Striker looking forward to the big FA Cup tie
Tom Pope is looking forward to tonight’s game against Shortwood United and says playing at a small non-league ground will take him back a few years.
He says: “We are expecting a difficult game. You can’t afford to take games like this lightly because if you do, that is when Cup upsets happen, you have got to apply yourselves right.
“I think having a gaffer like we have got where he is on at us to work hard and graft and stop opposition from playing, he isn’t going to allow us to take and short cuts and cut any corners.
“He is going to demand that we work hard , get the ball and play and get in their faces and that has to be a good thing when you are going into a cold Monday night to a non-league ground with not much of an atmosphere.
“Some players can go through the motions and not worry about it – I am certainly looking forward to it, it will take me back ten years.
“I really enjoy the old non-league grounds and it will be nice if we can get through it, it will be a nice occasion.
“You hardly ever hear any singing and those types of grounds, you just hear individual fans shouting ‘a load of tripe’ and things like that.
“You concentrate on the game, but when the ball has gone out for a throw in and you are waiting for somebody to go and fetch it, like does happen in non-league grounds – the car park attendant has got to go and fetch the ball and things like that, you sometimes hear some silly comments they are too rude to say here, but you can have a good giggle at it.
“The atmosphere is going to be what it is – there will be 1300 there. I don’t know what their average gate is but if there is 1300 there, not many of them will be Shortwood fans, they are just going to be there for the occasion.
“But this is like their cup final – this is going to be their biggest game they have had for a very long time and we can’t afford to take it lightly.
“They won away at Aldershot in the replay. I know Aldershot are in the Conference but it isn’t to long ago we played Aldershot at home and drew one each.
“If they can go to Aldershot and get a result there, they are not mugs, so we have got to apply ourselves right and hopefully if we do that we will win the game.”