Guiseley AFC will return to cup action this weekend in the FA Trophy Third Qualifying Round at the Gaint Axe when they take on Northern Premier League, Premier Division side Lancaster City. The Lancashire side will be looking to knockout a second Yorkshire side in the competition after beating Ossett United in the last round.
The Lions now have three successive cup game starting at the Giant Axe on Saturday against Lancaster City, before a short trip away to face Harrogate Town in the West Riding County Cup, then a massive FA Cup (2nd Round) tie against Joe Barton’s Fleetwood Town
Guiseley joint manager Marcus Bignot has lofty ambitions for this competition as he looks to secure a date at Wembley next spring in the FA Trophy Final. Speaking about the game this weekend he said, “We want to embrace every cup competition we enter and the FA Trophy is a realistic opportunity for us to get to a Wembley final, its a cup we can win and the rewards are there for all to see.
Wembley is an experience players and management might not go through during their career. It is an opportunity and a cup competition we will take seriously, we will do all we can to get through to the next round.”
Lancaster City are now managed by Mark Fell and his assistant Graham Lancashire, at the start of this week I spoke to the former Burnley, Preston North End, Wigan Athletic and Rochdale striker and asked him some questions about tomorrows fixture.
When you and Mark Fell arrived at Lancaster City the was bottom of the league, things are starting to change at the club as you move up the league, how do you think the club and the players have progressed since you arrived.
We felt that the club and players were just on the wrong side of the margins, we had watched them at Farsley Celtic on the Tuesday before we were announced as the new management team and it was just a couple of mistakes that cost them the game. We implemented some structure with the same players that we had available and thankfully they bought into it and this resulted in some improved performances and results. This also seemed to give us a little bit of good luck rather than bad luck.
Could you give us your view on Lancaster City opponents to the Gaint Axe this weekend Guiseley AFC.
We are fully aware of the quality and strength in depth of the squad available to Marcus, Russ and Paul. They have had an indifferent start to the season but results recently have shown they have the ability to produce big wins when in matters. We know that they have some very experienced players along with some exciting young prospects and we are under no allusion that the task we have to get a result will be a difficult one.
How have you prepared the players for this weekends game (is it different from a league fixture) and how do you rate your chances of beat Guiseley and moving into the next round
We have prepared the same way we have for every match since we came into the club at the start of October, whether it be a cup or league game. Luckily we have managed to get two training sessions in having no midweek game, in order to work on some of our strengths and prepare the players right. We believe that we have worked hard to get through to this round of the FA Trophy and see no reason why we cannot progress if we work our action plan right, the players believe they can win the match and with a little bit of lady luck anything is possible.
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