YORK City’s former FA Trophy hero Jon Challinor has offered a helping hand as the club prepare to face Harlow Town on their 3G pitch in this season’s competition.

Challinor scored the late first-round equaliser at home to Solihull to City in the same tournament during 2011/12 and went on to play in the 2-0 final triumph at Wembley

Now 36, Challinor has gained permission for his old club to train this afternoon on his current team Stamford’s artificial playing surface, en route to tomorrow’s second round tie.

“We trained on York St John University’s 3G pitch at Haxby Road yesterday and we’ll train at Stamford on their 3G pitch today on our way down,” Mills said of the team’s preparations. “Jon Challinor plays there now and I asked him to put in a kind word for us and they’re letting us use their pitch free of charge, which is very nice of him and them.”

Mills added that his team would not be under-estimating their part-time Isthmian League premier division hosts.

“I don’t know a great deal about them but I’ve watched clips and they’re doing well at this moment in time,” he explained. “They beat Eastleigh in the last round and we know we’ll be in for a tough game against a big side, who like to score from set-pieces.

“They’ve also got two or three good players who it’s being put around could play a bit higher, but we’ve got to show what we’re capable of by producing what we have been during the last few games, apart from against North Ferriby at home.”

Talismanic striker Jon Parkin might not feature from the start, though, due to reservations about the pitch.

“Jon has a bit of a knee problem and 3G pitches are not good on the joints, so we’ll make a decision on whether he starts or not,” Mills pointed out. “He’ll be involved in the 16 but, if it wasn’t a 3G pitch, he would be starting - there’s no doubt about that.”

Attacker Aidan Connolly, meanwhile, has suffered another setback in his return from a thigh problem, while Danny Holmes will be back in the squad after withdrawing from a place on the bench during the warm-up prior to last weekend’s 2-2 draw at Dover.

“Aidan Connolly trained on Monday, but pulled out after half-an-hour with a recurrence of his thigh problem and is going for another scan,” Mills revealed. “Danny Holmes was ill and throwing up after the warm-up in Dover, but is back in training and will be OK this weekend.”