Appleton's respect for FA Cup

Michael Appleton says he will pick a strong side against Bowers & Pitsea out of respect for their opponents and the magic of the Emirates FA Cup.

The Imps manager is likely to make a few changes to his starting line-up, but is not expecting to make wholesale alterations against the Isthmian League side.

He said: “I’ve had this scenario a couple of times as a manager and we don’t want to be one of those headlines in the back of the papers on Sunday morning. We’ll be going out there to make sure that doesn’t happen.

“There will be a couple of changes to freshen it up, the three games in quick succession took its toll against Shrewsbury. It’ll be an opportunity for some players but it won’t be ridiculous, we’ll pick a team we think can win.

“All the cup competitions have been good to me one way or the other, every team I’ve picked has been on the basis to win it not just give players a game.”

City’s approach to the tie is epitomised by the opposition research produced by first-team analyst Jake Dayus ahead of the game being to the same level put together for a Sky Bet League One fixture.

Appleton added: “They’ve got the structure of a side we think will be hard to beat, and they’ll be full of confidence after a good result against Aldershot in the previous round.

“They will cause us problems at some point, but I like to think we can start the game professionally and the quality in our side will see us through. They’ve got a good long throw which they’ll look to use as a weapon, and have some big lads in the team for set-pieces and their left-back has a real cultured left-foot for deliveries - we can’t allow him to put the ball into dangerous areas.”

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