Burton Albion v Altrincham
The FA Cup with Budweiser
First Round Proper
3pm, Sunday 4 November 2012
Pirelli Stadium, Burton Albion FC
Winning clubs receive £18,000 from The FA's prize fund
Click here for fixtures
By Henry Willis
Burton Albion manager Gary Rowett will be calling on past playing experience as he prepares for his first FA Cup tie as a manager.
Rowett is a former Everton, Leicester, Birmingham and Derby defender; so although he is a managerial rookie in the world's most famous cup competition, he has plenty of memories on the pitch.
"I've certainly had some interesting experiences in The FA Cup as a player," he said, ahead of the clash with Conference North side Altrincham. "I always loved The Cup as a player and the First Round is always a magical weekend."
The Brewers will be looking to progress as far as they can, having enjoyed some happy Cup memories of their own in recent years.
In 2006, Burton met eventual runners-up Manchester United in the Third Round - in the days when they were still a non-League club - and almost caused an upset at home, drawing 0-0 at The Pirelli Stadium to earn a lucrative replay at Old Trafford, which United won 5-0.
Rowett is well aware of the 'giant-killing' nature of The Cup, something Altrincham will be trying to tap into on Sunday.
He added: "When I was at Leicester, we were knocked out at the Quarter-Final stage by Wycombe who were in League Two at the time.
"We lost to a goal scored by Roy Essandoh who they had signed after finding him on Teletext the week before because they were short of strikers. That's the kind of pitfalls and perils you find in The FA Cup."
Altrincham have Lee Sinnott to call on as boss, an FA Cup runner-up with Watford in 1984.
The club's Cup pedigree does not stop there though, with a unique history of having knocked out 16 Football League clubs over the years.
Rowett is fully aware that Altrincham will be striving to add another name to the list and admitted: "Altrincham will come here and give it everything because they have nothing to lose. From their point of view, they will be looking at causing a potential upset so it's up to us to go about the game in the right way.
"At the start of my career at Cambridge we beat a lot of sides from divisions above us. But I also know what it's like to me on the wrong end of results."
