Thomas insists the players are eager to put together a long Cup run this season.
“The FA Cup has always been a really good, exciting competition,” he told the club's website. “It’s a special one for us, obviously with the history of us winning it a few years ago, so hopefully we can go into this one and get through the round and then go far in it.
“We’ve had a tough run of fixtures through the Christmas period. It’s always a tough time and with the games we’ve had recently – Man City, Liverpool and Villa – they are games which are always going to be hard.
“When a new Manager comes in, those first few weeks are getting to know what he wants us to do and now we’re getting to grips with that, it will show in games and results will come.
“We’ve got a good mentality in the squad. Everyone gets on really well. In games, we have shown spells where we have been good. If we just tidy up a bit and make sure we show that throughout a whole 90 minutes, we can pick up results from that. And in this cup game, hopefully we can play well and get a good result.”