Keith Curle takes his first look at the Everton game
Manager Keith Curle gave his first look ahead to Sunday’s Emirates FA Cup meeting with Everton [ko 1.30pm] as the planning starts for what is going to be a big game.
“People say we play Everton at the weekend and that’s where the journey ends, but I don’t think that’s the case at all,” he said. “I see this is a chance for us to make more friends, and potentially more money, by putting in as good a performance as possible.
“I know I have good players in that dressing room so the journey could well extend beyond Sunday. It’s a game we can all look forward to and we want to make sure we know as much as we can about them so we can cause them some problems.
“The biggest challenge for me recently has been managing the distractions and making sure the players have been focused on a daily basis. The pleasing thing is that they’re a very responsive group and they take on board new challenges.
“We’ll try and do something different during the build-up but I won’t be taking them sky diving, or anything like that. I’ll think of something to give them a pleasant distraction, because by Friday and Saturday they’ll be tuning in to the jobs they have to do.”
“I’ll be watching Everton on Wednesday night and Colin West will watch them on Sunday,” he explained. “They have an U21 game on Thursday so we’ll go and have a look at that as well.
“We don’t know what type of team they will select so we want to make sure we know as much about them as possible. We’ll be looking to gain any advantage we can and we’ll only be able to do that by putting the work in beforehand.”
