Romans ready for Trophy tie
Gill hopes to continue good record against lower sides
Jerry Gill is hoping to extend his excellent record against lower league opponents this Saturday.
The Bath City boss has only overseen one defeat in 16 FA Cup and Trophy ties against step 3 sides or below since taking charge, and a win on Saturday will see the Romans into the last 16 of the Buildbase FA Trophy.
Peterborough Sports are an unknown quantity to City, which meant Gill had to call on a few favours in gaining information about a side whose league campaign has been on hold for nearly three months.
“They played Basford in the last round where Steve Chettle is manager,” said Gill. “I’ve come across him a bit in football, he was at Nottingham Forest.
“I got in touch and he’s been great, he sent me reports. I’ve got as much information as I would for a league match and I’ve watched back some of their games, so have the players.
“I think Peterborough have gone back to training and I fully expect them to be prepared. They’ll know all about us.
“We need to be ready and right. We want to build some momentum again.”
Saturday will be City’s first match of 2021 following an enforced near three-week break.
While loanees Tommy Conway, James Taylor and Tom Mehew have been allowed to train with their parent clubs, others have had to
self-isolate during January.
“We were just getting to peak fitness,” said Gill. “We got ourselves really up to speed after the first break, the relationships in the team were forming.
“Now we’ve knocked off again meaning some of the players haven’t kicked a ball for over two weeks because they’re at different points of their self-isolation.
“We have wellness apps to see
how they’re feeling mentally and physically. We’ve included some questions about whether they feel safe to play, our sports scientists have been key through this.
“We’re training twice this week and I expect us to be rusty at the start of the first session. We can’t overload them now, we need them fresh. We also won’t know how those who tested positive for Covid will be physically.
“It’s about how quickly we can get our fitness levels back in time for Saturday.”
Gill had an indifferent record as a player in the FA Trophy. His best run was to the quarter finals with Forest Green Rovers during a 2009 loan spell as their run came to a juddering halt with a 4-0 defeat at eventual winners Stevenage Borough.
He was part of a City side knocked out in three consecutive years in the mid-90s to lower league opponents, including a galling 6-1 loss at Sutton in 1994, and was sent off in one of his two appearances for the stripes in the last 16, a 2-1 replay defeat at Bromsgrove in March 1996.
“I try and wipe some of those games from my memory,” he laughed. “I remember being sent off at Bromsgrove for a second yellow just before half-time.
“We now have an opportunity to erase those times and go very far as a football club. It’s an opportunity to get to Wembley, whenever that may be.
“I was unfortunate that when we reached the play-off final with
Cheltenham it was at the Millennium Stadium. Don’t get me wrong, it was still great, but to walk out at Wembley as a player or manager would have been my dream as a kid.
“There’s a realistic opportunity to get a step closer if we approach this game properly.”
City’s best run in the competition was in 2014/15 when they lost on penalties in the semi-final to North Ferriby United after a 3-3 draw over two legs.
Since then, the Romans haven’t progressed beyond the last 32, but this year they’ve been drawn at home in five of their six cup matches and haven’t lost at Twerton to a lower league team in the FA Trophy since 1998, when Grantham Town recovered from 2-0 down to win 3-2 and stun the home faithful.
“In my tenure we’ve had some horrific draws,” said Gill, whose side lost to eventual finalists Concord Rangers in a replay last year.
“This year we seem to have fallen on a bit of luck with a lot of home ties.
“The money for us is important as well.
“If we keep getting results in the trophy I can approach the board more with player targets.
“We never budget for a cup run. Whatever we get is a bonus.
“It’s the start of a really busy few weeks with some tough games. We’re focused on Saturday but realise we need to pick up some points quite rapidly when we return to the league after.”