Lions To Silence Rovers

Martin O'Neill has called on the playrs to rise above what will be a cauldron of noise when we face Donny Rovers in the FA Cup.

Speaking on the official site O'Neill revealed he is desperate to improve the club's run of fortune in Cup competitions after disasterous performances in previous years.

'It's going to be tough. We have had a taste of this sort of clash at Gillingham. That game was exceptionally hard.

'The first thing we have to do is be alert from moment one. You have to be right and know the crowd is going to be right up for the game.

'The noise and expectation levels at the stadium will be raised and the crowd will stay with the home team throughout the game. All those things we experienced at Gillingham and we had to fight against them.

'When Gillingham equalised, you could have heard the noise in Maidstone.

'So we have to concern ourselves with those things.

'It will be a different type of game to a normal Barclays Premier League match.

'There will be more 'up and unders' played and you have to cope. But the attitude of the players is good and they want to try and win the game.

'It would be great if we could get through some rounds because our record since the club got to the final in 2000 has not been great.'

I know there has been certain comments from O'Neill about prioritising but I don't honestly think that is in his mind at the moment. It would be one thing going out of the competition to Premiership opponents, but I doubt O'Neill would want us to lose to teams such as this again.

Donny will make it hard, and it won't be easy or pretty. But isn't that the magic of the Cup?

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