A cup run would be just what 'The Doc' ordered as City aim to keep on the winning road

Fri 6 Nov 09

City defender Gary Doherty is banking on the Canaries' winning mentality seeing them through tomorrow's FA Cup trip to non-league minnows Paulton Rovers.

The back-in-favour centre-half has said that with City in such good form – with six wins from their last seven – they should have nothing to fear about tomorrow's banana skin first round tie.

And although he admitted that the eighth-tier outfit will put them under the cosh, especially in the opening moments, Doherty has every confidence in Paul Lambert's reborn outfit.

"We've just got to go there, do our job, and hopefully having the better players will see us through," he told the press at Colney yesterday.

"This will be the lowest team I've played against but we've just got to go and enjoy it – it's going to be a great occasion.

"The cameras will be looking for a giant killing. You know that in the first weekend of the FA Cup there are always going to be giant killings going on all over the place – we've just got to make sure we're not one of them.

"We're full of confidence at the minute because things are going well but we've got to prepare properly to get the right result.

"You don't want to imagine losing. Because we've been winning all the time lately, we've got a winning mentality. Imagining losing doesn't come into it."

Some clubs have, in the past, seen the FA Cup as a distraction with promotion the be all and end all. Steve Coppell at Reading didn't hide the fact that he would play weakened sides to keep his league XI as fresh as possible.

But Doherty believes that the two can go hand in hand. And the former Luton man sees a cup run as the perfect boost to City's promotion push.   Part 2 >>