FA Vase Interview With Assistant Manager Graeme Gee

Big match coming up this Saturday with the last 16 of the FA Vase game at 1874 Northwich. What are your thoughts going into the game?

We'll go up there. We'll be confident. We'll try and stamp our authority on the game but we know there's a huge task ahead of us. We've had reports telling us just how strong they are. Their league position doesn't really tell a lot. I think by the end of the season they'll be challenging for the league title. They've made a few signings in the last month, so we know we have got a massive task ahead of us but we put faith in the players we've got at the club and we'll go up there and try our very best to get a result whether that's victory or a draw. But we're under no allusions about how huge a game it is, not just for the club but for the people of Chichester who come and support us and hopefully we can do them proud. I believe we've probably done a little bit better than we anticipated. To get to the last sixteen is a credit to all the players and staff at the club and I'm really pleased for the people behind the scenes that go unnoticed like Nigel the groundsman, the girls that work behind the bar, the gate-person and others. And it's good to get a little bit of coverage in the national press and at the moment Chichester's a good place to be.

And will you approach this game any differently?

We'll travel a day earlier about mid-day and get the lads settled into the hotel. It's no big deal, it's just another game but obviously there's a significance on it because a lot of people haven't been this deep in the competition. I imagine there might be a few nerves kicking around but we'll prepare them as well as we can. We'll have something to eat in the hotel Friday night and travel down to Wincham on Saturday afternoon for the game.

And you go into the game in good form after five wins on the spin now since Boxing Day.
And there's some confidence in the team and you've got some good young players that have been involved in recent weeks.

We've got a good crop of youngsters coming through that we try and blood in the side every now and then. As for form, Boxing Day is now a distant memory. For one, I personally didn't get too upset at the result. Yes, it was a massive blow for everyone concerned at the club but I've been around football long enough to know that things can change massively in football from one week to the next. So yes we did get beat 5-0 and Pagham did deservedly win that game. But it's been and gone. There wasn't nine points up for grabs that day. They took the three and fair play to them. But since then we've done ok. We've won a few cup games and we're in a league position where we'd like to be sitting and so if our squad's deep enough only time will tell. We're still fighting on three or four fronts and we can't ask for more really entering February.