ATHERSLEY Rec will host a competitive game against a Barnsley FC side for the first time when they take on the under 21s in the Sheffield Senior Cup from 7.30pm on Wednesday.
The cup has been running since 1876. Local professional clubs would often enter their reserves teams in the first half of the 20th century, with Barnsley’s second team winning it in 1904, 1915 and 1945 as well as several other appearances in the final.
But, in recent decades, it has become a competition mainly for the first teams of top non-league sides in the South Yorkshire area and beyond – with the final usually held at either the home ground of Doncaster Rovers, Rotherham United or one of the Sheffield clubs.
Barnsley under 21s have entered the knock-out competition for the first time this year and have been drawn at near neighbours Athersley in their first game.
Barnsley under 21s coach Tom Harban said: “The thinking behind entering was to give the lads a different experience.
“In the past couple of years we’ve seen Derby and others enter their cups and get far, playing against tough opposition.
“We’ve wanted to do it for a while but didn’t have the squad depth until this season.
“We enter cups at our level but it’s the same teams in the same grounds.
“There are some big clubs in the competition and the final will be at a professional ground so there is an incentive to try to win it. Let’s see if it works for us.”
Harban, who coaches the side along with Nicky Eaden, was a long-serving player with Athersley.
“I was quite surprised when we got them in the first round.
“My son plays in their younger teams so I am down there quite a bit.
“I know pretty much everyone there so it will be an interesting night.
“It should have a lot of local interest.
“They are a good young team and it’s a difficult environment with the crowd right on top of you.
“We’ve played them in pre-season but this will be different.”
It will be a busy week for the Reds youth teams with the under 18s visiting Oldham Athletic in the FA Youth Cup on Monday, then potentially some of the academy players being involved with the first team in the EFL Trophy on Tuesday against Doncaster Rovers.
Harban said: “We will have to manage the minutes in the under 18s and under 21s group.
“We’ll assess who has played in the first two games and what team we feel is right to put out.
“But we respect this competition and we will go as strong as we can to win the game.”
Athersley boss Paul Clarkson is looking forward to the match.
Rec won the Sheffield Cup in 2014 at Hillsborough.
Clarkson said: “It’s the best draw we could have got and when I saw it, I questioned it.
“But they have obviously entered this year and I hope other big clubs do the same because it just makes the competition more prestigious.
“It will be the lads who don’t get minutes the previous night against Donny.
“They should be more talented than the players we usually come up against because they are signed professionally at a club like Barnsley who unearth a lot of young talent.
“Normally you would say the non-league team can ‘old man’ them and use their experience and physicality but we have a very young squad ourselves.
“We had seven players in the squad for our last game who were 18 or younger.
“But we have one or two experienced players in their 30s as well.
“Barnsley will be very fit, because they train full-time, and try to outrun us.
“But we’re doing well this season and we believe in ourselves.
“It will be a great experience for all our players and we will be doing our best to cause an upset and made a big statement.
“We’re already getting our crowds up because of our performances and results.
“They are up 62 per cent on last season already, and the community is coming back to support us after some tough years.
“But a game like this will definitely help with that.
“Our club has won the Sheffield Senior Cup before and we all take it very seriously.”
Athersley lost 3-1 at Selby Town in NCEL Division One on Saturday.
They conceded twice late in the first half then again at the start of the second.
Alfie Bakes pulled one back right at the end.
They are fifth in the table, and in the play-off places, with 29 points from 16 games.
Last season, they collected 44 points from 44 games with Clarkson joining partway through, after they took 30 points when finishing bottom the previous year, but surviving relegation due to a league restructuring, and ten the season before when they dropped out of the Premier Division.
Clarkson said: “We’ve had a great start to the season.
“We were tipped for relegation again by a lot of people.
“I knew that, once I had a pre-season with them, they would be a different side.
“Other than myself, my staff and the players, no one expected us to be in the play-off places after 16 games.
“It will be a hard slog to stay there but we’re just enjoying our football without the stress of a relegation battle.”
Rec host Shelley tonight.
