How we’ll respect Marine - Jose

Beyond the magic of the FA Cup, beyond the fairytale tie of the third round, Jose Mourinho has one target at Marine on Sunday - to win.

Marine are in the eighth tier of the English football pyramid - Northern Premier League Division One North West - and have come through seven rounds already to reach this stage, starting in the preliminary round back in September, a run that includes an away win over League Two side Colchester.

It’s the first time we’ve faced non-league opposition since beating Altrincham 3-0 in January, 1995 and only the 12th tie against non-league opposition in over 112 years since we became a Football League club in 1908.

There will be 161 places between the two teams when we step out at the Marine Travel Arena in Crosby, Merseyside, but that will not enter into Jose’s thinking, as he confirmed at Friday’s press conference, ‘we are preparing the game normally’.

Jose said: “Marine is a club, a team, a group of boys playing the game of their careers. So, what can we do apart from respect them and win the match? Nothing.

“I always believe that to respect these teams is to beat them, and to show respect to them is to beat them. To show respect to them is to play with a good team, a team with responsibility, a team with motivation, a team that goes there and wins the game. That is to show respect, that is the cup mentality of the big teams.

“If we go there and we lose, of course it would be amazing for them, but it would be because of a lack of respect from us to them.

“So, we are preparing the game normally, we trained today looking at that game, we had tactical meetings looking at that game, and we are going there of course to win the match.”

Jose underlined those intentions by revealing that we will be taking a strong squad to Marine, with only one Under-18 player involved, and possibly including Gareth Bale, if he’s deemed ready after returning to training after a calf issue on Friday.

Jose's press conference