Wood manager Luke Garrard explained why the Emirates FA cup is a special competition, ahead of our tie against Dagenham and Redbridge at Meadow Park (3pm).
The Wood enjoyed a great run in the FA Cup last season, before eventually succumbing to Coventry City away and Garrard asserted that he wants to create another memory for himself and the club.
“I remember all of the FA Cups before Sky and BT Sports came in,” he began. “You used to watch them on your TV, channels one to five.
“You would sit around with your dad, your uncle, your brothers and watch the game, you make a day of it. When you are a kid and you watch it on the TV, it is an illustrious cup competition, it is huge.
“I have played in it and I have suffered the heartache of Carlisle away and the upset of Brentford at home with the club.
“So, to achieve what we did last year was massive and to beat a league club for the first time out 70-year history and to be the first manager to do that, it was massive.
“I want to achieve history again for this football club, it is something that I really want to do, and Saturday is the start of that.”
Dagenham and Redbridge come into the game on the back of five consecutive defeats in the National League, last winning away to Barrow 1-0.
The Wood on the other hand, ended their run of four defeats with a 3-1 win at home against Maidenhead United.
“The form guide goes out of the window,” Garrard continued. “It doesn’t matter if we’ve won eight on the bounce and they’ve lost eight on the bounce, or vice-versa, it’s the FA Cup.
“League status goes out the window. Yeah, they’re sitting in and around bottom of the table, but it’s a welcome distraction for them and they can use this as a catalyst to get their season going.
“We are no fools, we know how big it is Saturday and what it means to this football club, and like the Chairman says, it is about the glory.”
