As his side prepare to make their second visit of the season to Witton Albion’s Help for Heroes Stadium, Spartans keeper Conor Grant has insisted it is a chance to put things right rather than revenge that is the motivation ahead of the FA Trophy Qualifying Round match. A dubious injury time penalty scored by Albion full back Anthony Gardner condemned Spartans to a 1-2 opening day defeat on a day when Robbie Dale completed his century of goals for Spartans but former Gretna keeper Grant insists revenge is not on the agenda.
He said “I wouldn’t say revenge as such, but we gave a poor account of ourselves that day and we’re relishing the chance to put that right. Unfortunately it wasn’t our best performance. We’d have been more than happy coming away with a draw from a tough opening fixture away from home.”
He continued “That wasn’t to be as the ref decided to give a more than debatable penalty in injury time and we came away with nothing.”
Grant made his first competitive start for the club that day and has impressed so far with some notable performances between the posts for Spartans and admitted whilst he enjoys the bread and butter stuff of the league, it’s great to get into some cup football.
He commented “It’s nice to get a break from league games every now and then. Cup games have a different vibe to them and we’ll look to use that to our advantage.”
It’s a big Cup double header for Spartans this weekend with Saturday’s FA Trophy game at Witton being quickly followed by the rearranged FA Cup Second Qualifying Round replay at Workington. Grant is looking forward to both games but has one eye on the trip to Cumbria with good reason.
He said “I’m looking forward to the Workington game in particular as I used to play with a few of their lads in my youth, so it’s always good banter to compete against them and hopefully get the bragging rights. We are the underdogs and the pressure is all on them, especially with them being at home and having conceded an equaliser so late on to force the replay.”
If you can’t make it to either game updates will appear on the club’s twitter feed and on the website with match reports and reaction online within hours of the full time whistle.