Inside the spinning magic of Plymouth's FA Cup run

As the Championship side travel to Manchester City in the fifth round, captain Joe Edwards speaks to Miguel Delaney

- MIGUEL DELANEY

As Plymouth Argyle captain Joe Edwards sits in the club’s Manchester hotel and the excitement builds, he finds there’s suddenly “a little bit more time to think”. There’s certainly a lot to reflect on ahead of an FA Cup fifth-round match against the English champions.

Should Plymouth beat Manchester City, it will not just be another huge upset. It will form an argument for one of the great cup runs, given that the 22nd-placed Championship side have already eliminated Brentford away and Liverpool at home. That has offered a sense of build-up in another way, given that it’s gone from one good Premier League side to the league leaders’ second string, but now a full-strength City away from home in a big evening match.

“It’s another level again,” Edwards says. “This one’s more of an excitement. When you’re in the league, there’s a lot more pressure that comes with it. Saturday is an incredible experience for everyone to go and play at Man City, probably the best team in the world over the last five years. We’ve got a bit of time to kill, so there’ll be a bit of waiting around and trying to fill the gaps. Some boys will like that, some boys won’t.”

That feel of a camp is all the more pronounced because of an impressively progressive campaign Plymouth are involved in. They aren’t just staying in Manchester for this game, but for a few days, since they have a big league match away to Hull City on Tuesday. That decision resulted from Plymouth becoming one of 14 clubs to sign up with Pledgeball, a Bristol-based charity encouraging clubs to make environmentally conscious travel choices through their Sustainable Travel Charter.

“We’re staying up here for the period of time so as to not waste energy,” Edwards says.