PAUL Cox knows his Barrow AFC charges will have to up their game if they are to see off a determined challenge from Taunton Town in the FA Cup tonight.

The sides go head-to-head in the first round replay, after the lower-league team went close to an upset at the Viridor Stadium nine days ago (7.45pm kick-off).

The Peacocks, who play their football three levels below Barrow in the Southern League South and West Division, twice led in the initial tie, through goals from Matt Wright and Matt Villis.

AFC drew level on both occasions – thanks to Byron Harrison and Richie Bennett – and had Liam Hughes sent-off for an alleged headbutt before half-time – a red card which has since been overturned by the FA.

With the lure of a trip to Football League opposition in the second round for the winners of tonight's match – as well as £18,000 in prize money – it looks sure to be another well-contested match at Holker Street.

Cox knows Taunton will be determined to carry on their 10-match unbeaten run – a succession of results which sees them still in both the FA Cup and FA Trophy – and that his side have to show their true colours to avoid an upset.

“There are these little things in football that happen to even games up,” Cox said. “We understood that in the first tie.

“We came up against a team unbeaten at home in 12 matches, who knew how to play their pitch, knew how to play their slope down into the bottom corner. I have no complaints about that whatsoever.

“The BBC changed that fixture to a Sunday. They did that for a reason – because they thought there was going to be an upset. When you look at the sloppiness in the way we conceded the goals, the way we didn't have any momentum in the game, having a man sent off, playing for 45 minutes with 10 men, I actually came out of it with a real positive.

“There were a lot of teams sat there on the Monday morning wishing they had ground a result out and had the chance of a replay.

“We know we played poorly and there is a lot more to come from us in the replay. The positive thing is that we are still in the competition.

“If we don't learn from the first game, it will be tough for us in the replay.”

He added: “The bigger picture is that everyone knows we didn't play very well. There were factors that affected that, which we had explained to the players before. But we're still in the competition, and we didn't do ourselves justice in the first game.

“The 10 who stayed on the pitch in the second half worked extremely hard and showed a great mindset. I think when I first came to this club, it was a game this club would have lost.

“It's nice that we can look at the bigger picture and see the positive that we know we didn't do ourselves justice, we know we didn't play well, but it was another game unbeaten, and we need to learn a lot of lessons from that game for the replay.”

The winners of tonight's match will play the victors of the replay between League One Bristol Rovers and League Two Crawley Town, which kicks off at the same time tonight at the Memorial Stadium.

The second round tie will be held on Sunday, December 4 (2pm kick-off), having been selected by the BBC as one of the games to be featured on Final Score.

It will be the second round in succession when either Barrow or Taunton have been included on the programme and had their game moved back to the Sunday, after the match at the Viridor Stadium earlier this month was also covered. Clubs involved in these games each receive £12,500.