Green Army called up for cup clash

After seeing his side drawn at home for the first time in this season’s FA Cup, Spartans manager Tom Wade issued a rallying call to the EVO-STIK Northern Premier League club's famous Green Army.

Conference side Altrincham will make the trip to Croft Park on the weekend of Saturday 8 November following Monday night's televised draw on the BBC and Wade wants the Lancashire outfit to know they'll be facing not just 11 players but a whole town thirsty for FA Cup success.

He said: "This isn’t just about the eleven lads in green and white who are on the pitch, or even the squad and the management. This cup tie gives us a chance to get the Green Army to Croft Park in their numbers and show Altrincham that they aren’t only having to beat the players.

"They have to get past a town and a noisy set of supporters who will help us give everything they have. This has been a good cup run but we aren’t ready to finish it yet and as a club we have to work together as players, as a club and as supporters to give our town the cup run they deserve."

A run of four consecutive away draws was finally broken when the Spartans came out of the bag first and Wade is delighted to finally return to Croft Park. "Obviously every Non-League club in the draw wanted a Football League club and we were no different," said Wade. "However, if that doesn’t happen then you want to get a home draw, which we have. It’s up to us but we know it won’t be easy. It’s two famous giant-killers battling it out and it should be a great game."

Despite Altrincham currently sitting in nineteenth place in the Conference table, Wade knows they won’t just rollover when they come to Northumberland.

He added: "Any Conference side would have been a tough draw. Their position in the league doesn’t tell the full story and we aren’t being fooled by it. They’ve beaten Braintree, Halifax and Macclesfield recently and obviously we can see they beat Barwell in the last round. It’ll be tough but we will make it just as tough for them too."

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