Wycombe Wanderers v Coalville Town
The FA Cup First Round Proper
Saturday 13 November 2004 - 3.00pm
£16,000 to the winning club



Pete Cawley's first job as temporary Wycombe manager is to steer the club through a potentially tricky FA Cup tie against Coalville - the lowest-ranked side still in the competition.

He revealed to TheFA.com he wants to take on the manager's job full time - but is fully focussed on seeing them through their clash against the Leicestershire side on Saturday.

Wycombe's preparations for the First Round clash against the Travel Factory Midland Alliance side at the Causeway Stadium have been thrown into disarray following the sudden departure of manager Tony Adams.

Adams left the club on Tuesday for personal reasons, and will resume his sports science studies at Brunel University.

But Cawley remains upbeat despite the week's events, and gave indication he would like to manage the side beyond this week's Cup tie.

He told us: "If I was considered for the job, I'd be interested. These opportunities come around very rarely in your life. Tony has built a good team here.

"It is not as if someone is taking this job on because the team is bottom of the table. The team is mid-table and it is a good team and it will do well.

"So it is a good position to be in and whoever gets the job, be it me or whoever, they´ll be very fortunate."

Cawley admitted he was shocked when he heard the news of Adam's departure from Wycombe, currently 17th in League Two.

He added: "I know the league position is a little bit disappointing but unfortunately we have not had a lot of luck in the last matches but that will change the season develops. So I am obviously disappointed.

"I think everybody at the club is bitterly disappointed and upset that Tony felt that he needed to resign from his position. He has put lot of hard work into this football club, bought a lot of players into this football club.

"Hopefully the boys will perform on Saturday well enough to show everybody that there is a good team assembled here through his hard work."

Captain Keith Ryan echoed his coach when he described the players as "shell-shocked" at Adams' decision, but assured fans the club is in good hands.

And he remained confident they would secure their passage through to Round Two in the Cup, even wthout the guidance of the former Arsenal defender, who lifted The FA Cup three times while at Highbury.

Ryan said: "They are all a bit shell-shocked at the moment. It came as a quite a bit surprise to us all and I think there is a little bit of worry with the uncertainty.

"Most of the players were brought in here by Tony Adams. So there is a little bit of worry among the players.

"But Pete said it is not about who the manager is, it's about doing your best for yourselves, the fans and the football club.

"We don't know yet who the new manager is, whether it will be Pete, we don't know that yet - we have all been left in the dark.

"It is just being professional about our job and getting on with football. The spirit in the camp is excellent and we are looking forward to Saturday."