Clarke hopes Ponte and Halifax are paired with Football League giant in FA Cup first round draw

FA Cup 

Pontefract Collieries centre-half Spencer Clarke

Centre-back Spencer Clarke hopes Pontefract Collieries will be competing for the prize of playing a major Football League giant when they head to FC Halifax Town for the fourth qualifying round replay on Tuesday night.

The draw is live on ITV at 1pm and Pontefract and Halifax are ball 54 – alongside huge clubs such as Sunderland, Portsmouth, Ipswich Town and Sheffield Wednesday.

“I’d love an away-day or a home draw against one of the big guns,” Clarke told Non League Yorkshire.

“It would be absolutely massive to Pontefract if it was someone like Sheffield Wednesday, it would be huge.

“It is special to be in the draw but we have still got the hard work to do on Tuesday.”

The Colls gave third-placed National League outfit Halifax a fright in the goal-less draw.

Clarke himself went close with a second half header and Eli Hey missed the best chance of the game in the first half.

Halifax came strong late-on as Ponte tired.

“It was a tough game and every single player covered a lot of ground,” he said.

“You could see in the last 15 minutes that one or two were starting to cramp up.

“We had to dig in towards the end but we up to that point we were in the game.

“We were involved, we got on the ball and we got chances.

“They kept possession but if we had taken the chances when we had them it could have been a different story.

“I had one of them and I’ll probably think on tonight that I should have done better with it.”

Spencer Clarke’s big chance
Clarke in action
Pontefract Collieries defender Spencer Clarke

The crowd of 1429 was the record attendance for Colls and Clarke enjoyed the experience.

“It has been a fantastic day,” he said.

“The crowd were like our 12th man in the end and there’s a lot of friends and families here as well and that spurred us.

“It was a massive occasion and to come away with a draw is brilliant.

“We were proud coming in at the end and we have nothing to fear in the replay.”

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