Will Evans: The 'football farmer' who scored against Manchester United in the FA Cup

From milking cows early in the morning to scoring a goal against Manchester United in the FA Cup - that it was dreams are made of.

Will Evans, a dairy farmer turned professional footballer for Newport County, came within 22 minutes of earning a well-earned replay at Old Trafford against one of the most well renowned and decorated clubs in world football.

Bittersweet for Will was the fact of scoring against his boyhood club in the FA Cup.

In similar respects, Vinnie Jones won the famous competition in 1988 with Wimbledon, and now he works as a farmer in Petworth, Sussex alongside his roller-coaster acting career in Hollywood.

Manchester United are in the same ilk as Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus, Paris St Germain, Bayern Munich, AC Milan and Inter Milan to name just a few.

They have won 13 Premier League titles, two UEFA Champions League trophies, 6 FA Cups and 4 League Cups alone under Sir Alex Ferguson.

Separated by 75 places in the English football pyramid, the size of the task on Newport County's shoulders was nothing short of entering David versus Goliath territory.

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With an estimated value of £430 million in the starting 11 for Manchester United, Newport County were hoping to write the following day's front pages with an FA Cup upset for the ages.

But Will's journey in reaching this pinnacle moment has been built from his early foundations as a farmer in the village of Llangedwyn in Powys - understanding the merits of hard-work on the farm and working with cattle.

"I grew up on a farm in mid-Wales, my parents raised me and my two older brothers - one was a big football fan and the other more into farming," he added.

"So we would always play football on the farm, I always used to have to be the goalkeeper.

"If we kicked the ball over the fence, it would run all the way down the hill to the bottom of the farm, so I suppose that is where I got my accuracy from.

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"When Covid happened, I was working for my old man on the farm with my two brothers.

"It is a family-run business.

"I would be milking cows, doing poultry, building holiday lets - putting my hand to whatever I could to earn money while playing part-time with Bala Town.

"It is surreal to think that was less than three years ago."

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Now, back to the events which unfolded at Rodney Parade, the home of Newport County, which was ready for a spectacular FA Cup moment.

Going two goals down after 13 minutes might have seemed ominous regarding what was to follow for Newport County, but Will would have remembered the days of being released by Shrewsbury Town at 15 and having his dreams of turning into professional footballer quashed.

He still worked on his family farm in those dark days while keeping his ambition alive to be a footballer.

"My daily routine is very different now, you could say that," the Newport Country striker added.

"I would be up at 4am in the morning to milk, littering the young stock, moving cattle from one field to another.

"Then I would milk again at 1pm for the next four hours.

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"Then you shut off for a couple of hours and the nighttime milking would go on.

"You could not do all three in a day or you would be spent, although I have done a few of them shifts.

"When I was at Bala Town, I would milk the cows at 4am before a game, then you were off to wherever it was you were playing.

"It is a funny old world.

"But I loved it, it has made me into the player I was today - the work ethic, the drive.

"No challenge is too tough when you think you could have been up milking this morning."

Waking up at 4.30am to milk the cows and putting in the hard graft on the farm while playing part-time for Cymru Premier Bala Town - where he played European football - would have spurred the motivation even further.

Newport County scored an absolute wonderful goal to reduce the deficit to one, and the dream scenario for a special player became a reality.

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Will Evans found the space by cutting inside former La Liga winner and Champions League defender Raphael Varane to make it 2-2.

Eruption and euphoria took hold of Rodney Parade after Will Evans had etched his name into FA Cup folklore - the Welsh farmer who scored in the FA Cup against Manchester United.

Despite going on to lose the game 4-2, every Newport County player could raise their heads high and proud.

After the game, he retweeted a post on the social media platform known as ‘X' that he was indeed 'a farmer' after scoring the goal which had levelled the game 2-2 at one stage - never forgetting his roots and where he came from.

Now believed to be one of the hottest properties in League Two after scoring an impressive 15 league goals for Newport County this season - two more than Liverpool's Mohamed Salah and Manchester City's Erling Haaland in the Premier League - Will could have plenty of offers on his hands before the January transfer window closes.

Even Will admitted it would have been a pipe dream of playing on the same pitch as the club he supported as a boy - but the process of believing and never giving up holds testament to Will the farmer and footballer. 

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"If you told me three years ago, when I was on the farm, I would be playing United in the Cup, scoring 15 league goals by January, I would have laughed you out the room," Will added.

"But I would have bitten your hand off. 

"It is amazing.

"The journey has been amazing.

"I have faced challenges along the way but to play against them, as a lifelong United fan, it is a dream come true.

"The first game we ever went to was against Blackburn I think, United won 7-1.

"I just fell in love with the club.

"Wayne Rooney, Carlos Tevez, Dimitar Berbatov, Cristiano Ronaldo were some of the players on the pitch that day.

"I still try to learn from United's players and those from other teams.

"You look at Erling Haaland, how quick he scores his goals and barely ever takes a touch,.

"And Robin Van Persie, I learned a lot from him - never had blistering pace but his technique was admirable."

The story of Will Evans has rippled across the footballing and now the farming world.

It is a story of achieving a dream no matter what obstacles life places in front of you.

Will has not only put Newport County on the map, but also has helped to give farming another avenue to tell its wonderful and glorious story.

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