Will Evans: Newport striker charts rise from farmer to facing Manchester United

Will Evans is the joint-third top scorer in League Two this season with 15 goals

Will Evans used to get up at 4:30am to work on his father's farm in rural mid Wales. In the cold, dark depths of those winter mornings, football would offer a welcome distraction as his mind wandered towards thoughts of the club he supported, Manchester United.

On Sunday, Evans' alarm clock will be going off a little later as he prepares to play against United, for Newport County in the fourth round of the FA Cup.

This has been billed as the biggest match in Newport's history, with the League Two side's home ground, Rodney Parade, sold out for the visit of Premier League royalty which will attract an audience of millions on television.

Come kick-off, the milking parlour will never have felt further away.

"I keep getting a lot of stick about that from my brothers and my old man, who keeps asking when I'm coming back to do a shift," striker Evans, 26, tells BBC Sport Wales with a broad grin.

"When my brothers were going out on the town, it was down to me to do some of the milking so I'd be up at the crack of dawn to do that.

"It wasn't something I enjoyed doing but it was the family business and it was money in my pocket and something I had to do.

"I've dreamed of this moment all my life. To play against the team I've supported all my life would be incredible and to be this close to that game is really special.

"It's hard to say dreams come true but this is definitely one of them when you think, 'Wow, this is actually happening'."

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As his farming background suggests, Evans has not taken the most conventional route to professional football.

Having been released by Shrewsbury Town as a teenager, Evans worked on the family farm and played for local village team Llangedwyn.

"It's the bottom of the food chain. It's tier five, which is the lowest tier in Wales," says Delwyn Jones, who has represented Llangedwyn as a player, manager and treasurer.

"The club was formed in 1975 and we've been in that tier ever since. It's a very local club. Will is from the village, Llangedwyn, and played a few games for us in his late teens."

Evans remembers those games vividly: "It was a group of farmers turning up 10 minutes before kick-off in their wellies and covered head to toe in manure."

Sensing that football would be little more than a hobby, Evans enrolled at Cardiff Metropolitan University.

He did not know Met had a team - never mind one that competed in the Cymru Premier, Wales' top flight - until one of his cousins, who was also studying there, encouraged him to go for a trial.

Despite being hungover for his trial, Evans made the cut and eventually established himself as a first-team regular, helping Met qualify for Europe as he impressed in a range of positions across defence, midfield and attack.

In 2020, Evans was approaching the end of his degree, applying for teaching jobs and planning to move back home to work on the farm - when he was signed by another Cymru Premier club, Bala Town.

"I remember meeting Will quite distinctly," says David Edwards, the former Wales and Wolves midfielder who finished his playing career with Bala.

"I'd signed for Bala and I was good friends with a lad called Steve Leslie, who I'd played with at Shrewsbury, and Alex Ramsay, a goalkeeper. They asked if I wanted a lift to training so I jumped in and there was one other person in the car, and it was Will.

"We were flying around the corner in his car, late from a day of work on the farm, scrambling to get to Bala on time.

"The lads spoke so highly of him as an individual. I saw what a personable young man he was. We hit it off straight away and, spending lots of time together in the car traveling all over Wales to games and training sessions, we got to know each other very closely."

The upward trajectory of Evans' career was smoother than his driving, and his performances for Bala - primarily as left winger and centre-forward - earned him a call-up for Wales C, the national team for semi-professionals.

They faced England C in March 2022 and Evans stole the show with two goals in a 4-0 win. Within two months, Newport came calling to make him a full-time pro.

"I used to say to everyone, if I was a National League team, a League Two team or even a League One team, I'd definitely recommend Will because the upside of what he gives you is absolutely huge," Edwards says.

"You know every single week you're going to get 10 out of 10 work-rate, he's an incredible specimen, the way he can run and how powerful he is. That really suits league football.

"And he's so malleable in a way that he hasn't had a lot of coaching at a young age, so there's so much potential for coaches to build his tactical knowledge of the game, his technical ability, all those sorts of things.

"There was no doubt he was going to improve and you've seen that at Newport."

Evans spent most of his first season with Newport playing at left wing-back, impressing as he made 52 appearances in all competitions and scored four goals.

But his breakthrough has come in this campaign and, having moved up front, he already has 18 goals in 36 games.

That has attracted interest from other clubs but, for now, Evans is happy at Newport and says transfer speculation "is something I don't get caught up in".

Unlike his days on the farm, Evans' mind will not be wandering anywhere on Sunday.

"To think Manchester United will step out on the same pitch as us is surreal," he says.

"Whoever I'm up against, it would be nice to have [Raphael] Varane or Casemiro's shirt. It would be pretty cool to have one of those.

"You've got to play the game and not the occasion but that's easier said than done. When Manchester United are in town, it's hard not to get excited."