Crawley's FA Cup “circus” will stop today according to boss Steve Evans who insists: “We’ve got a game to try and win.”

Evans wants to keep their preparations for Saturday’s historic FA Cup tie at Old Trafford as close to a normal league game as possible.

The only change to their plans is to head to the North West at lunchtime today after meeting the media at the Broadfield Stadium this morning.

When the coach door shuts at 11.45am the players will be banned from talking to the press, radio or TV about facing Manchester United.

Evans said: “The reason we are going today is to enable us to concentrate fully on the game.

“We have been invited to be on TV on Friday and Saturday morning but we have told everyone that the circus stops when that bus leaves today– the puppet show is over.

“We are a professional club who want to go there and win the game.

“We’re treating it as if we were going up north to play a league match except we are giving ourselves an extra day to concentrate fully on the game.

“All the media stuff is a distraction we can do without close to the game. We don’t need it when we are preparing to face the best club and biggest manager in the world.”

Manchester City have offered Reds use of their Carrington training facilities but Evans may utilise the pitch at their base on the outskirts of Manchester instead.

He added: “Roberto Mancini has allowed us to train at Manchester City but we can also work at the hotel which has a world-class pitch. If I’m honest that is what we will probably do.

“It’s what we did at Torquay and, like I keep stressing, we want to keep the build-up as normal as possible.”

The club has been besieged by the world’s media this week with Evans, who rarely shies away from the opportunity to get his point across, in demand.

But the Scot admits he has chosen his words carefully in interviews when asked about opposite number Sir Alex Ferguson.

“The one person I don’t want to rile this week and play mind games with is Sir Alex because while our boys are heading to Manchester I’ll be going to the Priory!

“He is the master of mind games and will want to protect Manchester United’s reputation but I also want to be in the sixth-round draw. I want us to go there, produce a super performance and hope United have an off day.”

United boss Sir Alex Ferguson and assistant Mike Phelan watched Reds’ goalless draw at Wrexham on Tuesday as Reds stretched their unbeaten league run to 12 games and his presence at the Racecourse did not surprise Evans.

He said: “Ferguson and Phelan didn’t come because Sir Alex fancied going to a non-league ground on a Tuesday night. He is the manager everyone looks up to and he comes to see Crawley Town – my God how far have we come?

“That is testament to how professional he is. He will be able to tell his players between now and Saturday what to expect in certain situations.

“You can look at scouting reports all day but if you see it with your own eyes it is so much better. It is a trait of his I try to replicate.”

Reds head to Old Trafford in prime form with just one defeat in their last 20 league and cup games and Evans was happy to move to within three points of Conference leaders AFC Wimbledon with four games in hand and four home matches following their trip to Old Trafford.

He said: “We have played Wrexham twice when they are flying. They couldn’t beat Casey’s Apples at the start of the season so we are delighted to have taken four points from two games against them. They were fired up and some of the challenges were very robust but we have come through.

“We will train for an hour early today, then we meet the press and then we are away. As soon as the coach engine starts we will be away from the hype and going to Old Trafford looking to win.”