Cup tie will not detract Saltash
SALTASH United manager Dane Bunney admits his club have a huge game at the weekend, in the South West Peninsula League, but that will not stop them going all out to cause another shock in the FA Cup first qualifying round tonight.
The Ashes have already disposed of higher league opponents Plymouth Parkway and Paulton Rovers in their FA Cup campaign to date and they can add the name of Cirencester Town to the list with another victory at Kimberley Stadium.
However, while a Cup run is all well and good – certainly to the treasurer and other board members at Kimberley Stadium – Bunney insists that the league is their bread and butter. Therefore, Saturday’s huge clash at Mousehole is the one that matters most.
“Out of the three games we have got this week - the Vase (last) Saturday, the FA Cup tomorrow night and the league game away to Mousehole on Saturday, you would probably say the Vase game against Elburton was bottom on our list of priorities,” Bunney said, after his side crashed out of the Vase on penalties following a 1-1 draw at Elburton Villa.
“We rotated the squad on Saturday and left some of our bigger players out. Henry Wilson, for example, was given the weekend off and we told him not to even come to the ground.
“We do have some injuries, but the ones that have filled in are doing a great job. We had the chance to move the game to Wednesday, but we just felt playing it on Tuesday gives us that extra day to recover before Saturday. That gives us the chance to go big tomorrow night and have a real good go.
“Mousehole is a huge game in our league campaign. The league is our bread and butter and Saltash United haven’t won the league for 31 years, which is absolutely crazy for a club like Saltash to not win a league since the mid-80s. It’s ridiculous.
“We were hoping to do it last season, but obviously that got stopped. Our ambitions haven’t changed for this season and beating teams like Mousehole is what’s going to get us there.
“That is the key game of the week, but tomorrow is great to have and the club will be wanting the financial rewards that come with it.”
Having already beaten Parkway of the Western League Premier Division and Southern League Division one South side Paulton Rovers, the Ashes have nothing to fear from tonight’s opponents.
They are from Paulton’s league and opened their campaign with a 0-0 draw at Thatcham Town on Saturday. But while they will be favourites, in front of a sizeable crowd at Kimberley Stadium – and as Bunney’s men have already shown this campaign - anything can happen in the FA Cup.
“It’s going to be really difficult,” he said. “It is going to need another heroic performance from the players, like they put in against Parkway and Paulton, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.
“No one expects us to win the game, it is everything to gain for us and everything to lose for them and because it is such a massive banana skin for Cirencester, they have certainly got more to be worried about than we have.”
Saltash do have several injuries right now and Bunney used Saturday’s FA Vase game to rest some key men from his squad. ABut with two huge games on the horizon, many of his big guns will be back tonight.