Accrington Stanley boss John Coleman sees no reason why 'David' can't beat 'Goliath' this weekend as Leeds United head to the Wham Stadium. The League One side know they're the underdogs heading into the FA Cup Fourth Round.
Boss Coleman told the PA news agency: “People aren’t expecting a lot of us. We’re playing against a team two leagues above us, in the Premier League, who dismantled Cardiff.
“So we know what they can do to a team – we also know Cardiff managed to score four goals against them, so that should give us a little bit of heart, and the fact we know Crawley knocked them out a couple of years ago can also give you heart.
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“We’re under no illusions, we’re playing against a top team, we’ve got to be at our very, very best and then need a lot of luck – and that happens in football. It’s happened to us and for us, so there’s no reason why it can’t happen again.
“We do believe we can do it. You could lose sleep if you worried about their good players, but we’ve got to try to get our good players playing. And we know we’ve got attributes that possibly they haven’t got, and that will be the key if we can cause an upset.
“It’s a potential David v Goliath, but we have to take it as it is – 90 minutes against a team who’ve only got 11, same as us.
“They’ll be on a lot more money and technically better equipped. We get that. But our players have big hearts, you can never fault their attitude or hunger, and we’ve got to hope that comes to the fore.”
Coleman, who has been in charge of the League One side for more than 20 years across two spells, says this weekend against Jesse Marsch's side will be a thank you to supporters where “we haven’t given them too many highs, less than we normally do.” The League One side has history of cup upsets, beating then-Premier League side Burnley in the League Cup in 2016, and FA Cup fourth-round appearances in 2019, 2017 and 2010, when Accrington lost 3-1 at home to Fulham.
Coleman recalls: “(Fulham boss at the time) Roy Hodgson didn’t let the players use the changing rooms because they weren’t fit for habitation, and I laughed because they only had to come once – we were there every other week, so we knew how bad they were!”
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