LIFE'S A BEACH AGAIN FOR DEC

DECLAN HOWE might have still been coaching in the LA sunshine had he not decided to come back to England around Covid and give his playing career another shot.

- Matt Badcock

Long Beach it won’t be, but on Friday night the Gainsborough Trinity hotshot and his teammates will be at Harrogate Town dreaming of more FA Cup glory.

It’s been quite the run for the NPL Premier outfit having knocked out Step 2 Darlington and National League side Boston United to reach the first round proper.

There they met Hednesford Town and somehow fought back from 3-0 down in the second half before eventually winning an epic 18-penalty shootout 5-4.

“It was tough,” Howe says. “You come out after halftime and you’re 2-0 down. We touched upon the fact we needed to get the next goal and things can stem from there.

“So to then go 3-0 behind you’re thinking, ‘Are we going to come back from this?’

“But the spirit in the camp, the run we’re on, the belief – we came from behind against Darlington in the FA Cup – we’re capable of that. We’ve got that resilience now. Once we got the first goal we just knew from there we would progress on.”

Howe got the first and the second to take his FA Cup tally for the season to eight and put him in the running for the Mitre Golden Ball award.