It was a long while coming but Spalding United finally got to extend their near perfect start to the season in front of their home fans.
A dominant display eased the Tulips into the third round qualifying of the Emirates FA Cup, with a 3-0 win over Alfreton Town, of the higher-level Enterprise National League North.
Bart Cybulski struck twice in the first half to make it five goals in two matches for the imposing striker. And sub Jordan Nicholson applied the finishing touch to Yusifu Ceesay’s marauding run down the left to seal the Tulips’ passage to another home tie on Saturday, September 27, against Dagenham and Redbridge, of the National League South.
Completion of the £1million revamp of the Sir Halley Stewart Playing Field had been badly delayed when components for the new 3G pitch were held up en route from abroad. It left the Tulips having to switch several home games to play the opposition away.
And so there was extra anticipation for the vast majority of the 789 people at the Sir Halley last Saturday.
Tulips chief executive officer Leigh Porter was delighted with the ‘homecoming’ and received favourable feedback about the new pitch.
“Our players loved it – but we won!” he joked. “A couple of the opposition players mentioned the set-up so it’s nice to get compliments from the away side.
“We had an unexpected downpour at the start and during the game we were getting updates from the players and Jimmy [Dean] about the playing surface. It’s a pretty agile surface.”
There was praise for Dean and his squad who are second in the Southern League Premier Central table and unbeaten since the first match of the season.
“It’s still very early but we’ve started well,” said Porter. “I know Jimmy and the squad will take each game with importance because if you don’t you can lose your focus and the momentum you’ve built.”
Porter also praised the fans and hoped more and more people would get behind the club in its quest to progress through the leagues and enjoy good cup runs.
He added: “We’ve worked really hard during the summer to get the facility better to enable it to be used more often by the community. We’ll take learnings from the weekend and have additional turnstiles and bars open for the next FA Cup game.”
The Tulips are back in league action at Banbury United on Saturday.
Tulips: Jones, Sembie-Ferris, Bondswell, Moore (White), Johnson, Lawlor (Thompson), Roberts (Nicholson), Bendle (Sheriff), McCammon (Sani), Cybulski, Ceesay. Subs: Blythe, Hart.
Attendance: 789.
