Whitby Town joint-boss Lee Bullock looking forward to 'great day out' at York City

The Seasiders travel to face Steve Watson’s Minstermen at the LNER Community Stadium on Saturday October 2 (kick-off 3pm) with both sides pursuing progress to the fourth round qualifying round of the competition.

Although Whitby come into the tie as underdogs, Bullock feels that the pressure is off and his players can go and enjoy the experience of playing in the 8,500 seater stadium against National League North opposition.

“We’d have loved a home game in this round,” he said. “But it’s the first time I’ve looked at the cup draws this season and had a feeling of excitement.”

“It’s probably the equivalent of going to Manchester United, that’s the only way I could describe it for our level. It’s the best ground, the best supported team, and all the pressure is on them to beat us.

“It’s a great day out for us and it’s one that the lads have earnt.”

On playing the tie away from home, Bullock added: “We’d have preferred a home game to try and get more of the locals in and enjoy our cup run.

“But it’s not too far away and if I’d have had chance to choose an away game, this would be my first pick.

“It’s a brand new stadium and we won’t get the opportunity to play in a ground like that again for a long time so we’ve got to really look forward to it.”

After giving a good account of themselves in their pre-season meeting with York, there is proof that Whitby could cause real problems for their higher ranked opponents.

“The pre-season game will have no baring on this game,” Bullock revealed. “This is a really important game and we’re up against a full-time outfit who train every day.

“They’re a professional club so make no mistake that we’re massive underdogs. If our lads perform and they have an off day we’ve got a great chance of progressing as there’s only one league between us. The challenge for us is to hit top form as a group and we’ll see what happens from there.”

With Whitby bidding to move into the final qualifying stage of the competition, Bullock is asking for 100% commitment from his players, but stressed just how big a challenge the game will be.

Bullock, however, is not denying that this test is one of the hardest they could have been given when the draw was made.

“At this level, anything involving York is a big tie,” he added. “There are a couple of other big teams that we could have had but York are the big hitters at the level. They’re perhaps not performing at their full potential in their league just yet but they’ve got amazing history.

“It’s a great tie and we’ve half got our fingers crossed that we might hit the BBC Red Button but we’ll wait and see on that one. You’ll struggle to find a better lower league ground to play in, even when the big boys come in later on in the competition.”