Golby does homework on rivals Stanway Rovers

Barking boss Glen Golby says it is important to do your ‘homework’ on teams in the FA Cup, ahead of hosting Stanway Rovers in the preliminary round on Saturday.

The Essex Senior League side managed to set up the fixture against the Eastern Counties club after beating league rivals Takely 2-0 at Mayesbrook Park two weeks ago.

And Blues boss Golby knows what it takes to go far in the competition, as he reached the second round of the competition with Redbridge in 2011, before they crashed out to Crawley Town.

Golby believes he must take lessons from that successful campaign at his former club and said: “We’re going to take each game as it comes and when I got to the second round proper with Redbridge a few years ago it was because we did our homework on the big teams.

“I know it’s early in the season, but if we study our opponents hopefully we can be organised and execute the perfect game plan.

“We know how much it means to us to progress in the tournament because the money which we could earn is massive and enough to help the running of the club.

“For us the FA Cup is massive and after the result against Enfield (a 4-3 win) we can take confidence into the Stanway fixture.”

The Blues have had a great start to the season winning three games out of four in the league, while Stanway have not enjoyed such a good start in the Thurlow Nunn Premier Division with only one win in four.

However, both teams will be buoyed by the fact that the winner will face ither Edgware Town or Barton Rovers at home in the next round, a possibility that excites Golby if the Blues are able to progress.

He added: “We know that Stanway haven’t had a great start to the new season, but we also know that they finished really strong last year.

“I expect them to be very solid at the back and their midfielders are going to want to play the ball in the middle of the park.

“We also know a lot about their striker Billy Hunt, who is a threat with his left foot, so we’ll have to make sure he doesn’t get many chances.

“We know the draw for the next round has been kind to us as we’ve got a home tie, so if we can get the win at the weekend we feel confident that we can progress even further.”