Source: Daily_Mail
Steve Evans admits Crawley stars will be nervous against Manchester United
Hewn from the same Glasgow granite as the man who will be his opposite number at Old Trafford tomorrow tea-time, Crawley Town manager Steve Evans is not about to let a fairytale FA Cup tie turn him soft.Other managers might bend their firmest rules for a fifth-round tie against Manchester United by informing their players of the team ahead of time perhaps the night before so they could properly savour the prospect of lining up against superstars they normally only see on television.Not Evans. The Scot knows what works for him. He also knows his starting 11 for the game, having thrashed it out with assistant manager Paul Raynor on Wednesday evening, but he will wait until the Crawley players are safely ensconced inside Old Trafford just before 4pm before breaking the news. Smiles better: Steve Evans is looking forward to locking horns with Sir Alex FergusonEvans said: 'We'll tell the players at Old Trafford. If not, theminute I tell the team, the ban on the mobiles from the morning of thegame won't work. I'm sure they'd be desperate to tell people, so theplan is to tell the playing staff in the dressing room at Old Trafford,maybe an hour and 20 minutes before kick-off.'We have a strategy that we tell the players on the day of the gameanyway, and in that sort of timescale. It's very difficult to say thatyou treat Manchester United the same way you treat going to Southportor Wrexham, but that's what we're trying to do.'In spite of the belief that oozed out of every pore of Evans's reddish face, and the pride crackling in his eyes yesterday at Crawley's Broadfield Stadium before their noon departure for the north, it was clear he is in awe of Sir Alex Ferguson.A fellow Glaswegian, Evans the Celtic fan hails from Cambuslang. Ferguson is the boy from Govan made good, once a Rangers player and always a supporter.Born less than eight miles of mean streets apart, they are now separated by 93 league places, two Champions League triumphs, 11 Premier League titles, 11 cup victories. Fergie has a further 10 trophies from Scotland, compared with Evans's Boston achievements of a Southern League promotion and promotion to the Football League that was blighted by illegal contracts.No wonder the Crawley manager called Fergie 'the master' three times during yesterday's press conference. See you in Manchester: Crawley will take 9,000 fans to Old Trafford on SaturdayHe added: 'Am I nervous about Saturday? What, me and Sir Alex Ferguson and 75,000 people at Old Trafford? Of course I am. 'I'll be nervous at just meeting the master himself. He's one of the few Scottish managers that I don't know or have a relationship with to speak to on the phone, even semi- regularly. For my players it's going to be a big, big day and for myself it's going to be just the same.Once in a lifetime: Crawley merchandise has been on sale ahead of Saturday's clash'My style of management is similar to the master, I suppose. We are straight with the players. We talk to them and we tend to get a reaction. 'If we get a reaction, then it works. Although, having said that, there are certain players you can't speak to in a certain way because they will crumble, so it has to be a mix.'We're trying to keep the experience very normal and it's massively important that we try to treat this match the same as any other but we've bought some extra cling film for the goal and hope that nobody notices when we put it up. 'We are genuinely one of the teams in non-League, in my opinion, who could go there and get a positive result. And there will be degrees of what we think will be a positive result.'The fact Sir Alex and Mike Phelan came to watch our match at Wrexham on Tuesday night tells us they might be treating it a little bit more seriously than people may have thought. 'But he's the master, isn't he? The best ever manager, and you don't get the trophies and the success that Sir Alex has had if you don't do that.'What score do I think it will be? Well, 1-0 to Crawley Town. No, we can all dream, but I think it's going to be a tough afternoon for us.'While 9,000 Crawley fans prepare for tomorrow's trip to Old Trafford the club is laying on a fleet of 27 coaches Raul Torres, father of midfielder Sergio, who scored the winner against Derby in round three, is flying over from Argentina to see his son play in the game.Torres Jnr said: 'I told him this may be his only chance to see his son play at Old Trafford, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. My mum and dad both came over for Christmas a few weeks ago.'He could not afford another long flight over to England, but I told him I would use the money from our win bonus in the last round towards his plane ticket, so I have paid for it. It will be worth every penny.' As Crawley Town prepare for Old Trafford, Sportsmail looks back at the other five non-League sides to reach the last 16 of the FA CupRumours over our wealth are just jealousy, claim non-league CrawleyCrawley hit the big screen as cup clash with Man United is shown liveAll the latest Manchester United news, features and opinion Explore more:People: Alex Ferguson, Mike Phelan Places: Glasgow, Boston, Argentina, Scotland, United Kingdom Organisations: Football League