Newmarket Town boss Michael Shinn eyes silverware after Cambridgeshire Invitation Cup quarter-final win over Soham Town Rangers
Michael Shinn is hoping that this is the season his Newmarket Town side go on to lift some silverware after they booked their place in the semi-finals of the Cambridgeshire Invitation Cup on Tuesday night.
The Jockeys beat neighbouring Soham Town Rangers 3-1 at the Tristel Stadium to seal a place in the last four of the county competition, with the draw set to take place in the near future.
Aside from the previous campaign’s play-off heroics, the semi-final stage of tournaments have proven to be fruitless experiences for Newmarket in recent years.
But with consistent wins tough to come by since promotion, Shinn believes that success in the cup could lead to an upturn in fortunes in the league.
“It’s important to get to cup finals and get yourself over the line and win trophies – that’s why we do what we do. That’s why we train on a cold Tuesday night and a cold Thursday night and why we turn up each Saturday and then go again the week after whether we win, lose or draw,” he said.
“It’s all about winning things. Now we’re in the semi-final and it’s something to look forward to. We’ve not had a lot to look forward to for periods of the season, although performances in the main have been good.
“People asked me if I was going to rest players for this cup – no, why would I? There’s not many games in it so it’s not going to make that much of a difference over the course of a season.
“If anything it gives us a lift, gives us something to look forward to and drive towards – and hopefully it helps our league form as well.”
Newmarket were the dominant side throughout the opening 45 minutes against Soham and they went into the break two goals to the good.
Stan Leech gave them the lead in the 18th minute when he stretched to volley in Isaac Maynard’s left-wing cross before debutant James Moore squeezed his penalty beyond Soham goalkeeper Finley Iron with 31 minutes on the clock.
The visitors had offered little as an attacking force up until half-time, but within 60 seconds of the restart they halved the deficit when Alfie Connor’s back-post header was adjudged to have crossed the line.
The Greens went on to give Newmarket plenty to think about throughout the second half, but an equalising goal was not forthcoming and the victory was sealed in the final minute of the 90. Ryan Cole’s inswinging corner from the right was spilt by Iron and centre-back James Chivers was on hand to force the ball over the line from close range.
“No disrespect to Soham but the first half was really comfortable,” added Shinn. “I said at half-time the danger we’ve now got is we take our foot off it, we give away a poor goal, they lift and then can we then match their effort? We didn’t.
“Fair play to them, they made it difficult in the second half when their tails were up.
“But we need to be happy with that because there were periods when we needed to defend well, and we did. And we needed to find a way to kill the game off, which happened to be from a corner.
“Ultimately we’re in the semi-final. Was the performance perfect? No. But we’re a team that arguably has a bit of low confidence in certain areas so it was important to get over the line.”
