Torquay United are THE glamour tie in the FA Cup

Unless you reside in the top half of the Premier League, the FA Cup is all about the dream of bagging a ‘glamour tie’ in the later round, while earning a few quid in prize money along the way.

This weekend, Torquay United are the glamour opponent for Southern League hosts Bishops Cleeve, and manager Paul Wotton is fully expecting his players to demonstrate the right attitude in pursuit of victory.

“It is a real cliché answer but Saturday is a game of football we want to win and, of course, everyone dreams of getting as far as they can and earning the big glamour tie,” said Wotton.

“Ultimately, however we play on Saturday, we need to make sure we’re in the draw on Monday. It is a game of football we want to win.

“We knew we would be the glamour tie for another club in this round of the competition and it is a pure mentality game, and if we go there with the wrong mindset, we will have a long afternoon.

“As a footballer, 80% is mentality and 20% ability. If you’ve got it the other way around, you won’t make it, so I can’t emphasise enough how important it is for players to have the right mentality, the right attitude.”

As a player, the FA Cup was not overly kind to Wotton, watching from the sidelines when Argyle reached the quarter-finals in 2007.

While his personal memories of the competition could be better, the immediate focus for United is to recover from Saturday’s frustrating loss at Welling in the league.

“I haven’t got many great memories from the FA Cup, I wasn’t too successful in my playing career,” said Wotton. “We got to the quarter-finals under Ian Holloway at Plymouth but I was injured at the time after doing my cruciate.

“We played against Watford and lost 1-0 but I wasn’t part of that team due to injury, and there wasn’t much else to write home about.

“We should have won the game at Welling on Saturday and the boys have to learn from that. It is not a nice feeling to lose games of football. I’ve been involved in the game all my life and you never get over that feeling of a defeat.

“You have to take that disappointment as fuel for the next game.”