Match Preview

Hebburn Town travel over the River Tyne to Hill Heads on Saturday as they come up against Whitley Bay FC in the Preliminary Round of the Emirates FA Cup.

The hornets will be going into the game with no fewer than 6 of their first team squad missing due to work or holidays (Groves, Robson, Suddick, Dibb-Fuller, Ghillespy, Grant) whilst striker Luke Sullivan will have a late fitness test after picking up a knock during the mid-week game.

Manager Kevin Bolam commented "We go into this game on the back of two good league victories at home whereby we have managed to score plenty of goals, although we have 6 of the first team squad missing it allows others in the squad to take their chance as well as a great opportunity for me to promote players from our Reserve & U18 squad as part of our "Player Pathway Strategy". We are under no illusion that this will be a tough game but we have prepared well and are looking forward to it. The FA Cup is a great competition, it's excellent for the lads to play in it and as a club we want to progress as far as we can in it. We've got a good travelling support behind us this weekend so are confident we can do what we need to do".

Travelling with Hebburn will be former Bay manager Mick Mulhern who was appointed the hornets assistant manager in pre-season and alongside him former Bay striker Olly Martin is relishing the chance to line up against his last club.

Kick off is 3pm at Whitley Bays Hill Heads.