DARLINGTON will give their lower-league opponents every respect in their FA Cup second-qualifying round tie this afternoon.
Quakers, who are unbeaten in their last five league games and haven’t conceded a goal in the process, head to Greater Manchester to take on West Didsbury and Chorlton from the North West Counties League, 67 places below them in the pyramid.
Darlington's management team of Steve Watson and Terry Mitchell are taking charge of their first FA Cup tie with the club, and Mitchell said: “The FA Cup is the greatest competition in England. It’s fantastic for non-league clubs every year, and someone comes along and has a fantastic run. They can end up on TV and make a lot of money. We want to be that team if possible.
“We’re taking it seriously, as we want our unbeaten run to continue, but we’ll have total respect for the team that we’re playing. We’ve watched some videos of them pre-match and we’ve trained and prepared properly. We want to have a good FA Cup run.
“This game is what the FA Cup is all about. West Didsbury are playing a team which is three leagues higher and have got nothing to lose. They’re having a nice little run in their league now, they started slowly but they’re kicking on now.
“We’ve done well defensively in recent weeks, now we’ve got to add to the other end of the pitch. Our defensive record is outstanding so if we defend as a team, then we should attack as a team. The lads are full of confidence and are looking forward to the game.”
Quakers still have several injury problems. Ben Hedley, Oli Thompson and Tom Platt are definitely out, while Doncaster won’t allow loanee Will Flint to be cup-tied. Cedric Main, Elliot Forbes and Kallum Griffiths will all have fitness tests.
West Didsbury and Chorlton have never been to this stage of the competition before, and have won three games against Silsden, Glossop and Burscough so far. Until last weekend, their cup form was much better than their league form, but they beat Longridge 5-1 and followed up with a 4-1 win over South Liverpool on Tuesday to lift them to 15th in the table.
Situated just a few miles from Old Trafford, the capacity of their stadium is just over 1,300, but their average home crowd is around 700.
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