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Steve McKimm will leave it late to pick his team for Tonbridge’s FA Cup first-round tie against Bradford.
It’s an approach that’s served him well in management and he won’t be changing it now.
The Angels boss has done his homework on the League 2 visitors and everyone is available for Saturday’s tie at Longmead.
He just needs to confirm in his mind who will play - and that could change on the morning of the game.
“It’ll be difficult to pick the XI because we’ve got a very good squad,” said McKimm.
“I’ve got an idea what I want but I don’t pick the team until the last minute.
“You might get injuries at training, people might wake up on the morning of the game and not be right, or you might want to do something that involves different personnel, so you need that flexibility.
“I’ve done it a number of times where you see something you think is going to work and then you read something or watch a video and you decide you need to tweak things here and there.
“Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but that’s the life of a manager. You take the praise and the pitfalls.
“The ones who don’t make the starting XI still need to be ready and raring to go because we’ve got a league game at Chelmsford on Monday night and they might feature in that.”
The 12.30pm kick-off is being shown live on the BBC’s digital platforms and McKimm wants his side to show viewers what they are capable of, win or lose.
Bradford aren't having the best of times since relegation to League 2 but they have plenty of quality, as McKimm knows only too well.
He said: “It’s fantastic for the club to have their moment of glory with the TV and to be able to earn extra money out of it, and it’s fantastic for the players to be able to show what they’ve got.
“It’s a good place to be at the moment, it always is, but there’s a bit of added spice with the FA Cup. We’ve achieved a bit of history and it’s something for everyone to look forward to.
“We’re focused on the football side and we’ve watched Bradford on Saturday and Tuesday night.
“To me, it’s another game where you need to do your homework, otherwise you get caught short, and that’s one thing I wouldn’t do as a manager.
“The players will be briefed on what Bradford are good at and not so good at, which will be minimal because they’re a full-time team.
“We’ll let them know where we may, at some point, be able to exploit them but again that’s going to be minimal.
“We can only do our best and we might have that little bit of luck that helps us. If not, I don’t want to be disgraced. That’s why we’re doing our homework on them.
“Will the boys freeze? I think we’ve got a squad of players man enough to deal with it and block out everything in front of them.
“We’ll give it a good go. I’m not going to have a team that sits there and hopes for the best. We want to be in the game.”
