Match Sponsored by Hollings Pet Foods
The Lions are back at Nethermoor after a weekend of Emirates FA Cup heroics with Spennymoor Town the visitors on Saturday for a 3pm kick-off.
The Moors sit in fifth place just two points off of top spot Bradford (Park Avenue) and name former Lions Rob Atkinson, Stephen Brogan and Adam Boyes in their squad.
Managed by Jason Ainsley the North East side go into the game after a free weekend and back to back wins over Chorley and York City.
Their last defeat on the road came at Brackley Town when they fell to a 4-1 loss.
The Lions meanwhile were entertaining League 2 Cambridge United on Saturday and were 4-0 up with an hour gone but the tie end 4-3 after a late United fightback to put us in the second round of the Emirates FA Cup second round.
However the Vanarama National League North form of late has dipped with a 3-1 defeat at home to Blyth which was followed by a 0-0 draw at Darlington and a 1-0 loss at Ashton United despite good performances in the two away fixtures.
An ecstatic Marcus Bignot spoke to Colin Robertson following the historic win and said “It’s just like wow! We have played well the last two games and not scored but it seems we saved everything for today! 4-0 could easily have been 5 or 6, it was that type of game.”
The Joint First Team Manager said it was a complete performance “Game plan, management, physicality, technical ability, tactical side everything you want to put into a game was there nailed on. We came out and fully deserved the 2-0 lead, we started the second half in the same manner we were delighted with the way we were performing.”
At this point Bignot had not seen the game back but we’re sure he has watched it many times since “I can’t wait to watch it back I am just glad we saw it out, what a game for the supporters. That has got to be the best Emirates FA Cup game in the club’s history in terms of excitement and us being on the right end of the scoreline.”
Marcus also highlighted the important role a bumper crowd at Nethermoor played “We wanted the players to give the supporters something to get behind and boy did they. What a performance from the players and it got them behind us. In the final minutes everything was cheered, it was great, the supporters can be really proud of how they contributed today.”
“This is a memory, FA Cups give you memories and who is going to forget today?”
Speaking of his side’s ambitions the former QPR man added “The FA Trophy we want to get to Wembley and win it, the County Cup we want to win it, the FA Cup we know we are not going to win it but our dream is to get to the third round and we’re one game away.”
“We have got one more game to go and you see how much this competition means to us and we will go hell for leather to get in that third round.”
Marcus got his wish of another home draw and he is predicting an even bigger occasion at Nethermoor “These supporters can witness another special day in the FA Cup, I think the cameras could be coming down and I know we were on the Sunday highlights but that would have made great viewing for a full live game.”
“Now you’re looking you are very rarely going to get lower league oppostion so it is tough, here at Nethermoor anything is possible.”