Former Trinidad and Tobago international Birchall, 29, who also played alongside David Beckham at LA Galaxy, goes head-head with Hancock when Port Vale travel to play Shortwood United in the final First Round FA Cup tie.
Midfielder Hancock, 22, who runs Stourbridge-based shrink wrapping and packaging company Toorak with his dad, joked:
“I’ve had a word with a few of the lads at training and told them he’s only got about thirty caps and played in the World Cup finals so not to worry. I said, just leave him to me and I’ll put the shackles on!”
Nick Hancock hope to turn the heat up on Vale
But former England youth player Hancock believes that Birchall and his mates will be pleasantly surprised by the state of the Meadowbank pitch. He revealed:
“It’s probably unfortunate for us that our pitch is as good as it is. If we had a real dog and duck pitch and the people at the club didn’t look after it as much, then I think it would be a real leveler. But the fact that they do care so much about the club means Port Vale will probably like the surface. Then again, there’s just a bench around the pitch and so the proximately of the crowd might help us.”
“As players we’re all excited, of course we are, but this game is all about the people who run our club, who were there before we arrived and will still be there when we’ve finished playing. We just want to do ourselves justice for them.”
And Birmingham City fan Hancock, 22, is out for a little personal revenge against the Valiants. He recalled:
“The first away game I ever went to was against Port Vale and they battered us. When I saw us pull them out of the hat I thought ‘oh no, here we go again’.”
Joint manager Alex Sykes stunned the Potteries once before as part of the Nuneaton Borough side that knocked out Stoke City at the same stage in 2000. Hancock revealed:
“Believe me, we’ve heard a fair bit about that game in the last few days! He’s just trying to give us an idea of what to expect though and he’s still a useful player himself. If we could do something similar it would be amazing. I don’t know what he’s planning, but he might just come off the bench, sit behind the front two and get a cigar out.”
Shortwood were the smallest team to make it to the first round draw when they beat conference outfit Aldershot following a replay and play in the eighth tier of football’s pyramid and – 125 places below the Valiants.
The club expects a record 1,300 crowd and even rivals Forest Green Rovers are lending their support by showing the game on a big screen. With the Rovers clubhouse only two fields and a small copse away, the Shortwood players are sure to hear the locked-out locals if they manage a shock result.
Vale’s preparations have already suffered a slight hiccup and manager Mickey Adams revealed:
“We sent my chief scout down to watch them play at Swindon Supermarine on Wednesday night, but it was cancelled and people forgot to tell him, but there you go. But we are prepared and looking forward to progressing if we possibly can."
But the League One club is not taking Shortwood's challenge lightly and Adams said:
“I think we have worked three times as hard on the training ground this week, so it's not been a pleasant week, particularly if you are a defender.”
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