United ready for another cup shock

The Waterside men go into the tie as underdogs as the Mid-Ulster men sit top of Championship Two and have only tasted defeat twice in the league this season.

Nevertheless Robinson is confident his players can raise their game again and cause that cup shock.

“Newbuildings being in the Irish Cup quarter-finals would be amazing,” admitted the boss.

“I have played with Limavady United and Cliftonville and have never got anywhere near a quarter-final, so to take a junior team to one match away from the quarter-finals in the biggest cup competition in the country, it’s things that dreams are made off.

“Even being in the last 16 is a dream and I know being in the quarter-finals has a better ring to it, but just to be in the last 16 and have got further than the likes of Glentoran, Portadown and even Institute, it’s amazing.

“We are going to be underdogs from here on in and to be honest I hope the Coagh players going into this weekend’s tie ‘saying that they are favourites’ and that will give us another wee incentive to do well to try and win the match.”

Robinson also explained how some supporters and players were a little disappointed that again they missed out on a tie against either Linfield, Cliftonville or Crusaders.

“Whenever the draw was made we were all sitting and hoping to get a big team and whenever we got Coagh or Loughgall, the heads went down for about 10 seconds and then we realised that we are in with a shout of getting through again.

“I would never have thought it in my wildest dreams that we would be 90 minutes away from a place in the Irish Cup quarter-finals, but the way the team has been playing over the past two or three months, absolutely nothing will surprise me with this squad.”

Although it’s an away tie Robinson is confident his side will have big enough support to cheer them on.

“We have two big buses full up already, there are two 24 seaters full and there is another 52 seater bus half full and there are people going up in cars.

“So I would really expect 200 from Newbuildings and we have heard that Institute community members and supporters are also coming to support us, which is fantastic.”

Earlier this week duo Ricky Lee Dougherty and Garth Falconer had the chance to move to neighbours Institute however they decided against the move, while midfielder Wesley Ferguson decided to turn down a move to this Saturday’s opponents instead opting to re-join Newbuildings, those decisions as far as Robinson is concerned shows that the club is going in the right direction.

“We have just signed Wes Ferguson back from ’Stute until the end of the season and Coagh were looking to sign him, so it’s 1-0 already to us,” joked the Newbuildings gaffer.

“Coagh were looking to sign young Wes from us before he went to ’Stute two season ago, so its good that he chose us over a Championship team to continue his career.

“There are players at the club who had a chance of going to a higher level but they want to stay and progress with our club, now if they go next year or the year after then all the best to them, but for some players to decide to stay with us now is a credit to them, that they are showing a bit of loyalty.”

Only a few weeks ago Newbuildings hammered Kesh 11-0 and Robinson felt that day no side would have been able to cope with his team and a repeat display this weekend would do nicely.

“A few weeks ago the first 30 minutes against Kesh was the best I have seen any Newbuildings side play and there has been a number of good sides over the last 20 years.

“If we play the way we played against Kesh then I have no doubt that we’ll win the match, because the way we played against them I couldn’t see any team living with us, to be honest I think the players will have to have another Kesh like performance if they want to beat Coagh.

“I also know that they will be playing under a lot more pressure against Coagh and they will be up against a team who’ll put us under pressure defensively, where as against Kesh although we played good football, we were never under pressure.”

Robinson feels his young team is good in attack and defence and he believes they’ll need to be good at both ends of the pitch this weekend.

“Our defence has been our plus side over the last few years, we haven’t let in many goals but now our attacking side is also doing well.

“In the league alone we have only let in four goals and we have scored 35 goals in our eight games and in all our 20 matches we have scored 83 so the goals are going in and they are being kept out at the back.”