes, but they were much better than us in both boxes and that’s why they won.”

Emley felt they should have been awarded a penalty when Carlos Rodrigues went down inside the area with around 12 minutes remaining. Tracey was booked for his protests, although he was clear that the decision was not the reason his side lost.

Tracey added: “I thought we had a blatant penalty turned down involving Carlos. If that’s given and we score it, we’ve got around 10 minutes to have a really good go at them. The referee didn’t determine the outcome of the game, that’s for sure, but it was a frustrating afternoon for us on that front.”

Despite the disappointment, Tracey was complimentary about Spennymoor and wished them well after their victory set up a tie against Chester in the next round. He commented: “Spennymoor fully deserved their win. I thought their players and staff conducted themselves impeccably and there were absolutely no issues. We wish them all the best in the next round, just as they wished us well afterwards.”

Emley produced the response Tracey was looking for on Tuesday night as they began their Sheffield and Hallamshire County Cup campaign with a convincing 6-0 victory over Brodsworth Main. Gabriel Johnson opened the scoring after seven minutes before five second-half goals put the tie beyond doubt. Alex Kiwomya, Diego De Girolamo and Harry Sheppeard all found the net, while Reno Ejupi struck twice.
Tracey was pleased with the eventual outcome but believes there are still areas his side can improve.

Tracey said: “I was a little frustrated in the first half. When teams come to us in games like that, they’re going to work their socks off and make things as difficult as possible. I thought Brodsworth had a really good defensive shape. They made it difficult for us to play through them and tried to force us around the outside, but when we did get into those areas our quality into the box wasn’t good enough.

“We spoke at half-time about moving the ball quicker because people were taking too many touches. I thought we did that much better in the second half. As they tired, we became ruthless and effective at picking them off. In the end I thought it was a deserved result. There are still things we want to pick up on and work on, but it was really positive to see different players getting themselves on the scoresheet.”

Attention now turns to the FA Trophy, with Emley making the trip to Merseyside to face Bootle on Saturday afternoon.
Bootle play one level below Emley at Step 4, but have made an excellent start to their league campaign, winning their opening six league matches.
Tracey knows his side face a significant test.

Tracey continued: “They’re an excellent football team. They’ve won all six of their league games and they’re absolutely flying at the minute. They’ve got that bit of fight and scrap about them, but they can also play. They’ve got some really good players and it isn’t easy to win your first six league games of a season, so they’ve had a phenomenal start. It’s another difficult draw. We don’t seem to have had a gimme in the cups this year, but we’ll go there well prepared and ready for the game. It probably doesn’t come much harder than going up against a side that’s won every league game so far. We know we’ll have our work cut out to get through, but I’d like to think they’ll see us as a challenge as well.”

Tracey is also keen for his players to use the tie as another opportunity to respond following the disappointment of the Spennymoor result: “I’m looking forward to it because we want to get back into a really competitive game and prove a point. We want to show that we’re ready to react from Saturday.”

As Emley continue adjusting to life at Step 3 following back to back promotions, Tracey believes there will inevitably be difficult periods during the campaign. The Pewits currently sit 15th in the Northern Premier League Premier Division after nine league matches, having won two, drawn four and lost three.
Tracey says the challenge for everyone is adapting to a level where the strength and resources of opposition have increased significantly.

He said: “The reality is that we’ve probably been spoiled over the last seven years because we’ve generally won game after game. For the first time in a long time, there might be occasions when we lose two or three games on the bounce simply because of the quality of opposition we’re now coming up against. We’re fully aware of that as staff and players. Part of the challenge is how we deal with that mentally because it’s not something we’ve experienced very often during our time at this football club.”

Tracey also addressed some of the criticism directed towards his players following recent results. He added: “I’ll be perfectly honest, I was disappointed with some of the social media comments after the Spennymoor game. We’ve gone up a level. Don’t get me wrong, we didn’t play well, but we’re now playing at a higher level and we’re going to lose football matches.

“I saw one comment saying the fans deserve better, but I actually think the players deserve better in terms of support. The minute something goes wrong or we have two or three disappointing results, I don’t want people turning on the players. For seven years, the players I’ve had the privilege of working with at this football club have never let the club down. There have been bad days at the office, of course, but overall they’ve never let this football club down.

“People are entitled to their opinions, but we’re never going to win every game and we’re never going to play brilliantly every week. There are going to be more occasions this season when things don’t go our way. These players deserve the backing of the supporters because we’re at this level because of them.”

Following Saturday’s trip to Bootle, Emley finally return to Northern Premier League action when Workington AFC visit the Fantastic Media Welfare Ground on Tuesday night: “It feels like it’s been a long time since we’ve had a league game, so I’m really looking forward to getting back to it,” Tracey added.

“We’re at home, it’s midweek under the lights and we want to get back to winning ways. Hopefully we’ll be sending them home with us having taken the three points, that’s what we’re setting out to do.”

Tracey also confirmed that Ellis Farrar is struggling with a hamstring problem, while Aaron Haswell has been dealing with tightness in his groin.

The Pewits travel to Bootle in the FA Trophy on Saturday, 26 September, before welcoming Workington to the Fantastic Media Welfare Ground on Tuesday, 29 September.

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