Yeovil Town will need to be “ruthless” to avoid becoming the victims of an FA Cup giant-killing this weekend, according to manager Darren Sarll.
The Glovers travel to a Yate Town side who are 38 places below them in the football pyramid in ninth place in the Southern League Premier Division South for the first round proper this weekend.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.
The Bluebells have won four of their last six games including a 5-2 league win over Salisbury City in midweek and a 1-0 win over National League whipping boys Dover Athletic in the last round.
Sarll said: “Yate deserve a lot of credit for their progress through this competition.
“They are in a rich vein of form, you can’t deny momentum at whatever level and they have qualities and it will be very important that we share our qualities with everyone on Saturday.
“We have to ensure we are robust, professional and very committed and ensure we get the job done, it will be about being ruthless and professional.
“It may not be a wonderfully smooth display but on these sort of games it is important we get the job done.”
The manager was in attendance for Yate’s 5-2 win over Salisbury City on Tuesday night and said he had picked up a lot of tips from “good friends” he and assistant manager Terry Skiverton have with knowledge of their opponents.
He added: “It’s a really big pitch, it looked in good condition on Tuesday night and it will give us a chance to pass it and we will have to pass it.”
But, Sarll said the financial reward of making the second round of the competition would not be a factor for his players. The winners of Saturday’s tie will collect more than £22,000 in prize money.
The boss said: “The financial status is for the boardroom, that’s not for our changing room, so the most important thing is they focus on their current form.
“Working with this group of players it is more important to know we are doing okay and we need to keep improvement, but we are certainly not going backwards.“