‘You can’t beat the week leading up to the first competitive game of the season,’ says Worksop Town assistant manager Rob Poulter

The Tigers take on Melton Town, of the United Counties League setup, in an extra preliminary round of the FA Cup at Sandy Lane on Saturday.

And, while the side from Leicestershire presents a degree of the unknown, Worksop will be looking to progress in the prestigious competition.

Tigers assistant manager Rob Poulter said: “We’re going up against a team we don’t know much about.

“I’ve spoken to a couple of people I know down Leicester way but they are an unknown quantity to a certain degree.

“It’s an FA Cup game so we’ll be taking it seriously.

“We’ve got things we’ve been working on which we’ll look to put in place to make things difficult for Melton and they’ll be trying to do the same.

“It should make for a good game and we’re looking forward to it.”

And added: “The staff we’ve got at the club have a good knowledge of non-league football.”

“Melton will cause us problems but we’ve got to make sure we cause them problems.

“We’re at home and hoping for a big crowd after what we did last season.

“We want to progress.

“It’ll be a good game, they are an unknown, but we’ll concentrate on what we can do.”

Worksop go into the season off the back of two games against local opposition in Retford United and Gainsborough Trinity.

And Poulter has been impressed with the response from the players, new and old to the club, throughout the summer.

He said: “We’ve tried to get the lads in who we wanted from the first session. We want players who want to play for the club.

“In terms of preparation, it’s been really good again. We’ve put a games programme in place which has been tough.

“We’ve played teams who are the step above us which has given us that challenge in time for when the season starts.

“The season does come around quickly - players just want the season to start.

“Pre-season is something the players have to do but you can’t beat the week leading up to the first competitive game of the season.”