Fakenham Town boss is wary of underdogs

Fakenham boss Wayne Anderson has warned his side not to under-estimate their lower league opponents in this Saturday’s Norfolk Senior Cup Third Round tie.

The Ghosts travel to Anglian Combination Premier Division strugglers Hempnall and will be favourites to progress to the last eight of the competition.

Anderson, however, will warn his team to be on their guard: “We drew Sheringham last season and beat them in a tough game so we know it’s going to be hard,” he said. “When you’re a Ridgeons League side and you’re playing an Anglian Combination side they always seem to roll their sleeves up and really knuckle down against you.

“It’s going to be a hard test for us, but if we do what we’ve been doing, getting the ball down and playing I think we should be okay.”

Fakenham will once again be without leading scorer Rory Harper because of work commitments, but Anderson is keen to see other players contributing goals.

“Rory is a big loss to us,” the manager admitted. “But you can’t rely on just one goalscorer. We need goals from elsewhere in the team. The midfielders need to score and I’ve got five or six big lads who go up for corners, so we need to start scoring from those situations as well.”

The Ghosts are waiting on the fitness of midfielder James Bamford, who injured his thigh while playing in a charity match at Fakenham on Sunday.

Anderson also revealed that he hopes to bring in some new faces in the near future: “I’m looking at a couple of signings which I think will just shake it up a little bit,” he said.

“We don’t need it in terms of team spirit, but when I look at the two or three teams above us in the league, I think we can overtake them if we just add a little bit more quality to our squad.”