Atkins, who managed Carlisle through the difficult 2000-01 campaign, took over at Bristol Rovers in the summer and has lifted the Pirates up the league to a play-off position. He will be hoping to do with Rovers what he failed to achieve at Oxford and win promotion. His one season at Brunton Park was pock-marked with off-field problems but the 47-year-old former Northampton and Chester boss still managed to lift the struggling Cumbrians from six points adrift at the bottom during Christmas to unexpected safety. He quit just a few weeks before the start of the following season and joined Cardiff as assistant manager, before moving to take over at Oxford in December 2001. Now with a delicious sense of irony, the FA Cup brings him back into conflict with United, a match-up that Atkins has not had too much success with since crossing swords with his former charges. He only won one of five clashes with his ex-club when he was boss at the Kassam Stadium. Now he is warning his players not to take United lightly, despite the gap of some 20 places in the league ladder. "We know we are in for a tough game. Carlisle are a good side and have done very well in the Conference so far. No matter what level of football you play at, winning games becomes a habit and breeds confidence," he said. However the man who played for Everton and Sunderland during a long playing career believes lower-ranked clubs like Bristol and Carlisle have less chance of progressing as far in the Cup than they used to. "The FA Cup has changed over the past 10 or 15 years because the chances of a lower level club getting to the latter stages is much smaller. Just look at the Carling Cup, where seven of the last eight left are in the Premiership. If you get to the third round now it's a bonus for the club financially but it's hard to go much further." For tomorrow's game Atkins will be without suspended striker Lee Thorpe. Defender Steve Elliott is back after serving a ban. The Cumbrians will be watching Junior Agogo, who has scored 11 times this season, one more than the Cumbrians' own prolific Karl Hawley, who returned from Italy in midweek after helping the England National Game XI to a 1-0 win over their Italian non-league counterparts. Agogo was formerly with current Conference pace-setters Barnet and his run of 7 goals in the last eight games, allied to his searing pace, will make him a big threat to the Cumbrians' rather leaden-footed central defensive duo of Kevin Gray and Simon Grand. There's no doubt the two can tackle anything, and are very strong in the air, but they will have to be careful just where they defend tomorrow as Agogo is capable of turning them and leaving them for dead if they are isolated too far upfield. Up front, United have their own pace man in Magno Vieira. The Brazilian is back in the FA Cup picture following Wigan's decision to let him stay here for the rest of the season. He was left out of the Fourth Qualifying Round win over York as the Latics still had not released him at that stage. Now he looks likely to play up front alongside Hawley with Andy Preece probably still bench warming, at least to start with. The Cup still throws up plenty of surprises at this stage of the competition, although on this occasion I'm going with Atkins to just about get the better of his old team - although I expect it will be tight, and I don't think a replay is out of the question by any means. Prediction: Rovers 2-1 UNITED |
