Town boss Graham Alexander spoke to the Blackpool Gazette ahead of his side’s Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Northern Area Trophy Quarter-Final tie against Carlisle at Highbury this evening, Alexander saying the attraction of Wembley is the carrot for his players:
“It’s a great competition for players who don’t get a chance at the highest level to play in a cup final at Wembley. I never got near the final but I was desperate to because I thought it was my most realistic chance of getting there. You ask anyone who’s won it or all the supporters who have followed their teams to Wembley and it’s a brilliant occasion. But you can’t look beyond the next game. We’ve got to concentrate on Carlisle. We just want to get a positive result and be in the draw for the next round.
“We’ve had a real go already. That’s how we think. I want to win every game I go into. You can’t turn that competitive edge off. We’ve made changes in this competition but they’ve always been changes we didn’t think would weaken the side. It’s not done us harm – we’ve beaten two League One sides. Some things you don’t have to say as a manager. No manager ever had to say to me, ‘Here’s a chance to get to Wembley. I knew that.
“Sometimes you can put on too much pressure. You can’t talk of Wembley in the quarter-finals when you’ve got a League One club in front of you. You’ve got to talk about the opposition and what you are going to do, and keep it as simple as that. The lads know in the back of their heads what the end goal is, but if we don’t do the hard work first there’s no point talking about it.
“I think it’s exciting playing teams from above your league. It’s a break from the norm. The league is a long hard season and it’s good when you don’t know what to expect. It’s good when you perform well and when you win, and it gives you a confidence boost to take into the day to day. This will be a tough game, make no mistake. But we’ll attack it in the right manner and take the game to them.
”Whoever we are playing it’s the same. We’ll always prepare in the same way. It’s another test for us, a decent team in Carlisle. Graham Kavanagh has done a decent job since taking over there. They will play football. It’s two good teams and it should be a decent game, but it’s one we want to win. Carlisle are a big club from just up the road. They could bring big numbers and when a club has done that the Fleetwood supporters have responded in kind.
“It makes for a cracking atmosphere. Bury and Chesterfield – when they brought numbers it really lifted the place and our fans were fantastic. Hopefully that will be the case. But we’ve got a responsibility to give them something to cheer about. It’s a two-way street and we take our responsibility as seriously as the fans take theirs.
“Picking a team is a balancing act because we’re in a good run of form. You want to keep up that run. If you miss a game because you take a lot of players out how does that affect Saturday at Northampton? Will the rest do any good? It’s a fine line but I’ve got great belief in the players who aren’t in the eleven. We have to look at the two games but we have to focus on Carlisle. We won’t put a team out who aren’t going to compete.”
In team news for the home side this evening they have two players missing through injury in striker Jamille Matt and left-back Stephen Jordan, Matt sidelined after picking up an ankle injury in training while Jordan is out with a long-term groin problem. In better news for the Cod Army two central defenders who were unavailable for their 2-0 FA Cup win away to Gloucester at the weekend are back in their squad, Ryan Cresswell having recovered from a bout of illness, while Liam Hogan was seeing out a one-match five yellow card ban during that game.
The referee for this evening's match is Stuart Attwell from Nuneaton in Warwickshire and he will be assisted down the lines by Paul Graham from Oldham and Gary Hilton from Wigan. Meanwhile the fourth official according to the Football League website is Kevin Wright from as far away as Peterborough, perhaps they mean Peter Wright from Southport.
The officials also perhaps responsible for overseeing a penalty shoot-out if the two sides still can't be separated after the 90 minutes. Meanwhile should Carlisle win through tonight then the draw for the area semi-finals will be made this coming Saturday morning on Soccer AM, and the tie itself will take place in the week commencing 9th December.