Stafford Rangers will avoid having to make a 440 mile round trip in one day to Blyth Spartans in the FA Trophy after fans stumped up the money for the players accomodation.

The Marston Road men make the 440 mile trip to the furthest stop north on the schedule a week on Saturday but will now stay overnight in Washington – around 23 miles from Blyth – prior to the game.

Without the fans help, the whole thing would have had to have been done on the day.

A club statement read: “The chairman and directors are pleased to accept the very generous donations made to assist in funding an overnight stay in the north-east of England on Friday 20 November 2009. A number of problems in respect of organisation existed all of which have now been sorted out.

“The board hope that those awaiting a decision will understand the reasons for the delay, which had to include the players availability to travel along with the availablity of coach and driver.”

Focus will shift to the FA Trophy third qualifying round and a thankless visit to league rivals Blyth Spartans, after another three points up for grabs with the visit of struggling Gloucester on Saturday.

Nonetheless, a cup run would be of great financial benefit to the cash-strapped club, with £4,000 available in prize money to the winners of the Blyth game alone, but the manager insists stabilising the team in the league will always be his first priority.

Brindley said: “Everybody wants to do well, every club wants to win games in the FA competitions, because of the prize money available. But I am more concerned about the league games at the minute.”

The long trip to fellow league rivals presents a tricky tie for Rangers, who tumbled out of both FA competitions at the first round of asking last season and went straight out of the FA Cup this term.

Brindley knows it will be tough at Croft Park, but warns that there is a league game to worry about first.

He said: “It’s a tough draw, no doubt about it, but it’s more the distance and the travelling that is the problem. In that respect, it was probably the worst draw we could have got, but we will address that when we get to it.”