Newton relishes possible Villa clash
Wednesday 24th February 2010, 1:29PM GMT.
Assistant boss Eddie Newton has admitted Albion are excited at the possibility of an FA Cup quarter-final showdown with local rivals Villa.
The teams will lock horns in a last-eight local derby if they win their replays tonight with Albion playing Reading at The Hawthorns and Villa entertaining Crystal Palace.
Assistant head coach Newton said: “We don’t like to look too far ahead, obviously, and we know that we need to focus and beat Reading first, but everyone at the club has got half an eye on a game against Aston Villa in the next round.
“If we both win our replays, I think that will be a great game. We’re both good footballing sides, it will be a keenly contested derby and it will be played at a high intensity, and I know our boys are keen to mix it with a Premier League side because that’s where we’re aiming to get to for next season.
“Everyone wants to do well in The FA Cup and if we can get through our replay against Reading, we all feel we’ve got a good chance.
“We’re doing well in the League and we’d like to match that with a Cup run, because it’s good to maintain a winning mentality.”
And Newton is aiming for a better start tonight to the one they had at the Madejski Stadium, when the Royals netted after just nine seconds.
He said: “It was disappointing to concede such a quick goal in the original match at the Madejski.
“But we recovered well and it shows how far we’ve come, because in the early part of the season we would have tried to force the issue by playing silly balls and probably making mistakes, but we stuck to the game plan and the boys showed that they really believed that they could pull it back.
“In fact, we said afterwards that at one stage we could only see ourselves winning the match, but unfortunately it wasn’t to be.
“However, lately the boys have been really positive about what they are doing and we’re hoping to continue that in the replay.”
UK Sport
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