Devonshire hoping to play his Cards right for famous FA Cup victory

Woking FC arrive at York Road for Saturday’s FA Cup fourth qualifying round tie having lost five of their last seven matches in all competitions, but Alan Devonshire still makes the National League side heavy favourites to progress.

The Cards warmed up for Saturday’s crunch clash with a 1-0 defeat at home to Wrexham and have seen their form falter of late after a positive start to the campaign.

United have had no such problems in recent weeks and go into Saturday’s tie in the best form of their season but Devonshire knows his side will have to be on their mettle to get through.

And he urged United’s ‘great’ support to cheer the side on to another famous FA Cup victory.

When the sides met in the competition in 2011 Johnson Hippolyte’s Magpies blew the Cards off the table with a 4-1 victory in the same year they made it through to a first-round clash against Aldershot Town.

“They’re a good side,” said Devonshire.

“We’ll have to be on our mettle if we’re to get the result we want. We’re looking forward to it, we’re in good form and we’ve got nothing to lose because we’re expecting to get beat.

“But we’ll see where we are at 5pm on Saturday.”

Devonshire believes current form will count for little when the sides meet on Saturday.

“He [Woking manager Gary Hill] knows we’ll be at it on Saturday, but having played them a lot over the last few years I know that they will be too,” said Devonshire.

“I think it’s going to be a really good game and I just hope that the best team wins on the day.

“We want to go and enjoy our football and be positive, and to do that the players have got to take responsibility when they’re on the ball. Harry [Pritchard] and Dave [Tarpey] are playing well at the moment but there are a lot of players playing well, and some not playing so well, and it will be nice when everyone gets together and gels at the same time. It will be exciting.”

Devonshire’s last word this week was for the fans who he hopes to see celebrating a famous win come Saturday evening.

“Our fans are great anyway. One of the reasons I came back was because of the support when I was first there. I knew that if we started doing well they’d get behind us and that’s what’s happened. I hope they really have a good day on Saturday.”

The manager said Jake Reid’s chances of making the cup clash are touch and go but he expects Ryan Peters and James Mulley to be back in contention.