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No fear for cup finalists Stafford Rangers

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Stafford Rangers will have 'no fear' when they face Leek Town at Vale Park in the Staffordshire Senior Cup final tonight. more

Manager Neil Kitching acknowledges that his team will be viewed as underdogs against a team sitting second in Evo-Stik Division One South.

But Stafford, seventh in the same division, have already beaten their high-flying opponents once already this season, winning 1-0 at home in January in the league.

They had lost the reverse fixture in August 2-0.

He said: "We have already beaten them once this season but they are a top side in our division.

"They have got a squad that have been together for a number of years and they are the favourites.

"There's no pressure on us, we are a relatively new squad, we have done really well in the league and we will go there with no fear."

Should they win tonight, it would cap a fine 12 months from Kitching who has overseen a significant up turn in results since taking over the reins in late May.

Kitching joined the club in the wake of their relegation from the Evo-Stik Premier Division and has made big changes to the playing squad since then.

He said: "It would be fantastic to win the cup in our first season. We put a squad together not even 12 months ago now.

"Less than a year on we are still in with a chance of getting into the play-offs going into our last league game of the season and we have got a chance to win the Staffordshire Senior Cup tonight which is fantastic.

"We have come a long way in the first 10-11 months. No one expected this. The club has for the last three or four years been on a downward spiral, struggling with relegation. And both on and off the pitch we have turned things round. It is testament to everybody's hard work."

Kitching believes that the venue will help inspire his players and he said: "The pitch will be decent, we will be able to get it down and play some decent stuff which is what we will try to do."

They will be without Jermain Johnson and Stan Mugisha who are both cup tied but will bring in goalkeeper James Robinson on the bench.

Kitching said: "We will be travelling with a very strong squad.

"We only used one sub on Saturday against Goole so that is four lads that will be chomping at the bit ready to play and we might add fresh legs to it. We have got good strength in depth, it is just a case of juggling things around a bit"