Twice a finalist, Argyle Head Coach Tom Cleverley is a fan of the FA Cup.
This Saturday, the Greens kick off their Emirates FA Cup campaign with a home game against Alvechurch of the Southern Premier Division, nearly 100 places below Argyle in the pyramid.
Cleverley, and any reasonably football literate, will know that while shocks do not often happen – otherwise, they would not be called shocks – but the fact that they occasionally do happen renders Saturday’s encounter one that his side have to be on alert about.
The Pilgrim's last two seasons have been rather polar opposite in FA Cup terms. Twelve months ago, Argyle lost to Wycombe Wanderers on a rather dismal afternoon. The season before, starting the campaign in the third round, the Greens knocked out Premier League sides Brentford and Liverpool, before losing to Manchester City.
“It's a special cup, and it'll be one that will be taken very seriously from our perspective,” Cleverley told Argyle TV.
“I'm totally aware of the season before I came, how special that run was: Brentford, Liverpool, Manchester City. With my mentality, you never approach any cup competition thinking ‘let's have a big day out’. You approach it to win.
“However unlikely it may feel that you'd go all the way, you want to win every game that you approach. We want to improve last year's league points tally. We want to improve last year's FA Cup run. We're all excited by the opportunity, the thought of having a cup run and that will definitely be mirrored in our approach, team and application.
“Days like Saturday are special, where teams that are four or five leagues apart can compete; where Alvechurch can come and play in front of 10,000 supporters, a really established Football League ground.
“We've got to approach the game like we would any other, control what we can control, be aggressive, be intense.
“The game they played in the previous round against Spalding, they had a great result, 4-0 against a team from a level above, and scored some great goals in that game. We also have to respect that it's going to be a slightly different version of them that arrives here.
“It's a huge occasion for them. They'll probably give everything 10, 20% more in duels, running. I think we can lean back on our experiences in pre-season against [Plymouth] Parkway and against Bath.
“I freshened up on the level last week; I went to watch Parkway against Gloucester. The preparation has been slightly different. I think we have to respect what version of them will turn up and we have to match that.
“There'll be a team selection to mirror our mentality of how serious we're taking this. They're an opponent who, in their own respective league, are doing well. They're in the top six. They've only lost one in nine.
“It’s two teams who don't really like losing, and we’ll be doing everything we can to make sure that doesn't happen on Saturday.”
Malachi Boateng came on as a substitute for Argyle in last Saturday’s game against Reading, returning after around 10 weeks out of action. The midfielder is ready to play further minutes in this game, and he is likely to be joined by Michael Baidoo and Owen Oseni, both of whom have had extended periods on the sidelines.
“We're excited about having Malachi available to be back from the start,” said Tom. “Then we've got Michael [Baidoo] and Owen Oseni back in the squad, available to play some part of the game, which is really two exciting players for us when it comes to attacking.
“Michael brings us real quality, speed. Owen Oseni - penetration, good finishing. They also bring us a dynamic of being able to freshen that area of the pitch up towards the end of games. They bring that freshness, competition to that area of the pitch.”
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You can watch Tom Cleverley's Alvechurch preview on Argyle TV, in full, here.
