STEVE KITTRICK: Doing it the hard way in our cup run

We have played six games in that competition, including two replays, and nine games in the league, which says a lot.

It was a great win on Tuesday night at Stratford though, which saw us dig in after two good cup ties.

I think turning up late actually helped us out on the night because it gave the lads a little less time to think about things, they just had to get out there and do the job.

In the end it was our fitness that told, especially in the last 15 minutes.

People can go on about us making the perfect substitution, but i think it was down to a bit of luck and a bit of quality from James Cadman.

We identified that players had tired, so we threw him on there and told him to get in the box with Michael Coulson and Emile Sinclair.

He was in the right place at the right time on two occasions, but at the same time his finishes were outstanding.

The crowd on the night were absolutely fantastic as well. Two of our lads walked off the pitch at the end and said that support like that is exactly why they signed for Scarborough Athletic.

We now have another exciting FA Cup tie to look forward to when we host Hyde United in a fortnight.

The fact that Hyde, South Shields, Ossett Town and ourselves have made it through to this stage of the competition really shows the strength of our league.

To have four clubs from this level just one step away from the first round is great for the Evo-Stik North.

Hyde are strong and organised, like ourselves, and they will make things very tough when they come to town.

They have a lot of games to catch up on, again like ourselves, but I don’t mind the playing on Saturdays and Tuesdays, for me it is better than training.

I can remember when we were on a good run at Guiseley, we had to play nine games in three weeks, that is the price of success.

We switch our attentions to South Shields at home in the FA Trophy on Saturday and it will be nice to see what happens against them if we can keep 11 players on the pitch.

We have Matty Turnbull, Billy Logan and Nathan Curtis back in for that, so it should be an interesting game.

We’ll definitely be taking it seriously because it is a competition that you can really push on in when you play at this level of football.