TNS have done their homework for Guilsfield clash

Saints face Guilsfield, who are third in the JD Cymru North, in a quarter-final tie at Park Hall tomorrow (2.30pm).

There’s a number of connections between the clubs, including Nathan Leonard, the Guilsfield manager, who is an academy coach at TNS, while Jason Brindley, the head of academy at Saints, is also a coach at Guilsfield.

Former Saints players Greg Draper, the club’s record goalscorer, and Tom Holland are now part of the Guilsfield squad while TNS recently allowed young defender Morgan Daykin to join Guilsfield on loan.

Anthony Limbrick, the TNS head coach, said: “For a number of reasons, we probably know a fair bit about them compared to maybe if we played another team in this scenario in a different league because their manager coaches in our academy.

“We’ve got another coach there who works in the academy as well, we’ve loaned a player out there recently, Morgan Daykin, who’s played a couple of games. We’ve got another one of our ex-players who’s played for them before, or two of them, so in terms of knowing them, we do know a fair bit about them.

“It doesn’t make it easier as well though because you can’t get as much footage as you would do of a Cymru Prem team normally.

“But we’ve managed to get a bit of that also, so we’ll be as planned and prepared as we normally are.”

Limbrick, whose side were 4-1 winners in their most recent league match at Cefn Druids last Friday night, added: “We’re very serious about this competition, we’re the holders in this competition, we want to win this game and get through. There’s no other way to look at it.

“I think it doesn’t matter where the teams are in the league or where they sit, this will be a tough test.

“They do have some attacking threats and a good long throw set play that I’m sure they’ll be using against us, so we’ve done our research on that.

“We’ve prepared for that and making sure that we do a good account of ourselves and get the basics right in the game, I think, is really important.

“But we’re preparing for Guilsfield as if we were preparing for any other game and treating it as serious for sure.”