Boss Rob Smith has called on AFC Telford United’s fans to raise the New Bucks Head roof in tomorrow’s FA Trophy quarter-final with Southport.

Smith wants to send his side out into a rousing cauldron of noise in order to inspire them further down the road to Wembley.

The Bucks have already secured £22,000 in prizemoney from this competition and would pocket another £8,000 tomorrow should they book a place in the two-legged semi-finals.

A league record crowd of 3,558 saw Telford beat the Sandgrounders 1-0 in the Blue Square North in December, and Smith believes another bumper turnout could make the difference in what is sure to be a close encounter. 

“The fans are up for the Trophy and we’ve battled hard to get here,” he said.

“We’d love them to come out in full voice tomorrow as they were very quiet on Tuesday (when Telford beat Vauxhall Motors 5-1).

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“It really does help the lads – the Southport fans will be noisy and it does help to have a good atmosphere.

“It only really hit us last night just how close we are to the semi-finals now, but this is going to be a very, very hard.

“There’s no hiding the fact that that my focus is the league, and I want to guarantee that we get to the play-offs as a minimum, but there was a buzz about the place last night at the thought of tomorrow’s game.”

Striker Andy Brown had an injection to try and ease the pain in his injured Achilles, but may not be available before next Saturday’s trip to Hyde in the Blue Square North.

Midfielder Carl Rodgers could feature despite sustaining a cut in his shin against Vauxhall, while Steve Jagielka is also added.

Striker Matty Lewis has joined UniBond League promotion hopefuls Hednesford on a month’s loan as he steps up his fitness programme following his broken leg.

Midfielders Phil Trainer and Danny Edwards and striker Mark Danks are all cup-tied.