Andrew Dunn talks to Ricky Marheineke after the Ives make history to book a place in the FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round for the first time.

“It was the perfect start with Jonny Edwards getting the first goal for us inside the opening minute.  I’ve always said that if you score first that you must build on the early momentum that gives you.  I felt that we didn’t necessarily do that, and as a result we allowed Chasetown to come back into the contest.

Their goal came from a succession of corners and sustained pressure.  Although they were having this spell, I was never really fearful or anxious that they would score from it as I would like to think we have enough defensive presence to deal with it.  So, to concede like we did was disappointing.

We said to the lads at half time that we felt Chasetown had thrown a lot at us in the first half and may well have peaked, but equally we needed to do better.  We needed to do the basics right and we felt we were playing at about 60% of our ability and we asked them to collectively raise the tempo of their performance.

So, in the second half I was delighted with how we put in a much more controlled performance and took a grip of the game.  Obviously, we took the upper hand when Enoch Andoh put is in front.  I thought it was a great finish, and all round he had put in an excellent shift for us.

At 2-1, I felt reasonably comfortable with things as I just didn’t think we would concede.  When you look at it, we’ve come close when we hit the bar, there’s been a goalmouth scramble and we looked like we would create more of the opportunities.  The icing on the cake to our second half performance was the strike from Johnny Herd.  It was a great strike and worthy of securing our path to the next round.

Getting to the fourth qualifying round is massive for us.  The financial reward and the publicity it brings is brilliant, and the crowd we had on Saturday was fantastic.  I’ve said it before, but if we can get somewhere even near that on every matchday it makes things a lot easier and will enable us to compete more at the level of football that we are currently at.

As for the next round, well who knows what that will bring.  I really want to get to the first round proper but I am mindful that there are all the National League teams coming into the hat on Monday and we will need to get lucky if we are to progress.  We could get a Wrexham or a Notts County away and benefit from the gate receipts or we may get the lowest ranked team at home.  Whatever it is, we will take it as it comes, prepare for it, and enjoy it.

We do need to focus on Tuesday though and our trip to Ilkeston.  We need to get back to winning ways in the league and we are also mindful that we have a busy programme coming up with a lot of away games.  Julien Saka is currently out injured.  He got a knock to his ankle in the game at Mickleover last month and he is not 100% so he needs some time out to fully recover and get match fit again.  We’ve bought in Greg Sandiford who is a defender on an open-ended youth loan from Cambridge United, and we are grateful to them for letting us have him as that has given us a bit more cover defensively.

But yesterday was a great day for the club and there is a real buzz around the place which only the FA Cup can bring and we wait with anticipation as to who we will get in the next round”.