BRFC v Boreham Wood - Match Thread (Sunday)

Joey Barton confident Bristol Rovers will not become latest victims of FA Cup giant-killers..

Joey Barton has called on his Bristol Rovers players to "professionally dispose of lower-league opposition" when Boreham Wood visit the Mem in the FA Cup second round on Sunday.

The Rovers manager wants his players to learn lessons from Wednesday's EFL Trophy win at Colchester United, where the Gas were dominant for long periods but did not put the game out of sight, allowing the hosts to score an equaliser with their only shot on target before Harvey Saunders netted a stoppage-time winner.

National League Boreham Wood will be no pushovers, though, and they have previous in the FA Cup. They reached the fifth round last season, beating EFL teams in AFC Wimbledon and Bournemouth before pushing Everton hard in a 2-0 defeat at Goodison Park earlier this year.

"We’ll have to be fully focused and wired in, which I expect us to be," Barton said. "If we are and we handle the occasion in the correct manner, the favouritism of the tie will be on us and rightly so.

"For us, it’s about taking care of our performance, taking care of our output, and unfortunately for Boreham Wood, if we function and play well, they are going to struggle to progress in the cup, but that is entirely in our control and we have to make sure we turn up and professionally dispose of lower-league opposition in the cup.

"Progressing past Eastleigh in the cup has been the bright spot and they’ll welcome it as a distraction, but we all know how important form is. It’s nice to have the distraction of a cup competition, but if you’re not playing particularly great football, the FA Cup doesn’t just turn up and give you a bout of confidence.

"For them, they’ll feel the pressure is off and it is a chance for them to take another scalp, which they showed last year they are more than capable of doing."

Paul Coutts and Harry Anderson are unavailable for Rovers through injury, but Josh Coburn has been given the all clear from parent club Middlesbrough to play on Sunday after sitting out the first-round win over Rochdale earlier this month.

Backup goalkeeper Anssi Jaakkola is a doubt after he was forced off with a dead leg at Colchester, but Barton says teenager Jed Ward is available to step up to the bench to offer cover for James Belshaw after recovering from a broken hand, if he is required.

"He (Jaakkola) hasn’t trained today, but we think he’ll be alright," Barton said. "There are a couple with bumps and bruises that haven’t gone out today, but we expect them to train tomorrow.

"Hopefully, he’s fine. He’s limping a bit, but he’s a big, tough Finn. He should be OK with a bit of a bruise.

"Jed’s back training. He hasn’t long been back training and you would want him to have a bit more game practice, but if required to fill Anssi’s shoes I think he’ll be ready."

Need to play better than we did in the last round. The least Rochdale deserved was a draw. If it wasn`t for abysmal finishing, they would have got it.

Earliest match day thread ever!?

Boring Wood will give us a game....I don't expect anything easy, tomorrow.

There's temporary traffic lights everywhere and the church lot will be parked everywhere, it's gonna be chaos! 🤭

Posted on other place too....
Attendances generally down today.
Many under 4,000.

Except, Wrexham?
19,000 v Farnborough?
Holy moly...

Remember that the FA cup final and England international games were the only matches to be played at Wembley so it was a special place,whats special about it now ? when most teams have played a Mickey Mouse final or play off game there,even cup semi finals are played there,so the FA cup final has been made into just another match,sad really.

Also the cup final winner went into the European cup winners cup which was a chance to play European teams,mind you Cardiff used to get into that for winning the Welsh cup

game highlights show that the whole terrace behind a goal is under reconstruction..[as i thought] cracking free kick from Farnborough tho'

For anyone not attending, there's extended highlights later, but also, live coverage via bet365 (probably other responsible gambling website apps are available) terms and conditions apply..

Not sure where else you would find live coverage?

Finley on Bench.No Rossiter.

0-1 on 18 minutes