Thu Jan 04, 2018 3:36 pm
STEVE EVANS MANSFIELD MANAGER:
“Cardiff are third in the Championship.”
“I know they’ve lost their last four games, but arguably you could look at those games, I looked at the QPR game and I could understand why Neil Warnock would be disappointed.”
“Neil has assembled a real squad of real quality and that’s why they’ll compete to be in the Premier League. That’s why Neil Warnock chose Cardiff over a number of clubs because he was going to get the investment to put that squad together.“I have nothing but respect for Neil, for all his staff, for Andy Dibble, who worked with me at Rotherham, and Kevin Blackwell, who I see often and the owners, I’ve got nothing but respect.
“He’ll be like a wounded animal and he won’t be frightened of telling me that when I see him on Saturday. He’s a gifted manager.
“There’s always a good time to play them because we’re in the FA Cup, we’re in the third round, the prize is huge for us, probably more for us than them because they’ve set their stall out to be in the Premier League at the end of the season. There’s never a good time to say we want to play someone but we’re looking forward to it.
“I’ve been very fortunate; I’ve got into the fifth round on a couple of occasions and had some fantastic giant-killings along the way.“It doesn’t matter where I’ve been as a manager or what players I’ve managed, in the great words of the great Bill Shankly: ‘It’s 11 v 11 men, son, that’s all it is’.
“The FA Cup is a fantastic cup competition, that doesn’t change. Do we want to win? Yes we do. Is it going to be extremely tough, whoever Neil picks? Yes it is.
“We don’t need to help Cardiff in any shape or form whatsoever. They’re already largely odds-on favourites just to deal with us and I think many people expect that to happen.”