Proud Day for the Club
By Gary Hill

Wednesday 2nd November 2005

THE trip to Nottingham Forest is a proud day for Weymouth Football Club.

Visiting the City Ground is an occasion our fans are likely to remember for the rest of their lives.

Reaching the first round of the FA Cup was very pleasing for me because, as I've often been told since I arrived at the club in March, the last time Weymouth reached the first round was in 1985.

For a club of this size and potential, those 20 years have been a long, long wait but now we're there we should savour it and give it our best shot.

The reaction around the town since the draw was made has been incredible and underlines just how much potential the club has.

Before we played Cambridge United in the fourth qualifying round, I remember thinking about potential opponents if we got through.

Apart from a home tie with local rivals Yeovil, Forest would have been the best possible draw in terms of playing big-name clubs.

When the draw was made, I was down in our dressing room and away from any television or radio.

A giant roar suddenly erupted and it was clear we had got a big club.

A few minutes later I realised we were off to Forest.

I've been fortunate enough to have enjoyed FA Cup success before in my managerial career and know what a cup run can do for a club and a community.

While at Dagenham and Redbridge, we enjoyed a number of runs to the third and fourth rounds.

In that time, we were giantkillers along the way with a couple of highlights being a draw away at Premiership Charlton Athletic before we narrowly lost the replay.

Another big tie came at Norwich City, who were also riding high at that time, when we lost 1-0 to a late goal.

Those games were great days and are occasions I want to repeat at Weymouth.

Forest are obviously clear favourites to win, but all I'll say to any doubters is: Don't write us off.

We've got a lot of good, experienced players and we'll certainly be going up there in a positive frame of mind.

I'm confident we can, at the very least, give a good account of ourselves and earn some credibility.

But whatever happens on Saturday, we then go back to the bread and butter of the Conference South league.

Although the Forest game is important, it's those upcoming league games that are my main priority.

My goal is for us to win promotion this season and hopefully after Saturday, we'll be celebrating again next May.