CITY boss Stuart McCall has not been regaling tales of his past FA Cup exploits to his players, partly because most of them are far too young to remember.

In one of the most emotional games in the competition’s history, coming just five weeks after the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, Liverpool took on Everton in an all-Merseyside final.

The Reds prevailed 3-2 after extra-time, but McCall could not have done much more himself, netting both of the Toffees’ goals.

He laughed: “I’ve not mentioned ‘89 to them. I’m not sure many of them know I used to play, as it’s such a young side. Some will even struggle to remember Gazza.

“If we can get to say the quarter-finals, it might be nice to talk about it, but for now we’ve just got to let them focus on doing their jobs this weekend.”

City will mainly need to concentrate on themselves, with McCall admitting preparation for tomorrow’s first round clash at National League South side Tonbridge Angels has been a little trickier than normal.

He said: “I honestly didn’t really know who they were when they came out of the hat. My daughter had to look it up and tell me what league they were in.

“But we’ve tried to get footage of them and we have watched a couple of their games, though it’s a bit more difficult, with them not having squad numbers.

“We’ve just got to be professional. It’s a good pitch they’ve got down there, with just a slight slope, and we’ll look to go out and take a grip of the game early on.

“There’ll be upsets this weekend I’m sure, but we’ve got to make sure we’re not one of them.

“I’m a romantic with the FA Cup, and I’d love to be coming in at the third round, but that might have to wait a couple of seasons.”

There are often some extraordinary tales to be told in these earlier stages of the competition though, like that of Tonbridge Angels winger Ben Greenhalgh.

He won a reality TV show 10 years ago, with the prize a contract at Italian giants Inter Milan.

McCall said: “I’d looked at their games, and thought I recognised his name, then our analyst has told me about him.

“I remember watching that TV programme and he’s obviously still a good player because he scored a couple for them in the last round.

“That was their last game though, and they’ve only played a few games in the league. We’ve seen them play with a back three in one and a back four in another, so we’re not sure how they’ll set up at the moment.”

Either way, Tonbridge will not be coming up against an understrength City team, with McCall saying: “We need to win this game, so I won’t be tinkering too much and putting out an experimental side.

“If I pick any of the young lads, it will be on merit only.”

McCall confirmed Lee Novak, Kurtis Guthrie, Gareth Evans and Zeli Ismail would be missing once again, though he hopes the latter will be back in full training from Monday.

Ben Richards-Everton will return to the matchday squad tomorrow, while there was some positive news on Clayton Donaldson, who limped off against Southend in midweek.

McCall said: “He’s got a small chance of playing (tomorrow), so we’ll decide before we travel down. He’s feeling a lot better now than he was the day after the game, and hopefully it was just a tweak of the hip.”