Tangerines hold no fear as FA Cup journey begins

Ross Potter is adamant Diss Town hold no fear of higher-league Wisbech Town as they aim to create their own FA Cup shock tomorrow.

The world’s oldest and most famous cup competition returns with the extra preliminary round as the Tangerines make the short trip to Cambridgeshire tomorrow (3pm) to face United Counties League Premier Division outfit Wisbech, who have enjoyed a perfect start to the new season with successive wins in their two opening fixtures.

But despite the fact Diss have not progressed past this stage in the last seven seasons, and not won a game in the competition in the past nine campaigns, having started in the preliminary round in 2008, Potter is confident of overcoming their higher-league opponents and ending that poor sequence.

“We are not travelling to Wisbech to make up the numbers, that’s for certain,” he said. “Maybe last season, when the club were losing a lot of games regularly, we might have gone there expecting a difficult game but for me we shouldn’t hold any fear.

“We shouldn’t be afraid of facing Wisbech, the players are confident and so we will see how far that can take us.

“I certainly expect us to go there and give a good account of ourselves, so I don’t fear going to somewhere like Wisbech.

“It is incredibly special for the club to be involved in the competition and for me personally.

“Some of the squad have never played in the Thurlow Nunn League, let alone the FA Cup before, so it is a great opportunity for them on Saturday to cause a little shock.

“I trust my entire squad to be able to step up and so we will enjoy it.

“We are all looking forward to Saturday.”

Diss head into the encounter buoyed by an opening game victory as they overcame Dereham Town Reserves in a comfortable 2-0 success on Tuesday, courtesy of goals from Jamie George and Chris Gibbons as Potter’s tenure at Brewers Green Lane got off to the perfect start.

And while George will not be available tomorrow, Potter, who hailed his restructured squad, is aiming to build on that momentum with another victory.

“The players have settled in quicker than I expected and at the moment the cohesion and desire is fantastic to see,” he added.

“I think our class told in the second half and we ultimately took hold of the game.

“We had promising results in pre-season and so it was pleasing to keep that going in the first game of the season.

“Victory tomorrow would be massive for the whole club and obviously would allow us to continue building on that momentum.”