Wilkin wary of County's threat ahead of huge tie

Saints travel to Stockport County for Saturday’s Buildbase FA Trophy quarter-final tie looking to make it into the last four for the first time in the club’s history.

Wilkin said: “We have a massive game coming up, I would have loved it to have been a home tie of course.

“Stockport are a big club, they will have a big home crowd behind them and are an improved side. I know we’ve already beaten them this season but we will take nothing for granted.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity for us and it will be great to go and build on these last two performances. With respect to those teams, the last two games came at just the right time for us after the setback at Blyth Spartans.”

Saints went out of the competition at the same stage last season, beaten by eventual winners York City who were fighting relegation from Sky Bet League Two at the time. Even though Stockport are two divisions below that, Wilkin feels they will be just as tough to get past.

He added: “Stockport and York are clubs of a similar stature, both former Football League clubs. So I see the tie being just as tough as last season’s at York even though Stockport are in our division.

“We need to go up there and give it our best shot. The surface isn’t the best up there but we’ve had to adapt because our pitch is cutting up this time.

“The players deserve to go further in the competition and they seem to enjoy playing in these big games. We lost to the winners last season when I didn’t think we deserved to.”

Glenn Walker should have recovered from the illness which kept him out of the Darlington game but new signing Shepherd Murombedzi is cup-tied, having played in the competition.