Having spent a considerable amount of time searching through every media outlet to have ever mentioned us, I'm afraid; I was only able to track down two points worth mentioning throughout the whole off yesterday's news cycle, leaving the length of this entry looking a bit underwhelming, sorry about that.
The first morsel of information came from the mouth of Dougie and made reference to our imminent journey up north to face United:
“We had Crawley and Wigan at home in front of 5,000 fans and people were saying we were going to get knocked out. It just shows if you win games like that with the right attitude, enthusiasm and work rate that you get rewarded. I’m sure Crawley would have loved this tie - and Wigan too, but we were the team that turned up at Selhurst Park on cold Tuesday nights and did the business. I’ve spoken and bumped into Sir Alex Ferguson a few times but it’s about me trying to prepare a team to give it our best shot. Then whatever will be, will be. If anything I’ve got to bring the players down because I know they’ll be prepared. I’ve got to make sure it’s a game where they go out and express their talent. I’ll personally watch every DVD until we play them and we’ll do an in-depth study and report on three games. By luck I watched the Aldershot game on Friday afternoon, so we’ll do a report on that match too. It’s a Carling Cup game so they’ll change it but I’ve seen their reserves play this year. I know one or two of them already.”
The comments as a whole are pretty standard Freedman in all honesty. We know by now that the last thing he is ever going to do is allow the players to get carried away by the pageantry and prestige of taking on a club such as United on their own patch, whilst simultaneously making sure that his words aren't so dour as to distinguish any hope of pulling off a shock when the time comes.
As he makes reference to, there will be little need to make sure the players are in the correct frame of mind for the match itself, with the main issue for him being the type of squad that he decides upon when the day arrives.
So far in the competition, he has given our fringe players the opportunity to prove themselves, with a few regular first team members sprinkled in here and there, and for the most part, the lads who have been chosen have excelled themselves. With the quarter-final now being broadcast live on Sky, the question has to be asked as to whether Freedman will stick by the side that have got us there, or make adjustments to cope with the potentially greater challenge of an under strength United team with the officials helping them out every step of the way.
Opinion amongst the fans is somewhat split, with half advocating the view that you should always play your strongest team, whilst others feel it necessary to rest certain "key" players given the greater importance of the league fixtures for us at this moment in time.
For what it's worth I feel that Dougie's choice in the matter is impossibly restricted by the fact that we are due to play at home against Derby only two days after the game at Old Trafford. As nice as it would be to see us really go for it up there, it doesn't seem to be in his nature to throw caution to the wind and pick our best XI with three points on offer so soon after.
You could argue that the lack of romance in that sentiment takes away from the enjoyment of the occasion as supporters, and I can certainly sympathise with that, but with £500,000 being banked by the club for reaching this stage of the competition, there is nothing to stop the players who are selected going out and giving it their all without having the added pressure of having to reach the next round. Who knows what could happen if we go with Big Calv up front...
Elsewhere, it was announced yesterday evening, that resident reserve midfielder Andy Dorman has agreed to join Bristol Rovers on loan until the 2nd of January, with boss, Paul Buckle insisting that Andy could bring "much needed experience and stability" to the Rovers side, a statement he may live to regret. I can't say that I view it as a loss to our squad in any way, and I imagine it is purely a vehicle to get the lad some game time ahead of potentially moving on in January, good luck to him all the same.
That's about it for today; hopefully there will be more stuff to get our teeth stuck into over the next few hours, for the time being I'm off for a bacon sandwich.
Until tomorrow...
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