South Shields won't fear full-time York City, insists Graham Fenton

Dillon Morse scores South Shields' first goal at Darlington. Picture by Kev Wilson.

The Mariners were drawn at home to the former Football League side in the third qualifying round of the competition as reward for their superb win over Darlington at the weekend.

York are in the National League North after relegation last season, two runs higher than Shields, but remain a full-time football operation.

It will be a huge test for Shields, but one joint manager Fenton believes they should go into full of confidence after beating Darlington, who play in the same division as the Minstermen.

“We’re hugely excited by the draw, and delighted that we’re at home,” he said. “I’m sure we’re going to get quite a few people in to watch it and it will be another fantastic occasion for everybody involved with the club.

“It will undoubtedly be a massively tough game, but we’ll go into it with the belief that we can beat them. We’ll respect them, but not fear them.

“York are a full-time football club and should be a very fit and strong team. We should take a lot of confidence from Saturday’s game that we can beat teams from that level, though.

“We know that Darlington weren’t at their best on Saturday, but we were excellent. We’re going to have to have a similar type of performance to have a chance of progressing further. There’s no reason why we can’t.

“It will be another great day for our supporters. Who would have thought a couple of years ago that the club would be playing York City in the FA Cup at Mariners Park? It’s another fantastic occasion to look forward to. We’ll do our homework as we always do and prepare for it as best we can.

“We’ve seen bits and bobs of them this season, and heard a lot of good things after they won at Blyth Spartans last month. We know how tough it’s going to be.

“Playing full-time football, you’ve got a huge advantage in certain areas. We’ve got a huge amount of quality in our changing room, though, and have the ability to cause them problems. We’ll be trying to nullify their threats and cause them problems.”

The game, which pits the FA vase holders against the FA Trophy holders, will be played the weekend of September 30.