Grays vice-chairman Kevin Lamb was in a bullish mood as he spoke to the BBC about the third attempt to find a winner between his side and Carlisle in the FA Cup tomorrow, Lamb also explaining the floodlight problems that caused the initial replay at the New Recreation Ground to be abandoned after just 20 minutes last week :
" The floodlights were two totally separate problems, the one against Chelmsford.there was a condenser that blew in the main unit, it took out all four of the floodlights. The one against Carlisle, unfortunately the way that the design of the floodlights are, there is no drainage at the bottom of the floodlight. It has actually got water in there and then the main switch unit burnt out, they have now been replaced or changed and they are all working now.
" We have certainly not heard any more about a complaint from Carlisle. We have obviously had a request from the Football Association to tell them what has happened, what we have done in the meantime, how we have rectified them and what the problem was. I have certainly not seen anything come through about a fine or anything like that, whether they are going to pursue that, I am not sure.
" We are certainly hoping for a big crowd on Saturday, obviously with a Saturday game as well I believe that Carlisle are going to be bringing a few more numbers down, rather than the 224 that they brought on Tuesday night. So hopefully with the press that we have had everywhere around, OK it was negative press, but hey, we'll take that. So we should get the crowds in hopefully, the way that we were playing against Carlisle, in the first 20 minutes we were all over them. We were more disappointed than they were with the lights going out.
" We should come back at them again like we did, if we play the way that we played against them in the that 20 minutes for the rest of the game. Even in the first game up at Carlisle we had the better game and we should have come away the winners, even the Carlisle players were actually saying that as well. So there is nothing going to stop us this time around.
" Obviously since the FA Cup we have had money come in from the first round against AFC Totton, that has allowed us to pay the players through their monthly. We are looking at it on a month-to-month basis now and seeing how it goes, so far though all the players have been behind it. The thing is well, if you look at the other clubs around in the league, a lot of them are cutting their wages now, so obviously the grass isn't greener on the other side for a lot of those players.
" The town is getting behind the club slowly, it is taking a lot of work, obviously the day-to-day running of the team in the league has not been helped with the defeats that we have been having. With the cup run though we have actually seen people coming in here that we haven't seen before. We have got new people coming through and hopefully this will actually generate some more interest in the club. We need to start looking at our bread and butter in the league as well as the cup though. "
While Grays boss Wayne Burnett commented :
" The FA Cup can bring wonderful results that are sometimes not expected and that is the beauty of the FA Cup you know. For me it is the most famous football competition, apart from the World Cup, in the world. It means a lot, a hell of a lot, to the football club.
" Carlisle have travelled down to Millwall on Tuesday, they have had to travel back to Carlisle and then travel back down to us. We will have cold tea waiting for them, cold showers and no heating in the changing rooms so we will really make them feel welcome.
" We've played a League One team twice and played very, very well, so I can't understand how we can't put that into the league - it baffles me. We can detach ourselves from the league but we know that we have to pick points up, that is our bread and butter.
" Realistically we know that we are not going to win the FA Cup, but it would be nice to get a good run obviously. But we want to pick points up and the games can't come quickly enough for me. The great thing about football is that if you do have a defeat you hopefully can rectify it very, very quickly, because there's usually a game just around the corner,
" Apparently last time one of the floodlights, I'm not sure technically, but one of the floodlights, the water had got in over many months or even years and there wasn't a drainage point at the bottom. It has almost burnt out one of the conductors I believe, so it has been rectified now, no problems at all. "
And Grays centre-half Jamie Stuart said :
"I don't think that they are going to enjoy coming here and playing us but we are full of confidence and we have got nothing to lose. We are the underdogs and we are going to give it a proper go. Financially it can help the club, some players in the Grays squad have played in the leagues and have got a bit of experience behind them, and they feel that they could maybe still be there. "