Zane Banton ensures he has no regrets with scoring display in FA Cup win
St Albans City's Zane Banton was a constant worry for Forest Green Rovers in the FA Cup first round. - Credit: GAVIN ELLIS/TGS PHOTO
Zane Banton wanted no regrets when St Albans City took on Forest Green Rovers in the FA Cup first round and from both a personal and club perspective it was mission accomplished.
The National League South side produced the shock of the round by dumping League Two leaders Forest Green Rovers out of the famous old competition with a 3-2 win at a sold-out Clarence Park.
Mitchell Weiss got the first and Shaun Jeffers the winner but it was Banton's wriggling run through the box that was the pick of the bunch.
And knowing he created a piece of FA Cup magic in front of the live TV cameras, was something the 25-year-old was taking his time coming to terms with
He said: "It’s a little bit surreal and it’s something I’ll never forget.
"It’s one of those things. You want to do yourself proud, you want to do the club proud and with all of your family and friends coming to watch, you don’t want to have any regrets.
"That was in my head, I don’t want to have regrets about not getting on the ball and making things happen.
Zane Banton (left) celebrates scoring St Albans City's second goal against Forest Green Rovers in the FA Cup first round tie at Clarence Park. - Credit: GAVIN ELLIS/TGS PHOTO
"I’m confident in my ability and I wanted to put in a performance for the team, both offensively and defensively.
"I’m happy to have done that."
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The forward has seen a lot since arriving at Clarence Park in 2017 but not the first round of the FA Cup, something he has been longing to put right.
He said: "It is something you always think about at the start of the season but whether it comes to fruition or not is a whole different thing.
"But with the atmosphere around the club over the course of the past week, we all believed we could do it.
"The way we have been playing this season, the long unbeaten run and playing at home in front of this crowd, everything was in our favour to go and do what we did.
"We executed it perfectly.
Zane Banton admitted he relished every minute of St Albans City's win over Forest Green Rovers in the FA Cup. - Credit: GAVIN ELLIS/TGS PHOTO
"It’s a short career at whatever level you are at and when you get the opportunities to celebrate victories like this, you’ve got to do it properly.
"We’ve just got to go into the next round with the same attitude, enjoy it and if we work as hard as we’ve done here, you never know."
