Altrincham head into the Adobe Women’s FA Cup third round this weekend dreaming of progress into the fourth round proper and a shot at taking on a BWSL club.
The Cheshire side, who play in tier six, are the lowest-ranked team in the competition after progressing to the third round and what’s the furthest they’ve been in their Women’s FA Cup history.
Along the way, they’ve seen off opposition from local rivals Macclesfield, Atherton LR, Stockton Town, Penrith and Ponteland United since starting their journey in the first round qualifying.
Now, they host York City on Sunday with a place in the fourth round proper at stake when clubs from the Barclays WSL and Championship join the competition.
And for captain Nat Lowe, it’s also been quite the journey.
Having played football as a youngster before dropping out of the game, she went on to become a professional golfer and then started her own consultancy as a strength and conditioning coach for golfers.
But after missing the team unity aspect of football, a meeting with Alty’s head of women’s football Duncan Jones saw her return and rekindle her love of the game which has now seen her lead out the team this season and she also scored the winning goal in their 1-0 victory over Ponteland last time out.
“As a child, this is the sort of thing I would have dreamed about and never as an adult would I think this ever would have happened,” admitted Lowe, during a visit of the Adobe Women’s FA Cup trophy to Altrincham in the build-up to Sunday’s game.
“So for me personally, this is a special moment to actually live this out and do it.
“But at the same time, I’m just going to enjoy myself. I genuinely don’t feel any pressure, I feel quite relaxed and positive about it and hopefully we can win, that’s the main thing and to score again that would be the icing on the cake.”
Alty’s run to this stage started out back in early September with a 6-3 win over Macclesfield on home turf and their run under manager Daryll Abrahams since then has taken them into the competition proper and beyond.
They now face a team in York City who play their football two levels higher in the FA Women’s National League division one north, while Alty are in the North West Women’s Regional League Division One South.
Neither team have reached the fourth round proper in their history, so new boundaries will be set for whoever runs out as winners on Sunday.
“It’s been absolutely amazing,” added Lowe.
“It’s exceeded our expectations, you know we never expected to be in this position but having said that we have put in some really good performances along the way and we’ve enjoyed ourselves and that’s all we’re going to do at the weekend is just make the most of it, enjoy it, and do our best.
“It would be huge to progress to the fourth round proper. As far as I know no sixth-tier side has ever got that far into the competition, and if they ever would again who knows.
“It’s quite a difficult achievement to get to the fourth round because you get so many big teams at that stage of the competition and the standard of women’s football has massively improved over the last few years so it’s going to be really difficult for another club to emulate that in the coming seasons.
“So if we can be that club that does it and that gives us a bit of a kick-start for years to come then that would be amazing.”
