CHELMSFORD CITY will be a more than worthy opponent for York City on Saturday (3pm) after already defeating two Vanarama National League clubs this season- according to Chelmsford supporter Connor. 

The Clarets will still be recognised as underdogs against York in the Isuzu FA Trophy fourth round, but Chelmsford will remain confident of causing an upset. 

It’s been a shock for Chelmsford fans this season after an underwhelming 18th place finish last campaign. Robbie Simpson’s side have established themselves as play-off contenders. 

“Even though we’re only halfway through the season currently, we’re already on more points than what we had for the whole of last season,” Connor stated.

“We’ve got 44 points currently and we only got 41 points for the whole of last season. So to say we’re fourth in the table, I think it’s well above every fan’s expectation of how we’ve performed. 

“I think one of the big reasons for that is our defensive record, we’ve got a brilliant defensive record in the league. And we’ve managed to have as good a start to this season as we could have hoped.

“When you combine that with our good FA Cup run in which we beat Aldershot (Town) 2-0 at home and then forced a replay with Barnet, and then even coming in with this FA Trophy good run where we’ve beaten Wealdstone to get the draw with York. 

“We’ve had some good results against National League teams.”

Simpson has been in charge of Chelmsford since 2020, his first managerial role, and has a distinctive history of playing in the football league with the likes of Coventry City and Huddersfield Town: “I’ve got quite a lot of confidence [in Simpson], we’ve already shown that we can beat some National League sides this season already by beating Aldershot and Wealdstone. The only thing we’re not yet to do is to beat a National League side away.

“So I think that’ll be the big challenge, we’ve got a really good mix in the squad in terms of experience and youth.

“We’ve got one player whose probably quite well known to York fans in Dale Winfield, who played at York City for a while. He’s the current captain of our squad. 

“But then we’ve also got the likes of Liam Trotter who was at Bromley last season, and played a big part in them winning the FA Trophy. 

“So yeah, I’ve got a lot of faith in him [Simpson] that if anyone was to get a result it would be him.

“I think he’s quite modern for a manager, especially at non-league level, he thinks about a lot of details when we’re going away. He takes a lot of things into account, the standard of the pitch, how big it is, the conditions, all into the way we play based on those conditions.”

Chelmsford will be without their goalkeeper who helped them defeat Wealdstone in the previous round of the FA Trophy, however, with Ovie Ejeheri being recalled by parent club Arsenal after a hugely successful stint with the Clarets.

“I think that’s going to be an absolutely massive loss,” said Connor.

“He keeps us in games, especially when we played Barnet away, he made one of the most amazing saves I have seen in person before and kept us in that to force the replay.

“And even in the game against National League teams he’s been phenomenal for us all season. I heard that he’s made 25 appearances for us and only conceded 14 goals and kept 12 clean sheets. Even though he’s only 19 years old, he’s been absolutely phenomenal.

“One positive is that our back-up goalkeeper is Jacob Marsden, who was our main goalkeeper last season.”

Chelmsford will be backed by an expected 300 supporters: “I think considering the length of the journey, I reckon we’ll still bring a large amount of fans as I know a lot of them are excited by the fixture. 

“I think we’ll bring a couple of hundred, we’re a group that sings a lot and will most likely be behind the team from the start to the finish of the game.”