Wilkin will be looking for big response in tie

Saints travel to Wealdstone for the third round tie on the back of their poorest run of what has been, up to now, an excellent season.

Saints have failed to win in their last three Vanarama National League North outings. And their last victory in any competition came in the FA Trophy second round replay against Stockport County who beat Saints on Tuesday night.

Wilkin said: “We fell short on Tuesday but we have big games coming up so we will train hard on Thursday and prepare for a massive game on Saturday at Wealdstone. This is a big test of character for us now and we need to show a response.

“We’ve had to come through three replays to get this far in the competition but now we’re only one game from the quarter-finals. You don’t get many opportunities to get to Wembley as a player and this competition gives you that chance.

“We need to dust ourselves down and get back to how we were playing before this poor run. But we can’t keep giving teams a head start on us. We got away with it at Nuneaton but we dropped two points against Altrincham after going behind.”

Captain Gareth Dean returns for the trip to Wealdstone after serving his one-match suspension against Stockport.