Exeter City must do everything right if they are to overcome the challenge of Championship side Oxford United in today’s FA Cup clash at St James Park and reach round four for the first time in 44 years.
Not since the glorious run of 1980/81, in which Exeter reached the quarter-finals, have they progressed beyond round three, but against a team 17th in the Championship, there is a genuine feeling that the Grecians have been presented with a winnable tie.
It won’t be easy, of course, and Exeter have won only one of their last 13 encounters with the U’s, and in order to do it, Nicholson says his underdogs must be near faultless with their performance to progress.
“The feel will be slightly different, the psychological side of it will be slightly different – you are under pressure when you are the bigger team because you are expected to win – but the team from the lower league has to make sure they do things to the best they can do it because there is no room for error when you play teams higher up,” he said.
“I think Barnet will tell you that and so will Chesterfield (who Exeter beat in rounds one and two respectively.) When Barnet got ahead (they led 2-1 and 3-2 before City hit back to win a thriller 5-3) and were having the game that they were having, we still had enough to get past them. We need to make sure that we are on it all the way through this game and try and dictate with the ball.
“They are going to be dangerous when they have the ball and have their opportunities, but this is a winnable game. We know more than enough about them to know that we have a real good chance in this, but if we are not at it, we will get hurt and that will be the end of that.”
Nicholson added: “We are familiar with Oxford, obviously we have played them over the last few years and they have a lot of players there that are still involved. They have a new manager, obviously, and have had a little upturn in form over the past few weeks, but the FA Cup is a great leveller.”