It’s United Counties League Cup action for Hinckley AFC this weekend as they head to Clipstone hoping to become the first team this season to prevent their hosts from winning.
Chris Tullin takes his squad to Nottinghamshire looking to make progress in the competition in which Hinckley have reached the quarter-finals in each of the last two seasons.
He will hope for improvement on the first half display at Belper United last week but will have availability issues once again. Jacob Shilton and Matt Brown have both departed, Drew Kear picked up a knock last week, Danny Fraser has been recalled by Coventry United and Charlie Williams and Dan Edmonds are both away.
On the plus side, Zach Tellyn and Gabe Webster will come back into the squad while Tullin has also added Shaun Watkins, a midfielder who has two years of step five experience with Highgate United.
The opposition
Clipstone have had a flying start to the campaign in Division One – six games, six wins, 15 goals scored and only three conceded as they sit top of the early-season table.
They finished 16th last season but have added well to their squad over the summer – including Tim Gregory, who hit 31 goals for Clay Cross Town in the UCL North last season.
Drew Allwood, who helped Retford United to promotion to step five last term, is their leading scorer with eight goals and he bagged a hat-trick in their latest win on Saturday when they came from behind to beat Gedling Miners Welfare 3-1.
From the dressing room
“We’re under no illusions that it’ll be tough – they’re six from six so this is one they’ll be riding high for. But we’ll expect to perform at a level we should be, and we’ll put in the effort and hard work to get a positive result – but we’ll need to be at our best.
“Any time you play in a cup you want to go out and win it – we want to progress forward and put a performance on that’s 10x what we showed on Saturday. They’re our expectations and those of the players themselves.”
Chris Tullin
Key information
Clipstone play at The Lido Ground, Clipstone Road East, Clipstone, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, NG21 9AB.
