COULD Townfield be home to an FA Cup shock on Saturday?

1874 Northwich play host to Pickering Town in the Emirates FA Cup first qualifying round.

Although playing their football a league above, the North Yorkshire outfit have won only once on six outings so far this season.

1874 meanwhile, have won five from seven, scored plenty of goals in the process and should be smelling blood.

Co-manager Wayne Goodison, who picks the team alongside Paul Bowyer, says their players have been warned though.

“They’re a strong side and we’ve said to the lads not to be fooled by their results,” said Goodison.

“They’re in a league above and they’re in a league above for a reason.”

Goodison and Bowyer watched on as Pickering lost 1-0 to an 88th-minute strike at Ossett United on Tuesday, while feedback came their way after having Pickering ‘watched’ in a 2-1 loss at Marine at the weekend.

“They worked hard and they were a bit unfortunate to be fair,” said Goodison, reflecting on Tuesday night’s performance at Ossett.

“They had a strong go at the game and a good game plan.

“Ossett scored towards the death and probably just about deserved the win because they pressed a little bit more.”

 



 

 

1874 will be aware where the goals threat has been coming from in the Pickering ranks.

Daniel Earl has scored five of their six net-finders, including a 13-minute hat-trick late on in their only win so far – a 3-1 success at home to Bridlington Town in the previous round of the FA Cup.

Jake Parker is 1874’s leading scorer with eight goals, six of which have come in the league, while Scott McGowan’s six strikes include four in cup competitions.

So Pickering will no doubt be wise on what 1874 offer, too.

Home advantage does not always mean a lot, but Goodison sees at least one benefit.

“I think the home advantage helps us simply because we don’t have to travel,” he said.

“Hopefully there’s not a replay and we have to travel up there on Tuesday. If we do, we do.

“But I’m sure they’ve done their homework on us as well.”

Jack Tinning returned to training this week and could be in the mix if he suffered no reactions to the pre-season ankle injury that has resulted in him not yet featuring this term.

1874 go into the tie on the back of losing to lower division Prestwich Heys in the FA Vase last week.

“We weren’t disappointed with the overall performance, but we were disappointed with the result because we wanted to progress,” said Goodison

“We created a lot of chances. In the other games, we’ve taken those chances but on Saturday we didn’t and that’s the simple story.”