“A lot of times you see managers pick lesser teams in the cups, but our manager named a strong one. He said to me before the game: We want to go out there and win and see how far we can get. It’s not like the Championship when you are playing Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday. You usually only play once a week in the Premier League, so it’s not as if you need to rest players. The players are happy with that - we want to play. He didn’t have to rest anyone because we don’t have another game for a week. In the past some players may have looked to have this weekend off after the busy period. It certainly wouldn’t happen now. Everybody wants to play and is pleased to be picked - that wasn’t always the case.
“We have a good group of lads here and everyone wants the same thing. We all work hard and we are friends on and off the pitch, as you can tell from the football we try to play. OK, results haven’t always gone great for us recently but at the same time we are playing good football. Not many teams score too many goals past us. I lifted the Championship trophy last season and would love to lift the Cup. It will be tough. A lot of teams want to win it and will fancy their chances. But you never know - we could get another lower-league team at home in the next round and who know what happens after that.”