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Torquay kick off their FA Cup journey with a home game against North Yorkshire bumpkins Harrogate Town and if we aren't in round 2 come 5 o'clock saturday then you can kiss my face! . Of course we HAVE been here before haven't we? November 2005 when the part timers from the quintessentially northern spa town came to Plainmoor and got a 1-1 draw. I was at the replay that night at Wetherby Road where we were fortunate and sneaked through on pens. So it's the FA Cup and against a team who have nearly left us with strawberry blancmonge on our faces once before so we cannot underestimate them. That said, they are s*it, they are part timers, they are non leaguers and they are from Harrogate so we SHOULD be punishing them at home anyway.

Our opponents currently sit in 13th place in the Conference North on 15 points from 10 games and are 16 points off leaders Chester FC although they do have 2 games in hand. They are fairly tight at the back but we should be able to break them down with a scintillating attacking display. I sincerely hope we get at them from the off because teams like Harrogate of limited ability and playing a league side are going to dig in and battle hard and if we start this game lethargically we could be in for an upset. No doubts in my mind. We know they are going to come and compete and if we slack off we are going to be in trouble, conference north or not. To be honest i'd rather be playing Hyde because at least they have quite a few ex league players that we know something about about. Apart from former Derby midfielder Adam Bolder who played in the premier league, defenders Dave Merris ex-York and Matt Bloomer ex-Lincoln amongst other clubs they are unknowns. Just a note but anyone remember that annoying time wasting tosser Macc keeper Jose Veiga? Well he was released by Macc in the summer and signed up for Harrogate and up until their last three games he had been playing for them but i don't know what has happened to him. The Harrogate website doesn't include him in their player pages anymore. Weird.

Anyway, a brief and uneventful thread this week but rest assured, any replay up in Harrogate will recieve my utmost attention!!! Can't be arsed to do a Harrogate line up last time out as most of them you won't have heard of but the last game they played before knocking out Hyde was Hyde in the first game as their game against Corby the following weekend was called off.

I'm going for a 2-0 scoreline to us with Rene and Manse netting for us. A desperately small crowd looks likely too now that Torquay have confirmed it will be full price on the day.

The ref for this one is Mr Wayne Barratt, his glamourous assistants Mr William Bull and Mr Mark Derrien and the 4th official is Mr Andrew Bennett.

If we play to our potential we should get through if we under estimate them we could be embarrased by them. Hopefully we get it sorted on the day I dont fancy a midweek trip to Harrogate.

AlexGulls wrote:If we play to our potential we should get through if we under estimate them we could be embarrased by them. Hopefully we get it sorted on the day I dont fancy a midweek trip to Harrogate.

Nothing would please me more!

The difference between us now and the side that played in 2005 is that we are a much better team than the one that played 7 years ago. In all honestly, I would be disappointed if we didn't put at least four past them.

If we don't win then it will be unacceptable. They have only 3 days recovery time, are part time and have to travel all the way from Yorkshire to play us.

Looking at omens, when we beat Harragate last time in the cup, we got premier league opposition in the third round didn't we? Birmingham?

To some extent i agree with both yellowsmiffy and tktufc91. It will be tough, these types of games always are and it's usually a case of breaking them down early then kick on. We shouldn't underestimate them as we know they aren't totally bereft of quality and they will be up for this. Howeve like tktufc says, we are a professional side, AT HOME ( if it were away then yes i'd be happy with a 1-0 ) we have the fitness edge as they have had to travel down to Devon at short notice having ploughed through the mud last night for 120 minutes. So it is not unreasonable to expect a victory by 2 clear goals and anything less would be unacceptable. I think a 3-0 scoreline is the best case scenario but i just think we will struggle to break them down and then get a couple of late goals.

Don't care how we do it, as long as we get it done on Saturday I'll be happy.

They battered us at Plainmoor last time for most of the game, they may have improved aswell since then. Obviously we're in a lot better shape but still, it won't be easy.

We have to make sure we match their enthusiasm for this game. If we do then our class so win through but if we don’t not then an upset could easily be on the cards.

We'll be fine just so long as we don't think that all we have to do is to treat them with disdain and simply make an appearance on the pitch. It would be a big mistake not to go into the game with the same attitude we would have if playing the likes of Gillingham or above.

Be interesting to see the team, will rice start? How about yeoman..?

Ling has stated he wants to get through fir the prize money so I wouldnt expect many changes

It's almost as if some of you haven't seen the FA Cup before. The things that make us better than Harrogate are the things that we must do to be better than Harrogate. It's feckall good putting out the reserves and talking about knocking half a dozen past them, because it's only our first team, playing somewhere near their best that is really any better than HTFC.
Play like we did against Gillingham and we will run out comfortable winners. Play like we did against Wycombe and Harrogate will cruise into round 2.
The absolute key to beating teams of plucky part timers is to treat them with the respect that we offer to the likes of Gillingham.

Matt.

That said, Barnet are the exception that proves the rule, we could play Dinger up front and Danny in goal and beat them...

even though they have gone three unbeaten ( 2 wins and a draw ) scoring 5 and not conceding? Matt, the Barnet game is far more worrying than Saturdays game for me.

Nodoby can or will under estimate Harrogate, put the best 11 out and if we do find ourselves in a comfortable position then take some key players off, we must make every effort to go through.

Exactly forever. I'd go with something like;

Poke

Leadbitter, Saah, Downes, Cruise

Mansell, Lathrope, Craig

Bodin, Howe, Stevens

Bloody hell - team of part timers, who had to play extra time on Wednesday night - they now face a nice long trip to Plainmoor and have to play again on what will surely be a nice heavy pitch.
Sure they will be up for it but lets face it they will be blowing out their arses come quarter past four or so on saturday. If Howe,Bodin and co cannot get past this lot we might as well jack it in.
A gilt edge chance to get to round 2 if ever there was one.

Pretty much how things should go in an ideal world Brucie i agree, but often things happen when you least expect it so like Forever says, put out the strongest line up and if we happen to find ourselves in cruise control and well ahead, then make some changes.