HARROGATE Railway chairman Dennis Bentley is preparing to put star striker Steve Davey up for a sainthood, but first the diminutive front-man has to topple Bristol City.

The likeable Bentley, a member of Harrogate Railway since 1946, is supremely confident of his side's chances of producing the FA Cup shock to end all shocks and he is looking to leading scorer Davey to produce the goods.

"We'll win on Sunday," said Bentley, who celebrated his 71st birthday on Tuesday. "It will be 1-0, a goal in the 86th minute from Steve Davey.

"If he does score we'll put him up for a sainthood - plus Paul (Marshall) and Mick (Margis) for knighthoods.

"I confident that we can do it. These lads here aren't scared of Bristol City or anyone.

"Even when we were 1-0 down against Slough I knew we would win and we did.

"We've scored 31 goals in the competition so far. I doubt whoever goes on to lift the trophy will manage that.

"It has been a fantastic achievement for us and we are all enjoying it.

"We actually fancy our chances to win the FA Vase, although I'll probably end up with egg on myself now I've said that.

"Plan 'A' was for us to go on and win the Vase and Plan 'B' was a run in the Cup, but we shall have to see what happens when we travel to Newcastle Town in the next round (of the Vase on December 14)."

With 56 years of memories at Railway, Bentley believes this season's Cup run has seen a return to the good old days.

"We've had our ups and downs," he said. "The club has had some great days, like when we reached the quarter-final of the FA Amateur Cup in 1952.

"When we were in the West Yorkshire League we used to take six or seven coaches to games, and more for cup semi-finals and finals. The whole of Starbeck used to go en-bloc to the games.

"But it all took off again though in the last round against Slough. Our support their was tremendous, far great than Slough themselves.

"We are looking at the crowd on Sunday and hoping that we can keep a few interested and coming back to support the club.

"We've a very local team from the players to the way it is run."

Updated: 12:41 Friday, December 06, 2002