St Neots Town manager Matt Clements has challenged his side to turn their season around ahead of Friday’s Emirates FA Cup First Qualifying Round tie at Cambridge City.
The Saints travel to ProEdge Westwood Road after a difficult start to their Evo-Stik Southern League Premier Division campaign. They are winless after five games, with two draws and three defeats.
Following a 3-0 loss at Kettering Town on Monday, Clements publicly apologised to the fans and hopes that football’s oldest cup competition can galvanise his team.
“We can’t feel sorry for ourselves,” he insisted. “But I still believe in the boys. They’ve got to show some character and what better a way to do it than in a local derby, FA Cup, Friday night?
“If you can’t motivate yourself for that, then we can’t motivate ourselves for anything. It’s a case of paying back the fans and the club a disappointing Bank Holiday weekend.”
Opponents Cambridge City play in the league below St Neots but carry more momentum after a 4-1 win at Bedford Town. Yet Clements wants to ignore any such distractions.
“They go in with a bit more form,” he admitted. “We’ve got to ignore the tag of favourites and concentrate on making sure we perform to the best of our abilities.
“Let’s not talk about any potential excuses or banana skins – we’ve got to just turn up and perform.”
Meanwhile Cambridge boss Robbie Nightingale is urging his troops to maintain their focus for the duration of the contest, as he believes that if they can do that, the underdogs can pull off an upset.
He said: “The two games we’ve lost this season are games we’ve controlled and let slip, lost our concentration.
“We’re still a newish team. We’ve got six new signings from the summer and whatever level you’re at it takes time for those guys to bed in and understand what’s required.
“We do go in as underdogs. But we know what they have in their team, so it’s a question of whichever team turns up on Friday evening. We’ve got players that can hurt them like they have with us. We’re looking forward to it.
“It’s a big local derby and a lot of our players have played against them for a number of years.”
FA Cup history
Cambridge City’s best FA Cup performance came in the 2004/05 season, where they reached the Second Round proper before succumbing 1-0 at home to MK Dons.
St Neots Town have only qualified for the First Round proper once in their history, all the way back in the 1966/67 season.
Did you know?
It took two replays to separate these two clubs when they met in their only FA Cup encounter in the 1968/69 season. A goalless first clash in the First Round Qualifying tie was followed by a 3-3 draw in St Neots, before Cambridge City prevailed 3-0 at the third attempt.
The prize
A place in the Emirates FA Cup Second Round Qualifying stage and £3,000 awaits the winner of this tie.
