FULL-BACK Nick Anderton expects Harrogate Town to hold no fear as they attempt to pull off an FA Trophy shock against Barrow tomorrow.

Anderton and his AFC team-mates head to Wetherby Road on the back of a 22-match unbeaten run across all competitions, but the young defender knows Town will provide as tough a test as any they have encountered so far.

Harrogate sit 10th in National League North – some 29 places below Barrow in the pyramid – but the Bluebirds left-back knows they are in a tough division and sees Tuesday’ 3-0 win at Salford City to set up tomorrow’s fixture as proof of their ability.

He said: “People talk about our league being hard to get out of, but this season I think Conference North is the equal of that with the teams and the money being spent in that league.

“Fylde are at the top, but they’ve not run away with it. There’s not much difference between the levels – we showed that on Sunday at a League One club.

“We know they are going to have a right go at us. We’ve got to be professional, go there and do a job.

“We can’t let this run come to an end, but we know this is going to be as much of a test – if not more – than what we have had in the past. We need to get back on it.”

The trip to lower-league Harrogate comes just six days after Barrow’s FA Cup second-round triumph at League One Bristol Rovers.

That set up a third round home tie against Rochdale in January, but there are a handful of fixtures to go before that one looms on the horizon.

Anderton added: “It’s a big game this weekend at Harrogate. It’s on the artificial pitch and we’ve already spoken about that as a group.

“We’ve got to switch off from everything to do with the FA Cup and get down to business. We’ve got a couple of games in hand in the league now and we can’t let the cup run go to our heads, like it does with some teams sometimes. You can have a good cup run and the league form can suffer.

“With the gaffer, we know what we’ve got to do. We’ve just got back on it in training.

“The fact we’re a league higher than them, they will go into the tie with no fear, like we did against Bristol.

“We know they are going to have a right go at us – but if we play our own game and we do what we’ve done for the last 22 games, then we’ve got to be on it on the day and we should be all right.”

Anderton has been an ever-present for AFC in the National League and FA Cup this season – missing out only on the Lancashire Senior Cup victory over Bury, when manager Paul Cox fielded a team youngsters and players not getting regular game-time.

The former Preston North End man is among many team members who have been included in the side week in, week out, but he puts their current success down to every member of the squad – knowing that should injuries, suspensions or other absences occur then there is always someone capable of stepping in.

Anderton added: “The whole squad, we all work in training to play a certain way.

“The players who get the chance to come off the bench and the players who play in games when someone has a little niggle, they have come in and slotted in perfectly, because we all work together in training on the game plan.

“Just because we have been winning so many games, the side hasn’t changed that much and we haven’t had many injuries, whoever comes on still knows their job and knows that everyone is equal.”