Whilst building up to United’s clash with Boreham Wood tomorrow evening, Gary Johnson gave his reaction to Monday’s FA Cup 4th Round Qualifying draw, which saw his side given a home tie with Havant & Waterlooville.
“It’s a local derby, as local derbies go,” began the Gaffer.
“It’s good to be at home, as we wouldn’t have had a home game for a little while, and it will be a tight game. There’s no easy games in the FA Cup, and I’m always pleased when we don’t get a team from our own division. Paul Doswell has had good success at our level with Sutton, and when it comes around, we’ll look forward to it, and be ready for it.”
With United aiming for a fourth-successive appearance in Round 1 under his tenure, the Gulls boss will be looking to replicate the result his previous team, Cheltenham Town, achieved at this stage of the competition in 2015/16, when a goal from Danny Wright proved enough to secure a 1-0 win.
Johnson is sure that the Yellow Army will once again embrace the occasion once it arrives.
“The Havant & Waterlooville game will be a real good game for our supporters, because it will be competitive, and I’m sure they will be bring a few. You’ve got the prize of going into the first round proper, and I’d love to go The Stadium of Light to play Sunderland – that won’t be the FA Cup, that’ll be the ‘Johnson Cup’.”
Prior to that though, Torquay will be looking to build on Saturday’s superb showing against Wealdstone, with a tough test at Meadow Park to face 4th-placed Boreham Wood.
“We’re going there under no illusion that we’ve just got to turn up, we’ve got to play to the standard that we’ve been playing the last couple of weeks, and it’d be nice to keep our unbeaten run of three going.
“I’m pleased we didn’t get them in the FA Cup again, you don’t want to be playing someone three, or four times a season.”