West Ham centre-back Craig Dawson is dreaming of lifting the FA Cup at Wembley Stadium on 15 May, a journey that begins today with a trip to face Stockport County.
Dawson is no stranger to lower-league grounds having once been on the groundstaff of boyhood club Rochdale, however, Dawson has some bad memories of Stockport County.
"They [Stockport] beat Rochdale in the League Two Play-Off final the year before I signed and I went to that game at Wembley! I was a Rochdale fan as a boy, as they were my local club, and I must admit it wasn’t a great day!" said Dawson. "We traveled to Wembley hoping for the best, but it sadly didn’t happen,” he added.
The Hammers defender is aiming to help his team to victory over Stockport but Dawson is under no illusion about the challenge his side will face at Edgeley Park:
“It’s going to be a really, really tough game up there and we know we’ll have to be at our best to go through, we know that but we’ve spent the whole week preparing hard and we believe we’ll do that.”
Dawson has yet to win a trophy during his eleven-year career and hoping that this year might be a first for him and an end to West Ham's 41-year wait for a trophy:
“Of course, I’d love to win a trophy. It’s every player’s dream to do that in their career and I’ve not done that yet."
With David Moyes poised to name a strong side this evening, Dawson will be keen to make his third successive start for the Hammers. No doubt he would love nothing more than to make it three clean sheets in a row on a journey he hopes will take him all the way to a Wembley winners medal.
