Boss Chatfield is looking for Grantham Town to 'bounce back' on Saturday

Grantham Town manager Matt Chatfield has expressed his disappointment at the Gingerbreads' early exit from the FA Cup this week.

Grantham were knocked out of the competition in a First Preliminary Round replay at Rugby Town on Tuesday night, following a gripping 3-3 draw at Butlin Road on Saturday.

Chatfield said: "They [Rugby] are a good side and they've got players that are well above that level, so we knew it was going to be a test.

"For us, we should have wrapped it up in the first leg. We went down to 10 men and we've had to score late to keep us in the replay. Then on Tuesday night, the first 45 minutes we've absolutely dominated without really throwing any punches at them.

"We should have been more in their final third, should have done better there but we didn't. And then at the end, the goal they've scored, it's a hard one because he scuffed it. It's rolled under the keeper because it's took a little bobble. And it's just unfortunate how it is.

"But they worked hard and they deserved to go through to the next round. There's no complaints from us."

With Shaw, Durrell, Tyson and Miller injured, Chatfield said that this was clearly not helping matters and added that a new face or two might be necessary.

He said: "We said a few weeks ago that it's going to cost us one day, not being able to score goals, and ultimately you've got to score goals to win games.

"We've got to look at our forward option and see where we need to recruit, because I think we might need to bring a body in now, because we're still waiting on clearance for a player.

"It was going to catch up us with eventually and unfortunately it's given us an early exit in the FA Cup."

Grantham Town are back in cup action tomorrow when they visit Sutton Coldfield Town in the First Qualifying Round of the FA Trophy.

The fixture should have been at played home but the ongoing pitch repairs at The Meres have necessitated it being played at the Royals' Central Ground instead.

Sutton Coldfield were themselves knocked out of the FA Cup in their first game of the season, losing 2-0 at Romulus in the Extra Preliminary Round. Since then the Royals have had a mixed bag of wins and losses in the Northern Premier League Midlands division, in which they currently lie 10th.

Chatfield said he thought it was going to be another potentially difficult game. He said: "I trust the players that we've got, but ultimately people like Jonathan Wafula has done 25/26k in three days. The lads that are playing are absolutely dead on their feet at the moment.

"We've got to regroup because we've got a talented group of lads and I think there'll be a shock again on Saturday – but I think it will be the other way round. I think it'll shock how up for it we are because they are such a good group, they'll bounce back from this.

"It's just a small step back to hopefully move two steps forward."

+ The Gingerbreads' well-publicised woes over their crow-pecked pitch will hopefully be over in four to six weeks.

Club secretary Pat Nixon gave an update. He said: "The renovation work is now completed. It's been reseeded and we haven't had to do any watering because it's been raining.

"We've got volunteers coming in and when we need to water it, we're watering it.

"We’re just waiting for the grass to grow, basically. It’s been reseeded and then top dressed to level it all off again.

“It’ll be really good when the grass grows. We’re looking at four to six weeks, I should think.”