Cup draw kind to County

October 25, 2009

STOCKPORT have been drawn against either minnows Tooting & Mitcham or Eastbourne Borough in the first round of the FA Cup.

Tooting play in the Ryman Premier Division, while Eastbourne are in the Blue Square Premier.

Meanwhile, County manager Gary Ablett refused to be too hard on his young players after the 2-0 defeat at Brentford.

He said: “I thought we looked a lot more solid than we did last week, but again it’s just a couple of individual errors at vital stages of the game and in important areas of the pitch that have cost us.

“At half-time, at one down, I thought there was still a chance of us taking something from the game and our play during the first half hour of the second half was positive - we got it down and we tried to play - I just don’t understand why we couldn’t do it in the first half.”

And Ablett said the absence of Carl Baker was no excuse.

“Any team’s going to miss Carl’s creativity, but having said that I thought the team we sent out had more than enough quality," he added.

"We have to show we’re not just about Carl Baker, we’ve got players who can take over Carl’s mantle, as limited as we are on numbers in the squad.”

COUNTY: fon Williams 7; Mullins 6, Huntington 5, Raynes 7, Rose 6; Pilkington 5, Tansey 5 (Johnson 6), Bridcutt 6, Turnbull 6, Poole 5 (Griffin 5); Bignall 6

FA Cup first-round draw:
Gillingham v Southend
Grimsby v Bath City
Gateshead v Brentford
Chesterfield v Bournemouth
Blyth Spartans or Telford United v Lincoln
Stockport v Tooting & Mitcham United or Eastbourne Borough
Burton v Oxford City
Barrow or Chester City v Eastleigh
Oldham v Leeds
Lincoln United or Cambridge United v Ilkeston Town
York v Crewe
Wycombe v Brighton
Hereford v Sutton United
Nuneaton Town v Exeter
Bristol Rovers v Southampton
Carlisle v Morecambe
Forest Green v Mansfield
Oxford United v Yeovil
Paulton Rovers v Norwich

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bluephil, Stoke-on-Trent (25/10/2009 at 21:07)

Not sure about the draw being kind to County. This game could well reveal that our strike force wouldn't even be a threat 3 or 4 divisions below. The fixture has the potential to be another Staines Town. Still, maybe Ablett might actually be brave enough in this game to play Oli Johnson and Bignall together up front for a full 90 minutes. If Thompson plays and fails to score, I fear for his life (although with a crowd of ~2000, most of whom will have left before the final whistle, he should be OK). Anyway, keep the faith - we knew this season would be difficult in the extreme.

Alan Hornsby (26/10/2009 at 13:31)

“Any team’s going to miss Carl’s creativity, but having said that I thought the team we sent out had more than enough quality," Er, no Mr Ablett I don't think so. We're poor with Baker - without him we're nothing.

"We have to show we’re not just about Carl Baker, we’ve got players who can take over Carl’s mantle, as limited as we are on numbers in the squad.” Who for instance?? If we have you'd better start picking him, cos I haven't seen yet this season.

The draw has not been kind to us. It has the potential to cause us huge embarrassment!!

The Pope, Rome (29/10/2009 at 13:14)

ooh ey lad!

Glamour match f'coonty this, aye, aye, aye

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