Tie will be a difficult one, says Groves

PAUL Groves has demanded that his Gloucester City side become “harder to play against” ahead of tomorrow afternoon’s FA Cup second qualifying round tie with near neighbours Longlevens.

Gloucester have now lost four National League North matches on the spin, including a 9-0 defeat at Chorley, and a 2-1 home loss against Curzon Ashton in their most recent outing.

And with ambitions of playing at a higher level, defeat against city rivals Longlevens, from three tiers below the New Meadow Park club, would be unthinkable.

Speaking about the aftermath of the Chorley hammering, boss Groves said: “It was a tough week for everybody, but the players have worked extremely hard, tried to improve, tried to get better.

“For effort and competitiveness (against Curzon), we did that. That becomes your first protocol, and your organisation, certainly from set plays.”

On the Longlevens tie, Groves, pictured, added: “It’s an FA Cup game, a derby, so it’s a difficult game for sure and we’ll face it full on and prepare properly for that.”

Longlevens lie third in the early Hellenic Premier table with 16 points from seven games, and they beat second-in-the-table Brimscombe in midweek.

In today’s matches, Yate Town host a Gosport side they were beaten 2-1 by in the Southern League only last week.

Lodge Road boss Paul Michael said: “We missed three great chances to take the lead (at 1-1) and potentially win the game.

“In the end, we felt we could have done better, although what it tells me is we can go into (today’s) game confident that we can mix it with a strong, solid side who give precious little away.”

There is an all-Somerset clash at Weston-super-Mare, who host fellow Southern Premier South side Taunton, while Bath City have a potential banana skin of a tie away to Shaftesbury.

Elsewhere, Bishop’s Cleeve make the journey to Aylesbury United, Cirencester play host to Hamworthy, and Frome are at home to Oxford City.

Hereford head south to take on Lymington in their second qualifying round encounter, while Chippenham head in a similar direction with Poole their opposition.