NUNEATON Town are expected to name nine players with Football League experience or higher in their squad to face York City in the last 16 of the FA Trophy.

Sierra Leone international and former Watford midfielder Al Bangura, who made the first of 16 Premier League appearances against Manchester United, has recently been added to the Liberty Way ranks having last played at St Albans City in 2015/16.

Bangura was a substitute as Nuneaton suffered a second successive 4-0 defeat at Kidderminster over the weekend.

Now 29, he also played for Brighton in League One and Blackpool in the Championship, making 94 appearances and scoring one goal in English football’s top four divisions, before spending four seasons at Forest Green.

Centre-back Kelvin Langmead, 31, is the most experienced former professional, meanwhile, on the Warwickshire outfit’s books.

He made 425 appearances and scored 40 goals for the likes of Northampton, Peterborough, Shrewsbury, Kidderminster, Carlisle and Preston, who he played for once in the Championship, before drifting out of League football in January 2015.

Fellow defender Exodus Geohaghon, remembered by City supporters for his own goal during the 2012 Conference play-off semi-final victory over Mansfield, also joined Nuneaton as player-coach in November with the 31-year-old having enjoyed 37 Football League outings at Rotherham, Shrewsbury, Port Vale, Barnet and Dagenham, scoring one goal.

The other host players with Football League level experience are Billy Daniels (39 games and four goals for Coventry, Notts County and Cheltenham), Joe Ironside (26 games and one goal for Sheffield United and Hartlepool), Greg Tempest (18 games for Notts County), Greg Mills (three games for Derby and Macclesfield), on-loan defender Ben O’Hanlon (two Checkatrade Trophy appearances for Wolves this season) and Jordan Nicholson (two games for parent club Peterborough).

David Morgan, meanwhile, has one Scottish Premier League outing to his name – for Dundee during a 5-0 defeat at Celtic.

Nineteen-year-old defender Alex Penny has also been monitored by Tottenham, West Brom, Birmingham, Stoke, Newcastle and Leicester, having only joined Nuneaton from Midlands League first division side Hinckley United last summer, while striker Ironside, who has netted 11 league goals this term, was being linked with a return to the Football League before this week’s transfer deadline day.

At the other end of the pitch, goalkeeper Christian Dibble is the 22-year-old son of former Luton League Cup winner Andy and was previously on the books at Barnsley and Bury, while earning Wales under-21 honours, although the team have only managed one clean sheet in their last 25 contests.

Managed by Tommy Wright - the ex-Leicester, Barnsley and Darlington striker who replaced Kevin Wilson in November - is still registered as a player at 32, but is not expected to feature against the Minstermen, while former City forward Shaq McDonald has moved on after netting just once in 14 games following his summer switch from Derby.

Kristian Scott also left for league leaders Fylde this week and attacker David Moli has been released.

Prior to the Kidderminster defeat, Town went down by the same scoreline to Salford City, but both opponents are in the division’s top three and Wright’s men had won eight successive games before taking one point from a possible nine in their last three fixtures.

Sitting in 14th – 17 points clear of the relegation zone but 15 adrift of the play-off positions – Nuneaton seemingly have little left to play for in the league, with Wright labelling tomorrow’s tie at the club’s biggest of the season.

A quarter-final appearance would match Nuneaton’s best-ever run in the competition, achieved in the club’s former Borough guise in 1977, 1980 and 1987.

Nuneaton’s highest-ever finishes in the football pyramid, meanwhile, came in 1984 and 1985 when they were Conference runners-up.

Their most recent spell in non-League football’s highest echelon came between 2012 and 2015 and, last season, they finished sixth in National League North, missing out on a play-off spot by one place.

The ground capacity has been increased to 3,200 for this tie after new access points have been introduced following a land dispute with the rugby club.

Nuneaton (probable): Dibble, Penny, O’Hanlon, Morgan, Langmead, Tempest, Clifton, Elliott, Ironside, Mills, Nicholson.