Marske skipper Craig Gott says that there won’t be anything like a repeat of the scoreline of the last occasion when they played at Consett.

Gott was part of the Marske team that lost 7-0 in the league at Consett last season, and he’s determined that there won’t be anywhere near a repeat in their Vase tie at Belle View this afternoon.

“We have better players than we did last season, and we’re a better team now,” he said. “Last season was very up and down. We had a good start and went unbeaten for a long time, but after we lost to Southport in the FA Cup, the season went downhill, but picked up right at the end when we won the league cup.

“When Carl (Jarrett) took over in the summer, he brought in five or six new players and they have strengthened the squad. We got off to a good start this season, and it’s continued, whereas by this time last year, it had faded.

“We’re still in three cups, which isn’t bad going. As well as the Vase today, we’re still in the North Riding Senior Cup and the League Cup.”

Marske go into the game in second place in the table, while Consett, just settling into life at Belle View after moving there a year ago, are in 13th place.

“We know that Consett are a very good team, with some excellent players, because we played them three weeks ago in the league. We were leading 1-0, then the floodlights went out and the game had to be abandoned!

“We’ve been making preparations for the game on their pitch by training on a 4G surface. Consett are a good footballing team, and we want to get the ball down and play as well. It should be a good game, and hopefully we’ll come out on top.”

Marske go into the game unbeaten away from home in the league this season, their best win being the 6-2 victory at Bishop Auckland last month, and a good draw at league leaders West Auckland.

“It says a lot for our character. We went a goal down at West Auckland, and came back to draw 1-1. Maybe in the past we would have lost that game by three or four.

“We’re not kidding ourselves that we can win the league title – after finishing 16th last season our aim is to finish in the top five -- but who knows what we can do in the Vase?

“Northern League clubs have been to Wembley regularly in the last five years, so why can’t we get there?”

Striker Jamie Owens is the man in form at the moment, adding to his tally with a quickfire hat trick against West Allotment last Saturday.

“Jamie has sometimes played up front on his own since he came to the club from Newton Aycliffe, and he’s done really well. He’s scored nearly 30 goals this season, and we’re only just into December. He knows where the net is, we missed somebody like him last season.”

There will be plenty of support for Marske this afternoon, the club has laid on free transport, and there will be at least 100 visiting fans at the game.