Neil Warnock will be sending out his mixed team of Under 23s and first team squad players with a message to make the very most of the opportunity playing against a top team in a top stadium in a top cup competition. Boro might have had their plans shredded by positive COVID tests but rest assured Neil Warnock is still very much Up For The Cup. Kick off 6pm Saturday at Brentford's new Community Stadium and is free to watch if you register on the FA website.
You will not find Neil Warnock knocking the FA Cup, he still clearly loves the magic of the old competition. And even when the league should be taking precedence he has still got designs on making a splash in what he has been quoted as saying is the best cup competition there is. Unfortunately COVID means his original plans have been pretty much shredded.
On Monday the club decided to do its own tests and the results brought up enough positives from players and staff to mean that the training ground was immediately abandoned and everything then put on hold before the EFL test on Thursday. Thankfully all those players that have isolated have done it early enough to not have spread the pandemic further but even so it means the Boro boss has had to make a new plan for the 3rd Round cup tie.
I asked the Boro boss about the cup tie.
Q: After all that has happened this week (COVID positive tests etc) can we still get excited about the magic of the FA Cup?
NW: Well there is no pressure on points is there? All I want to do is be competitive. It would be easy for me to agree and send the Under 23s down and not even go. But I don't think we should do that, we should go and give it our best go. And see what some of the lads come up with. It will give me a chance to play different boys in probably a couple of different positions and we'll see. It is asking a lot for the lads coming in to go down to Brentford ,whatever team Thomas Franks puts out it will be a really good team, so we've got to try and cope with that. The players have got to stand up tomorrow.
Q: I was going to say we will be playing a very good team in Brentford as they showed this week playing in their very first cup semi final.
NW: Yeah, they are the team to look out for aren't they. When you look at them, their front three are as good as anything in the league aren't they. But then when you look at the back up that they have got, that is the difference when you look at the squad. The depth they have got in quality is as good as anything. They have more or less played two teams last week and they were both very good.
So, that is what we have got to look for in the future, we have got to get a bigger squad with quality everywhere.
But we could still give a good account of ourselves and I think when we played them down there we weren't in awe of them, I thought we did really well down there. I don't think many teams have kept clean sheets against them. But tomorrow will be different with the type of side we put out. I just want them to make sure they give everything and they don't regret the opportunity. They don't turn down the opportunity that have got to play in a lovely stadium.
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You will not find Neil Warnock knocking the FA Cup, he still clearly loves the magic of the old competition. And even when the league should be taking precedence he has still got designs on making a splash in what he has been quoted as saying is the best cup competition there is. Unfortunately COVID means his original plans have been pretty much shredded.
On Monday the club decided to do its own tests and the results brought up enough positives from players and staff to mean that the training ground was immediately abandoned and everything then put on hold before the EFL test on Thursday. Thankfully all those players that have isolated have done it early enough to not have spread the pandemic further but even so it means the Boro boss has had to make a new plan for the 3rd Round cup tie.
I asked the Boro boss about the cup tie.
Q: After all that has happened this week (COVID positive tests etc) can we still get excited about the magic of the FA Cup?
NW: Well there is no pressure on points is there? All I want to do is be competitive. It would be easy for me to agree and send the Under 23s down and not even go. But I don't think we should do that, we should go and give it our best go. And see what some of the lads come up with. It will give me a chance to play different boys in probably a couple of different positions and we'll see. It is asking a lot for the lads coming in to go down to Brentford ,whatever team Thomas Franks puts out it will be a really good team, so we've got to try and cope with that. The players have got to stand up tomorrow.
Q: I was going to say we will be playing a very good team in Brentford as they showed this week playing in their very first cup semi final.
NW: Yeah, they are the team to look out for aren't they. When you look at them, their front three are as good as anything in the league aren't they. But then when you look at the back up that they have got, that is the difference when you look at the squad. The depth they have got in quality is as good as anything. They have more or less played two teams last week and they were both very good.
So, that is what we have got to look for in the future, we have got to get a bigger squad with quality everywhere.
But we could still give a good account of ourselves and I think when we played them down there we weren't in awe of them, I thought we did really well down there. I don't think many teams have kept clean sheets against them. But tomorrow will be different with the type of side we put out. I just want them to make sure they give everything and they don't regret the opportunity. They don't turn down the opportunity that have got to play in a lovely stadium.
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