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Northwood - Fans can help!
Story courtesy of Burton Mail
Gresley Rovers manager Frank Northwood believes his team’s travelling army of fans can help see Rovers through to the FA Vase final.
After Gresley had been paired against FA Cup heroes Littlehampton of the Sussex County League in yesterday’s semi-final draw Northwood said: “ I’ve always said that Gresley Rovers can live with the best and beat the rest. With our supporters behind us we can do the job.“I would have liked to have played the away leg of the tie first, but that doesn’t mean we’ve got to win the first match. It’s all about two legs and we’ll have as many supporters for the away leg as they’ll have.”
Northwood admitted that he knew very little about Littlehampton other than their FA Cup exploits which saw them reach the first round proper of the competition this season, eventually losing 4-0 to Fourth Division leaders Northampton Town.
“We don’t know much about them and they don’t know much about us – although it’s sure to be a tough game whoever you get in the semi’s. But we are happy to have avoided Guiseley or Hythe or Trowbridge. Guiseley and Hythe were semi-finalists last year and obviously they know what it’s all about.”
Littlehampton have a reputation as a free-scoring side but Northwood insisted: “No-one has got a better goal scoring record than Gresley – we’ve scored more than 100 goals this season.”
Littlehampton manager Carl Stabler said: “It’s the draw we wanted. Hythe and Trowbridge are both very good sides who we wanted to avoid and we’ve also had strong reports about Guiseley from Great Harwood, who we beat on Saturday.
