DEMONSTRATING an acute understanding of the psychology involved, Brislington boss Jeff Meacham has sought to heap pressure on FA Cup rivals Welling United.
Our Under 21s beat a side higher placed at the same level 2-0 at their place and could have scored 10. I've seen a few videos of Brislington and Erith Town look as good.
Wells City (same league as Brislington) were smashed 7-0 at home by Woking a couple of years ago. in the FA Cup, that would have been a similar task for Woking as we face.
Its very simple, if we play our game, we will win comfortably, if we pass, move the ball and dont just smash it anywhere in their half and if we work hard we will win easily, if we turn up for a stroll and dont win our battles then we deserve to have problems. the pressure is all on brislington.
They will close us down for a few minutes and be enthusiastic, If we do our usual we will soon be on top and i envisage a similar score to the Woking one at Wells City. Forget the mind games, if we turn up confident and hard working we will win and have too much for them all over the pitch in different positions.
Forget this idea that they are little minnows. The top division of the Western League may be four stages below us administratively, but realistically it has always been a strong league more akin to the old Kent League of the 1950s than to the Kent League of today. I reckon most of the Western League clubs could do well in the Ryman North or South leagues, and the top clubs like Brislington could ply their trade in the Ryman Premier easily. It is pure geography and travelling which holds back many of these clubs - not ability.
Never mind us being "big spending", Brislington has strong commercial backing - the player-manager was at Bath City and the Bristol league clubs and, I suspect, quite a number of their players either played for or were in some way associated with those clubs. Play it as a Conference game Daisy - and then some.
If we play well we win.
If we don't play well and/or are complacent, we don't win.
Nothing the Brislington manager can say changes that, or will change Jamie's attitude to the game, so why they bother with all this mind games nonsense is beyond me. To suggest one quote from the Brislington manager is suddenly going to throw the tie wide open is ridiculous.
I hope we play our strongest team and smash them off the park 5-0 plus.
We do need to take it seriously. Obviously if we do a professional job and treat it as a league game we should win but who remembers Clevedon, Wembley, Hyde etc over the years in cup competitions....
I do think we will win this game but we can't go there thinking it's already in the bag, otherwise we may not be in the bag for Sunday's draw!
Should be a good number of people down there, let's make plenty of noise and get behind the team.
__________________
Welling United FC. Banging on the walls of Woking dressing rooms since 1963..
Well at least we know our weekly wage bill if their manager's comments are accurate, about £14k a week. Team will no doubt be flying down tonight and spending the night in a country retreat as well.
We need to match their work rate and desire and then (hopefully) the better players we have in our ranks will prove to be decisive.
The real key for me tomorrow will be discipline. There will undoubtedly be a few tackles flying about and I hope we keep our heads and we get a strong referee to deal with it. It won't be easy but it will be a lot easier for us to get a result if we manage to keep eleven players on the field throughout....
It's high time we were in the draw for the first round proper of the FA Cup.
Wingnut has it spot on - we must keep our discipline despite any provocation and despite any inaction by the referee. I see Weston had a player sent off during their 3-2 defeat to them in the previous round of the Cup.
I see Weston had a player sent off during their 3-2 defeat to them in the previous round of the Cup.
That was a local derby and there may have been players with scores to settle. I'm sure all the Welling players are aware that getting through this game could get them on ITV in the next round and won't be lacking the right attitude.
Can't get over the 'big spending welling' comment, that ll be the day! And I'd have thought our budget is less then half the 14k mentioned, you could operate full time on that sort of budget.