FA Cup
Brett Agnew says Bridlington Town have nothing to lose in tonight’s huge FA Cup first qualifying round replay with Atherton Collieries at Queensgate.
Brid will head into battle knowing a second qualifying round home tie against struggling Witton Albion is the prize.
Beating Atherton would be an upset but Agnew hopes his men can seize the moment and pull off a memorable FA Cup victory.
“I said to the lads at the weekend ‘this is a free hit for us’,” Agnew told Non League Yorkshire.
“We weren’t expected to win with them being from the league above.
“But we need to perform in the way I know we can perform and take the ascendancy.
“It is obviously key to have home advantage when they are travelling such a long way in the week.
“Hopefully it all falls into our favour and we can go one step further and take the win.
“We’re still the underdogs.
“We have confidence that we can beat them on the balance of the performance at the weekend but they might have had an off-game?
“You never know?
“You look back at Saturday and yeah it was that we got back into it but it was one of them games where you think ‘we had them on the ropes’.
“If we had had more composure in the final third then maybe we could have nicked it.”
Brid recovered from a disastrous start to claim their replay against NPL Premier Division side Atherton.
The Seasiders conceded after just conceded but rallied to equalise through Jack Bulless in the 67th minute and Agnew was pleased with the battling display.
“It was a difficult fixture when we have beaten in all four games in the league and you go 1-0 down after 30 seconds,” he said.
“I’d just finished shaking the other manager’s hand and I turned round and they’d scored.
“I thought ‘here we go again’.
“The lads showed brilliant character and it was a real gritty performance.
“They didn’t cause us many problems in the first half, it was more down to our own doing by not clearing our lines properly.
“We had a chance to nick a goal before half-time but we came out for the second half and we were the better team for 30 minutes.
“We obviously got our goal and then (Atherton) had to push for it being the home team and being in the league above.
“For the last 15 minutes it was like a game of tennis.
“We attack, they attack, we attack, they attack.
“We could have nicked and they could have nicked it but on the balance of the game it was probably a fair result.”
Agnew also hopes if Brid can pull off an upset that it is a springboard for a turnaround in their league form.
Brid have lost all four games so far in the Division One East.
“It has been a tough start to the league but we know we’re not far off and if we keep working and perfecting the things that aren’t working, we won’t be far off,” he said.
“If we win tonight it will be massive for the club, not just financially but also from a confidence point of view as well.”
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