PENALTY shoot-outs certainly aren't thrilling for managers, but I felt we benefitted from our experience against Basingstoke in the FA Cup when we took on Blyth Spartans in the FA Trophy.

Our players made their minds up which way they were going to go and stuck with that decision which meant we had a 100 per cent record - they were all really good penalties.

Danny McDonnell saving Blyth's first kick also gave confidence to the lads taking our kicks.

We stuck with two of the lads who took penalties against Basingstoke and Troy Wood and Mark Danks regularly take them, so it just came down to who wanted the last one.

Dennis Pearce decided he'd take it and he's got to be the hero by scoring the deciding penalty. He was under big pressure, but took it well.

Now we face either Hucknall Town or Barrow in the first round proper and we would have fancied our chances against anyone from the same league as us or lower.

We are one of the best teams in our league at the moment and, if we give a good performance, I think we are more than capable of beating either of them.

We feared the pitch would cut up if there was lot of rain.

Up until now, we have been very lucky with the weather, but the pitch will deteriorate from now on as it will not get time to recover with two teams playing on it.

It was a tough game for us against Blyth on Saturday, so we decided to rest defender Des Lyttle on Monday and we feel this was a good decision, especially as Monday night's game went into extra-time and penalties.

Des is a key player for us and it was important to keep him fresh for Saturday's game with Stalybridge Celtic.

Stalybridge have been an unpredictable side this season. They can beat anyone on their day - they went to pace setters Hinckley and won - but they can also lose easier games too.

However, if we are near to our best, we can beat anyone in this league too.

Stalybridge are in the group of teams chasing promotion and they will be desperate to win, which makes it a big game for us. If we can pick up a positive result, then it bodes well for the busy Christmas period.

Apart from striker Adam Webster, who is getting closer to being fit, everyone else seems to be OK, which is very important at this time of year when the fixtures come thick and fast. It is the key part of the whole season.

Finally, I would like to say a massive thank you on behalf of the club to all of our fans who travelled to Blyth to support us. We really do appreciate the effort they made to go such a distance and they certainly got behind the team and made themselves heard.

There was a good crowd at the replay, especially considering the terrible weather.