Johnnie Jackson and Jake Reeves are eager to build on our impressive performances in knockout competitions when League One Cheltenham Town visit tomorrow.
Having seen off Championship opposition in Coventry City back in August, we then gave Premier League Chelsea a scare at Stamford Bridge before exiting the Carabao Cup. Attention now turns to the prestigious Emirates FA Cup, football’s oldest competition.
You can see an extensive interview with Johnnie Jackson and Jake Reeves below, along with a summary of the key points.
“The FA Cup is really important to this club,” said Johnnie, “It’s another opportunity for us to get another scalp. It’s not a Championship team, like Coventry, but it is a team in a higher division. They’ll be expecting to win, and we’ll be expecting to beat them. It’s a great test for my team.
“It’s come at a great time, a little reset at a third of the way through the season, and a chance to focus on a different type of competition which is knockout football.”
“I wouldn’t expect it to be cagey, that’s not our style,” said Jake. “We are going to get up and at 'em – no matter who it is, no matter what competition or what level they play at. It doesn’t matter to us. We don’t really change our style and that’s what we’ll be looking to do.”
Johnnie, Cheltenham have had some unwanted attention with regards their start to the season, but under Darrell Clarke now they’ll perhaps think they’ve turned a corner with recent results?
They didn’t score for a long time, but Darrell went in there and they’ve had a reaction. They’ve won two out of their last three games and they’ve started to score. The timing of that is not brilliant, but as Jake has said – we concentrate on us. It’ll be about what we do.
Jake, I think we’re approaching a landmark of 150 appearances for the club over three spells for you soon. How much will that mean to you?
I didn’t know! I didn’t know that I was coming up close, to be honest. It’s massive. To play over a hundred games for any club is huge, it shows that I must have been doing well under a couple of managers to be playing. Over three different stints, it’ll be nice to make that 150 mark and hopefully there will be many more.
Your midfield partner Armani Little scored again last week, are we due another special from you soon – like against York City in 2016?!
That would be nice! I don’t think that type of goal will happen too often! The style that we play – everyone has different roles and different jobs, and it depends on how close in you get to shooting distances, as the gaffer has touched on, we’re getting into some really good areas. We’re a little bit wasteful at the moment, but we’re working on that.
Johnnie, the young Dons showed us the way in the FA Youth Cup this week. It was a great moment for Justin Clarke to come up with the winner and you were here to see it.
It was great for the young boys. I went down and saw them after the game, and Simon Clark as well – I’m delighted for him because I know how much hard work, he puts in. It was great to see them celebrate the way that they did, and I look forward to watching them in the next round now.
What sort of shape are we in and what team news do you have for tomorrow?
Really good. We’ve got a lot of competition for places. There are players that think they should be playing and expect to play. Just because it’s the FA Cup, doesn’t mean that you make wholesale changes.
Next Tuesday night will be a good opportunity to utilise the squad, but we want to go into this game as strong as we possibly can. The boys who missed out on last Saturday’s trip probably won’t make it, but you can name nine substitutes for the FA Cup which does give you a broader selection process.