How To Win An Fa Cup Tie

[Jay]

Taken from the BBC website, the following points were made by motivational guru Humphrey Walters, who was part of Sir Clive Woodward's backroom staff during their 2003 Rugby World Cup triumph:

GROUND RULES FOR WINNING TEAMS

1. Think from the basis of ruthless simplicity. When you book a plane ticket you don't want to receive 10 pages of travel conditions with your seat number. All great teams have a philosophy of keeping it simple.

Score more than the opposition - simple!

2. There are no dumb ideas. When I started working with the England rugby team I was horrified to discover that the Twickenham changing rooms were dirtier than my garage.

Basso up front?

3. Look for every inch. The coach of the Green Bay Packers Vince Lombardi always emphasised the importance of making small changes.

Lee Johnson is small - change him?

But it is also about every team member contributing those small inches. The idea of winning must never seem too out of reach for the players.

Bring back Bas?

4. If you have run out of ideas say so. And if you do run out of ideas, bring in other people to help you. Outside stimuli can be really helpful and that is one of football's problems - it is too much of a closed shop.

Cue Bristol Boy.....?

5. It is okay to be frightened. The management of fear is huge. Jonny Wilkinson always said he looked at the gaps between the posts and in doing so the posts became irrelevant.

Take note Mr. Jevons. Actually....it's a cup match....another hat-trick would be nice please

6. Think in ink. Write it down, otherwise it just remains a dream. Writing it down moves the idea from the back to the front of the brain.

"I think I'll have a piece of cake after the match."

Obviously I'm only being light-hearted here & certainly not meaning to slate any players. I have faith in our manager to pick the team he feels can win the game & that's enough for me.

Good luck on Saturday chaps - I'll be there as usual cheering you on. Come on your Reds!

[RedM]

1. Maybe not only scoring more, why not try something radically different like scoring before the opposition do? That way our goal shy strikers will have a fighting chance by maybe only having to score once instead of the recently needed 2 or 3 to win a game?

2. No dumb ideas. Maybe a little rethink here about some of the positions and substitutes tried this season, i still can't work out some of them?

3. Change Little Lee? No way he's inch perfect, well he will be when the rest of the team are too!

4. Bristol Boy in to advise, definately a make or break move!

5. Ok to be frightened, yes but don't show the opposition. Tough it out and have a good cry at HT in the privacy of the dressing room!

6. Footballers write, now you are being totally unrealistic!

By the way, did anyone see GJ on the local news last night. I only caught a bit of it but he said his young players rarely watched football on tv anymore and were having to be made to do so. He said he actually had to set one of his younger Pros a project where they had to watch a given player and report back to him with his findings!!!

Good luck lads for the 2 cup games. I'm not sure I welcome the break right now as I really want to get on with the league.