Crawley striker Allan Tait admits it will be strange playing against his home-town club tonight.

Tait will be part of a full-strength squad that travels to East Grinstead Town in the Sussex Senior Cup second round.

The in-form forward, who has scored six goals in the Conference this season, knows all about the County League club, having played in their youth team before making two first team appearances.

He lives within a mile of their East Court ground and works locally at Chartham Park golf club.

He said: "I live there and have a few mates who play for them so it is going to be strange. Sometimes you don't know whether you want to play against them or not.

"I will probably need to make sure I wear shin pads because a few of them will want to give me a kick but I'm looking forward to it."

Tait insists the Reds players want to do well in the Senior Cup, even if it is not high on their list of priorities.

He added: "Some of the players who joined in the summer don't know much about it, but the ones who have been here for a while want to do well.

"The Conference is obviously what we are concentrating on but everyone at the club would be delighted if we won the cup."

Crawley are without a game on Saturday so manager Francis Vines plans to field a strong side.

He said: "We want to win and I won't be playing fringe players because we haven't got any. You just have to look at who has been on the bench lately to see that and anyone who has not played for the last couple of weeks should be able to come in and do well.

"If we have a bad result, I won't be able to have an excuse and say they were only fringe players."

Grinstead hope for a 500-plus gate for the biggest game at East Court in years. They have even hired stewards from Crawley to cope with the crowd.

Manager Bob Smith said: "We're looking forward to the occasion. It's a big night for the club and our boys will want to do the occasion justice. We know it's going to be extremely difficult but I'm sure everyone will raise their game."