Gary's View
Home to Hinckley
Posted by Webmaster
Oct 11, 2009, 20:55

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It’s always disappointing to exit the FA Cup, but it was frustrating to lose in the manner we did, albeit against a team from a higher league.

In terms of our pre-match preparations obviously we were coming into it following a draining encounter at Farnborough on Wednesday night, but the players were up for it, and ready for the challenge.

Obviously we had Dave Theobald back from injury and suspension, so that gave us a bit more height at the back, but Lawrie Stewart was unavailable after going down with a virus.

Hinckley started stronger, and we suffered the sucker punch early on by conceding, and once that went in I felt it was going to be a difficult task to get back on track.

That said, we had a good passage of play where we had a number of opportunities to pull level, and we possibly could have done, if we had been a bit fresher as you could see throughout the team early on that we were suffering from the effects of our efforts at Farnborough.

When we went 2 down you could see that psychologically it was having an effect on the side, and at 3-0 on the stroke of half time it was as good as game over.

I’ve spoken about our fatigue, but take nothing away from Hinckley, they are a strong side, and have quality throughout, and their front four are probably going to the best crop of players we are going to come across all season.

With the sending off, obviously James Krause got clattered by their lad, and it was a two footed challenge, so the referee really had no alternative to give him the red card. With ten men, you may think it would get us back in the game, but they had a three goal cushion, and credit it to them as they still kept coming at us.

With the penalty for their fifth goal, Lee Chaffey definitely handled it, and was lucky the keeper was behind him, as he would no doubt have been sent off.

I think everyone who was there will realise that it wasn’t a 5-0 game, and it wasn’t a performance from a City team that we have been accustomed to so far this season. But, the players played a massive high energy game on Wednesday night, and to come into a game after something like that, and ask them for a repeat performance against a team with better quality, and from a higher league than us was always going to be a big ask.

I have to say you have to question why the league had a programme of fixtures in the run-up to the FA Cup weekend knowing that there will teams involved who were playing in the 3rd qualifying round. It’s something that maybe needs to be looked at, as it did us no favours at all.

The players are bitterly disappointed with the outcome, and are determined to bounce back next weekend. The bonus is that we have made a few quid that we didn’t budget for at the beginning of the season by progressing through the two rounds, so that’s a positive that we should take away from it all.

With seven days off, the players should be fresh for the start of the FA Trophy campaign at Didcot next weekend. Didcot are beginning to find their feet at this level and had a good result in the league at Hemel Hempstead last weekend, so we will not take them lightly.

We should have a full compliment going into that game, and James Krause should be OK following the challenge yesterday, so it will be good to be at full strength.

We have to move on from the FA Cup now, and although it’s disappointing, we have to remind ourselves that we are still unbeaten in the league, and that’s what we need to focus on.


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