Lewis Thorogood insists that his Pinchbeck United side won’t take neighbours Holbeach United lightly ahead of their FA Vase clash this weekend.
Rivals Pinchbeck and Holbeach will square off at the Sir Halley Stewart Playing Field on Saturday (3pm), with the Knights going into the game as the higher-graded side for the first time in recent history.
Joint Tigers boss Danny Clifton has billed his team as underdogs, but Thorogood – whose charges are seeking a first-ever win in the competition – doesn’t want to get involved in any mind games.
“I certainly don’t see Holbeach as underdogs,” said Thorogood. “It’s a great club and they’ve had a tough time lately.
“But we’ll treat them exactly the same as any other team we face and give them their due respect.
“Holbeach have our respect and we won’t be reading too much into their recent results, they have good players there.
“We want to progress in the FA Vase and that will be our aim. Of course, people may see us as favourites but it means nothing to us.
“It’s a great tie for both sides, hopefully the public will get behind the game and there will be a good crowd at the Sir Halley.
“We’ve had a good start to the season and we’ll look to keep that going.”
The sides drew with each other twice last season in the Uhlsport UCL Premier Division North, as Holbeach were relegated.
Tigers co-chief Clifton feels that Pinchbeck have improved markedly since they last met and reckons they will be a tough nut to crack on Saturday.
“Pinchbeck will be a huge, huge test for us,” said Clifton. “It’s fair to say they’ve improved a great deal from last season. It’s going to be difficult for us, we’re missing a lot of our forward and creative players.
“I’m trying to be pro-active and get a few players in, as it’s clear from the start of the season that we’ve not got enough depth to the squad in attack.
“I was very happy after pre-season, but we’ve had players away on holiday or picking up injuries and all of a sudden we’re looking a bit less of a threat.
“I think that, if we’re not able to add any new faces, we’ll have to go to Pinchbeck and set up to be hard to beat.
“If we can get a replay, that would be a very good result as it buys us time to get players back.
“We’re the underdogs for this one, but over pre-season we showed we can mix it with teams from the level above. They’ve got a few ex-Holbeach players there, so they’ll want to beat us.”
Clifton hopes to have Harvey Wirkowski back but is without key strikers Cal Davies and Adam Bilicz for the derby, so is actively tracking new signings.
He’s made a seven-day notice of approach for Bourne Town’s Nathan Smith, while they’re also exploring a deal to bring striker Lewis Baughan back to Carter’s Park from Yaxley.
Pinchbeck are hoping to be at full-strength again having been without a number of first team regulars at Shepshed last weekend.
The Knights are also in league action on Bank Holiday Monday when they make the trip to Skegness Town (3pm).
