PAUL Braithwaite has revealed that preparation was the key to Fairford’s Floodlit Cup defeat of much-fancied Marlow.

Fairford play a division below the Hellenic Premier leaders but booked their place in the last four with a 2-1 victory on Tuesday.

And boss Braithwaite said: “We prepared well and spoke to a couple of players at Highworth who played them a few weeks ago.

“We got 35 minutes of footage from their recent game against Binfield and managed to pick out some weak spots.

“We knew what the likes of players such as Ian Davies were all about and all that preparation made a bit of a difference.

“You’ve got to think to yourself that you can go forward in the competition if you have beaten the best team in the Hellenic league. There’s no reason why we can’t push on.”

Fairford welcome Purton to Cinder Lane in Division One West tomorrow and Braithwaite intends not to dwell on the midweek cup success.

“We’ll forget Tuesday quite quickly,” said the boss, who is missing the absent James Eddie. “You can never tell what you’re going to get from Purton.

“They have a good squad but have had a hard season with injuries, but with a full side they will beat anybody.”

Purton striker Richie Crocker admits he has plenty of incentive to impress this weekend on his return to his former club.

Crocker’s current side are on a run fo five straight league defeats and he is desperate to help the team return to winning ways.

“It will be nice to go back there and of course it gives me added motivation. We’ll have to wait and see how we get on,” said Crocker.

“I’m a good friend of Paul Braithwaite’s and he has got a lot of quality players who could probably play a bit higher than the level they are at.”