Lower Breck manager Gary Moore has urged his side to put last season’s FA Vase debacle behind them as they look to overcome Daisy Hill.
Breck coasted through against Swallownest and during the latter stages of that clash they introduced a player on a youth loan. Little did they know that it was illegal to do so and as a result, they were kicked out of the competition.
It compounded a nightmare start to the season for Lower Breck after trouble in their FA Cup replay with Mossley before the Vase situation.
Teams in the North West Counties like Wythenshawe Town and AFC Liverpool enjoyed runs in the Vase last season.
They face North West Counties Division One North side Daisy Hill who have won four out of five this season. The Cutters proved tricky competition for Southport last season in the Lancashire FA Challenge Trophy.
And Moore has called upon his side to be right up for it against Daisy Hill so they can kickstart their form and begin to dream about a run in the competition.
He told Off The Park: “Jim took a lot of flak on himself from that with what happened and he held his hands up.
“It was a simple clerical error, you want more help from certain areas but we are a small group, we’re not blessing with people going through rule books with a fine tooth comb but the rules are there, we broke them and got kicked out.
“We had a good group of lads last season and we felt sorry for them but it’s the same again now we’ve got a very good group and results aren’t going our way, they’re a group of lads who can go as far as they want in this competition.
“You’ve got two winners there, been to Wembley, these aren’t old heads, old yard dogs they’ve been there, they know the feeling of getting there and doing it.
“It’s the one cup we can win, the FA Cup you’re not going to win it, we wanted a good run but we didn’t get it but this is the one you can go far in it. We’ve had a mini taste but if you look at AFC last season, Wythenshawe, so near so far.
“We’ve got to put in a massive performance to make sure we have a run in this competition, we know who we could play if we overcome Daisy Hill but they won’t be an easy side, good group of lads, good players – I like one or two of them. It won’t be easy but we’ve got to put last season to bed and there’s no better game to put in a performance.”
Despite their win over Burscough last Thursday, Lower Breck couldn’t follow it up against Irlam and Northwich Victoria, suffering back-to-back 2-0 defeats.
But for Moore, Tuesday’s performance against Vics was better than their home disappointment.
He continued: “Irlam at home wasn’t good enough, simply wasn’t good enough. Coming on the back of the win on Thursday night against Burscough, for 60 minutes it was an evenly matched game and then we clicked and showed how good a football side we could be.
“We basically said they’re the patterns we’ve been working on, push the lads to play more of and we hoped we’d take it into Saturday but we didn’t, it was a poor, poor performance. Certainly not panic stations but it wasn’t pretty. We tried to be laid back and not give them too much information, just let’s get back to basics and play our football.
“We were good, we were really really good, we got into the 18-yard box and final third more than any previous game this season but they threw bodies on the line, their goalkeeper made one or two saves but we got in them areas.
“Unfortunately, they went down the channel, our player has dived in and the lads just rolled him, the second goal was switching off from a throw-in. Theo in goal has made two exceptional saves but same again, when your lucks not in and that’s what we’re facing at the minute, it’s not falling for us – even in the good moments.
“So many positives against Northwich but so many negatives from Saturday but 2-0, 2-0 is not good.
“When lads shirk responsibility then questions need to be asked but we didn’t do that, there was a good reaction to going one down then two.
“At 2-0 down we still looked to play, had a little go, pushing. We just have to follow that on and if we do not repeat that performance on Saturday then questions will be asked but the lads have showed what’s inside.
“It’s a tough period, we’ve just played Thursday, Saturday, Tuesday and we’re going to play Saturday and Monday – the team we play on Monday won’t have played in 10 days and we’d have played five games in that period. Saturday’s massive, a massive FA Vase game, the lads will be up for it.”
