Ashington striker Jamie Clarke says that the Colliers won’t be overawed by their trip to Grimsby’s Blundell Park in the last qualifying round of the FA Cup on Saturday.

It’s only nine years ago that Grimsby started the competition in the third round proper, and it was only in season 1995-96 that they drew 0-0 with Chelsea in the fifth round, and then lost 4-1 in the replay at Stamford Bridge.

However, they’ve steadily declined since then and dropped into the Blue Square Premier, four leagues above Ashington, whose best ever run was to the third round way back in their Third Division North days in 1926 when they lost to Nottingham Forest.

Clarke’s arrival in August has been one of the reasons behind Ashington’s success, and he said; “We’ll have nothing whatsoever to lose. Gary Middleton, the manager, will prepare us as best he can. I know that he’s already spoken to a couple of people he knows in the Conference about how Grimsby play.

“People are saying that fitness will play a part, especially late in the game. But we have a lot of young lads in the side who run their hearts out and will be fit enough to cope. One thing’s for definite, we’ll be giving it a scrap.”

The 38 year old takes on his biggest ever game in his long career in local football, and he said: “I’ve never played at Grimsby before, so it will be a brand new experience for me, but some of the lads in the squad have played here when they’ve been at pro clubs and played there in reserve games.

“I don’t think we’ll be overawed by the occasion. The players haven’t frozen in the previous two games against Guiseley and Vauxhall Motors, so why should they now? There have been big build ups to the previous two games, and the players have coped with it.”

There could be a travelling black and white army of 500 at the game. “I know that our fans will be making a huge amount of noise. When we went to Vauxhall Motors for the replay two rounds ago, there was only one busful of our supporters there because it was a midweek game, and what a racket they made.

“Today, there’s going to be at least six buses of supporters there, so heaven knows how much noise they’ll be generating. They’ll probably drown out the home supporters, which will be in our favour. Maybe the Grimsby fans will think that the result is a foregone conclusion, and might take the game lightly.”

Clarke was nominated for the player of the round award following the win over Guiseley, but he missed out. “I wasn’t expecting to win it, because there were a few southern based players in for it as well. I’ve scored seven goals so far, and I’m looking to get one more, hopefully like the winner”

“It might be a different type of opposition for us, but remember that the size of the goal doesn’t change.” Extra preliminary round: Ryton (a) 1-0 (Young). Preliminary round: Northallerton (h) 2-1 (Clarke, Johnson). 1st Qualifying round: Shildon (a) 0-0, (h) 2-2 (Clarke 2 pens) Ashington won 4-2 on penalties. 2nd Qualifying round: Vauxhall Motors (h) 3-3 (Clarke 2, Young) (a) 1-0 (Johnson). 3rd Qualifying round: Guiseley (h) 1-0 (Clarke).