YORK City caretaker boss Sam Collins will field his strongest side against minnows Ashton Athletic as he targets a fitting FA Cup farewell to Bootham Crescent.

The 60th anniversary of the Minstermen’s 3-0 victory over Birmingham City passed earlier this year when Arthur Bottom, Peter Wragg and Norman Wilkinson scored past England keeper Gil Merrick during the club’s biggest-ever win in the tournament over a top-flight club.

Arsenal, Tottenham, Middlesbrough and West Brom have also been famously put to the sword at the 86-year-old stadium and Collins is challenging his players to progress as deep into the competition as possible before the club move to Monks Cross next summer.

He said: “If people have got niggles that could lead to long-term problems then we’ll talk to the physio about that, but I think we have to pick our strongest side. We’re also going from Saturday to Saturday, games wise at the moment, so there’s no real need to rest people and we’ve been saying to the players that this is our last season here, so can we try and progress as far as we can.

“Everyone knows what can happen if you do that and it’s great for revenue, but also for players and staff. It gives you a great chance to play against the top teams and players and those are the occasions that stick in your mind as a player and as fans.

“We all want it and, even in the first round proper, there are some big clubs in League One and Two now. You might end up playing Bradford City, where I was last season, and they could easily bring 3,000 fans over, which has a big effect on everything at a club.”

While excited about what could be on the horizon, Collins will not be under-estimating North West Counties League premier division bottom club Ashton, who have saved their best form for the Cup.

“Shocks have happened time and time again and, if I, my staff or the players take it lightly, we could come unstuck,” the ex-Port Vale defender pointed out. “Their league form hasn’t been what they’d have wanted it to be, but they’re on a roll in the FA Cup.

“We’ve watched them, so we’ve done all the right things in terms of preparation. They’ve got energy in attacking areas and are quite direct in their style of play so we will have to be really professional in everything we do and, hopefully, that will be enough to get us a result.”

Collins went on to reason that his team must respond to a different kind of atmosphere at Bootham Crescent, with a small crowd expected for Saturday’s second qualifying round tie that will see only the Main Stand and David Longhurst End opened up.

“It doesn’t look like a great game to come and watch, but we played against Leeds this week at the training ground and did well despite having nobody there,” he added, “We’ve just got to make sure we do the things we’ve worked on whether there are 1,000 people there or 4,000.”

All senior squad members featured in the Leeds match, including defenders Tom Allan and Dan Parslow, who are yet to figure for Collins during his four-game temporary tenure.

He insisted that everybody is being constantly monitored in training, though, with the door to selection not closed on either player.

“If people do well in training and practice games, then we will change the team if we think it’s the right thing to do,” Collins explained. “All the players were involved against Leeds, so we got a lot out of it as we played two different sides for each 45 minutes and it went really well.”