In-form Robins set for FA Trophy (From Your Local Guardian)

In-form Robins set for FA Trophy

1:37pm Thursday 8th December 2011 in Carshalton Athletic By Nick Gentry

Carshalton Athletic boss Paul Dipre would have loved to have emulated neighbours Sutton United and land a money-spinning cup tie when the draw was made for this weekend’s FA Trophy first round.

The Robins though had to make do with a home tie against Conference North side Bishop’s Stortford, who might be a league above but are unlikely to draw the kind of gate Sutton experienced against League One Notts County in the FA Cup second round on Sunday.

“Ideally, you try to wish for an easy draw or playing Luton away,” said Dipre.

“So I either want to get through to the next round easily or I want to get a big team and be potential giant killer.

“If you get to a situation where you are playing against big clubs or you’ve got televised games like our lovely neighbours Sutton it is absolutely mega – and good on them.

“I just hope that we get that little bit of luck in the next few years.

“Bishop’s Stortford isn’t a bad draw, I saw them play against Tonbridge and although they lost I actually thought they were the better team. They are very fast, penetrate through their speed up front and in midfield and play good football so it will be a close game.”

The Robins go into the game as the form side having stretched their unbeaten run to 12 games in all competitions with a 3-0 win over Wingate & Finchley on Saturday, thanks to goals from Dean McDonald, Sonny Ayres and Luke Nolan.

After a difficult start to the campaign, Carshalton seem to have finally clicked but there is still room for improvement as far as Dipre is concerned.

“Consistency is the holy grail of success at this level of football and I’m pleased we have put a decent run together,” he said.

“We are becoming hard to beat, which is important, but we are still starting many matches too slowly.

“We have to learn to play the game at a tempo we control, as we have had to haul ourselves back into matches from going a goal behind too often.”

Carshalton are set to include Tony Finn and Craig Tanner on the bench after they both recovered from knocks.