FA CUP - Rovers v Lincoln

[Rockford's Love Child]

Whitehawk away for the winners. A good draw that, albeit another mammoth journey.

 

[drwhoman]

I had to google where the place is! Still as RLC says it should be a good draw if we can overcome Lincoln. I have not seen a centre forward built like theirs for many a year! Should be playing rugby league surely?!

 

[Boz]

The kind of draw that makes me think we should send the youth team to Lincoln tomorrow. Last season, Whitehawk lost out in the play-offs for the National League and it's a long journey and potential banana-skin.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

At least it is interesting and has a genuine FA Cup feel to it. Crawley or Colchester away would have been beyond bearing.

Despite their 2,000 capacity ground and modest origins, Whitehawk are another bankrolled club Like Eastleigh, FGR etc. Hence, they are actually pretty disliked by a lot of non-league fans.

 

[Ian]

Never heard of them.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

At least it is interesting and has a genuine FA Cup feel to it. Crawley or Colchester away would have been beyond bearing.

Despite their 2,000 capacity ground and modest origins, Whitehawk are another bankrolled club like Eastleigh, FGR etc. Hence, they are actually pretty disliked by a lot of non-league fans.

One of my friends, who supports Brighton, once gave me the rundown on Whitehawk and its financial provenance. Let's just say that the owners may not all pass the test if - heaven forbid - Whitehawk ever win the National League. I agree with Boz that this is far from being a good draw. There's no money in it and I expect our opponents will take no prisoners.

Returning to Saturday's match, I think the result and performance may have been down to the fact that the game was seen by many as an unwelcome distraction. Today's replay is certainly an unwanted extra fixture a few days before a important top five league game, especially as it might go to extra time and penalties. I hope we win, but I doubt anyone relishes the thought of a trip to the south coast. We'll have to raise our game to get through. I hope the motivation is there.

 

[Brightonian]

If we get through tonight Whitehawk will be a very tricky game. Just two miles from my home accessed down a narrow lane sandwiched between the municipal camp site and East Brighton park & golf course. If you thought Braintree and Welling grounds looked simple they are like Wembley compared to this ground which has only just been increased to a 2k capacity. The pitch has a significant end to end slope and one side just has railings without hoardings.

However the team are very handy with at least six with league experience. They don't have giant strikers to hoof it up to and have the very mobile Danny Mills who is the crowd favourite who has scored 14 in 17 games this year and Jake Robinson who was the Brighton & HA wonder kid who scored on debut aged 16 , ha trick soon after and who seemed destined for great things but ended up at Shrewsbury and Northampton but apparently has been excellent scoring 6 since joining recently. They also have Sergio Torres who you will remember at Crawley in L1 and Arnaud Mendy ex Derby, Macclesfield and Luton. After a slow start to the season they are a team on the up and are really difficult to beat on their tight little ground.

 

[bigmart]

Jackson in for mekki, margetts for taylor-fletcher rumoured to be out for 4 weeks with hamstring injury

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

Scott Davies sent off for handling the ball outside his area. Iain Turner comes on. Poor Jonny Margetts leaves the field. It's going to be a long, weary night.

 

[Boz]

Scott Davies sent off for handling outside the area, Margetts subbed to make way for Turner, who saves a penalty a couple of minutes later. Same liner responsible for both decisions.

 

[bigmart]

lots of drama everything going against us so far, just hope no more injuries or red cards now, not bothered about the result

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Sounded like we battered them for the first 20 minutes and are still doing ok with ten men. More quality NL refereeing.........

 

[Boz]

Harris' yellow card apparently rules him out on Saturday too, though GTF injury only a niggle. Mangan on the bench. The o/s didn't seem to have even posted the team line-ups when I last looked. We should have gone with the youth team like I suggested.

 

[Ian]

Not sure I can stay awake for extra time / pens.. we are doing well to numb the play with 10 men but nothing is happening at all.

 

[bigmart]

Not sure I can stay awake for extra time / pens.. we are doing well to numb the play with 10 men but nothing is happening at all.

well you don't need to know sadly as we are out

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Feel sorry for the fans that travelled but not too bothered by the result, which could be a blessing in disguise. We battled hard and Lincoln sounded dreadful. We are better than them and we can demonstrate it in a couple of weeks.

 

[Boz]

It's difficult to gauge how the sides compare, when we were a man short for most of the match, but it didn't seem like we created much tonight, think only Jackson gave their keeper something to save. That following on from the home game, where we didn't convert our superiority into a win. Davies and Harris missing for the weekend toughie with Dover. While not as confident as RLC about the return visit to Lincoln, the law of averages must dictate that we're due a semi-competent set of officials for our next trip to Sincil Bank.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

From the evidence of Saturday when we had eleven men, we have got better players and play better football but they are well organised and awkward to play against. While they are not the worst team in the division, if we finish below them it will have been a disappointing season.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

I'm disappointed with the result but more concerned about the suspensions, injuries and fatigue affecting the team for Saturday. Dover would be tough with a full, rested squad. At least we won't have that awful trip to Whitehawk. Another bonus is the performance of Iain Turner, who must be the best reserve keeper in the NL. I just hope the team takes heart from the performance rather than dwelling on the result.

 

[Ian]

Our focus is on the league and so the result is not too disappointing considering the circumstances. Like BBTC mentions, we need to get our full team back ASAP. At least we have no distractions now.