Chris Plummer previews a tough cup replay at Brackley Town

Assistant manager Chris Plummer faced the media ahead of the Iron’s Emirates FA Cup Second Qualifying Round replay away at Brackley.

While it’s an additional game perhaps the squad didn’t require, a draw at the weekend kept the side in the hat for the next round, with the victors at St James Park going on to make a trip to face either Braintree Town or Canvey Island in the next round.

“We’ve got to look at the positives - we’re still in the FA Cup,” he stated.

“We’ve seen the draw today, but we’ve got to win tomorrow. It’s normally regionalised for this stage of the competition, and we cannot get ahead of ourselves, we’ve got to beat Brackley to get through. If we get the result, we can then look at the next stage.

“It’s massively important that we don’t look past that at all. We’ve got a squad to cope with the workload albeit we have injuries and a suspension. We are going there confident that we can go and get a result.”

Having now played Brackley once of what will be at least four times this season, the second encounter comes a mere 75 hours after the last one finished. The side are also United’s next league opponents at Glanford Park at the start of October, with both teams having knowledge and experience of what the other can, and can’t, do.

“We watched them before we played them on Saturday and identified areas to exploit, their weaknesses and their strengths as well,” he continued.

“We’ve rewatched having played them on Saturday and presented that to the lads on Monday morning. We’ve looked at things we can improve on, reenforced the messages that we gave them before the game on Saturday, and we go there prepared for the game.”

United emerged from the weekend without additions to their treatment table, with a number of key individuals currently our of the side with problems, while Kian Scales will miss out on the second game of his three-match ban, having been given a bonus game to miss.

“There are no fresh injuries,” said Plummer. 

“There’s nothing really to report at all on that front. The lads that are injured are in rehab and are working their way back to fitness. A couple are getting closer, which is good news for us, but nothing fresh from Saturday, which is great.

“Alfie (Beestin) didn’t train with the full group on Monday. It was a bit of a recovery session, with prep work for tomorrow. I understand, from the physio, that he’s not far off now, so hopefully he will be back with us later this week. He does need a bit of training with the group to get him up to speed, but I don’t think he is too far away, which is a boost for us as a team and a squad.

“To get as many of the players back fit is a bonus for us as management, and the squad as well. Having that competition for places drives performances on the pitch, whether it’s lads with the shirts, or lads coming in wanting to retain that shirt.”

In drawing Brackley, the Iron attained one of the toughest draws in the competition, and that task will not be made any easier now it will be concluded away from home.

“They’re unbeaten at home in the league this season and have had three clean sheets out of four games,” he concluded. 

“We’re under no illusion that it’s a really tough game, and that’s why we’re not looking too far past this game. It was a really good game, I felt, on Saturday. We edged it second half and probably deserved to nick the win. 

“This is going to be a tough game, make no mistake about it. When the draw was made, we were top and they were second, and that tells you all you need to know. We’ve got to go there and be at our best to beat them tomorrow.”