‘We will have a go’ – Brantham boss Brothers on Suffolk Premier Cup tie at Stow
Head over heels! Brantham Athletic's player-manager Michael Brothers celebrates a goal. Picture: ELLA BAILEY PHOTOGRAPHY - Credit: Archant
Bang-in-form Brantham Athletic will travel to Stowmarket Town for their Turners Hyundai Suffolk Premier Cup quarter-final tie at Greens Meadow with ‘no fear’ this evening.
Although both teams play in the Thurlow Nunn League Premier Division, Stowmarket remain undefeated after 28 league fixtures and are one of the favourites to win this season's Suffolk Premier Cup.
Two of Stowmarket's 23 league wins so far this season have been against Brantham - a 3-0 success at home and an even more emphatic 5-0 victory away at the Brantham Leisure Centre, both in the first month of the season.
But Michael Brothers' young side are in a rich vein of form right now, after winning eight of their last 10 league fixtures to lift themselves into sixth spot in the table, level on points with fifth-placed Wroxham.
The Blue Imps defeated Wroxham 2-1 at the Leisure Centre on Saturday to maintain their momentum ahead of the cup-tie.
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The match is a repeat of the last-eight meeting between the two teams at the same stage of the competition 12 months ago at Greens Meadow.
Brantham led for most of the match before two late Stowmarket goals saw the home team register a 2-1 victory to set up a semi-final meeting with Felixstowe & Walton United, which they subsequently lost 3-0.
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Brantham's player-manager Michael Brothers said: 'Stowmarket dominated us in the two league games, but the form we are in we will go there with a young team with no fear.
'We have lost a couple of players, which is a shame, but we will go and have a go.'
Brothers, who won't be involved as he is suffering from tight calf muscles, added: 'It may give the lads that were here last season that extra bit of motivation to win as they feel they owe them one.
'A lot of their squad have played at Portman Road before, unlike my players who are two wins away from playing there, so we may catch them unawares.'
Joss Neale, who scored both goals in Saturday's win before hobbling off injured is unavailable, and Stefan Mallardo is cup-tied, having already played for Whitton United in this season's competition.
