The FA Cup beckons tomorrow and Jo Kuffour aims to inspire a magical run to echo last season’s heroics - starting by ending Bristol Rovers’ Bournemouth jinx.
Kuffour returns to his old club and is looking forward to putting one over his former colleagues as the Pirates seek to confine to history an appalling run of results against the Cherries.
Rovers, who reached the quarter-finals of last year’s FA Cup, have been drawn against Bournemouth in four out of the last five cup competitions throughout all levels of the club.
The south-coast side knocked the Pirates out of the FA Cup 1-0 in a first-round clash at the Fitness First Stadium in 2003 and took the club to a second-round replay in the 2006/07 competition.
Before Bournemouth’s relegation last season they beat Rovers twice in League One (2-1 at home and 2-0 at the Memorial Stadium) and knocked them out of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy 1-0 at the Mem, a feat they repeated this year on the south coast with a 3-0 margin of victory.
Kuffour intends to change this. “It will be nice to go back and see a load of old friends and hopefully get one over on them,” he said.
“I wasn’t surprised, I knew it was a banker to have happened out of all the teams we could have got. Suprise, suprise, it was Bournemouth.
“They seem to be a bit of a bogey team so hopefully we can put things right on Saturday.”
Bristol Rovers coach Paul Trollope described the 3-0 JPT Cup defeat in September as the worst performance in a long time.
Kuffour had only just signed for Rovers and didn’t travel with the squad but was able to witness the fall out and the subsequent return to form. “I heard Bournemouth did really well,” he said. “But we’ve put a good run together since then.”
His own FA Cup high point was with another former club, Torquay, when they reached the fifth round and took Birmingham City to a replay, a run which reinforced his belief that the FA Cup retains its reputation.
“(The magic) definitely still exists,” he said. “Whoever says it doesn’t can’t be a footballer.”
Bristol Rovers cause has not been helped by the loss of an entire back line to injury in recent games. David Pipe, Danny Coles, Steve Elliott, Aaron Lescott and Joe Jacobson have all been out of action. But coach Paul Trollope, who won the Coca-cola League One manager of the month award yesterday is confident he will not have to resort to the loan market and is hopeful some of the injured contingent will recover in time for the tie against Bournemouth tomorrow.
“We’ve obviously got defensive problems,” said Trollope. “David Pipe will definitely be out, Joe Jacobson looks like he’ll be out, Aaron Lescott might be back, possibly. Danny Coles is still a week or two away.
“Steve Elliott is back in contention after playing an hour in the reserves on Monday and Jeff Hughes returned to training on Tuesday after tightness around his hip flexor but is now fully fit.
“We’ve got enough in the building to cover it. It may mean we’re a little bit thin on the bench but will give some of the youngsters a chance as the cup run did last year.”
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