Goalkeeper interviewed ahead of cup tie at Bury
James Shea’s brilliant treble save at York City two years ago is hardly mentioned in the same breath as the goalkeeping heroics of his Wimbledon predecessors, but it did help set-up a third round FA Cup tie against Liverpool.
That game against the Premier League club in January 2015 was Shea’s last taste of FA Cup football after he missed the defeat to Forest Green a year ago and he talked about what the competition means to him during an interview which can be viewed via the link above.
Speaking ahead of Saturday’s tie at Bury, Shea spoke about what it meant to be following in the footsteps of Wimbledon greats as he dreams of engineering more magical moments in the cup.
“You look back at Dave Beasant and Dickie Guy over the years and you want to emulate them in the future,” said Shea. “They are people you look up to and hopefully we can achieve things here. Everyone wants to get to that third round and get a big team, but we have Bury in our way first and we have to come through against them.
“They are a good team, even though they are on a bad run at the moment. We are going to give everything we can, but it’s going to be a tough game. I thought we played really well last week, even though we lost against Bradford, and we’ve been on a great run apart from that.”
“I missed the FA Cup last season, but I had a great time in it the year before. We managed to get through to the third round and had a great tie (against Liverpool). I remember that everyone just wanted to play. Personally, I was looking forward to getting it over with because there was so much build-up! Everyone was talking about the game, including your friends and family asking you what it was going to be like. Hopefully, we can get a win on Saturday and get another run going.”
On 8 November 2014, it needed Shea’s stunning saves to earn a replay at York after Andy Frampton had cancelled out Jake Hyde’s early strike.
“I remember the ball coming over, their player headed it, and I just tried to keep it out of the net as best as I could,” recalled Shea. “Thankfully, I got it away in the end. I looked at the linesman to see if it had crossed, but he ran on up the line. I remember ‘Framo’ coming up to me and saying it was unbelievable. He was over the moon for us as well. It was just a great draw because we brought them back to our place and won.”
The full interview with James Shea, plus Neal Ardley’s extensive update, are both on Dons Player.