RICHARD Agar has no doubts about the size of the task facing his York City Knights troops at the McAlpine Stadium on Sunday - but sees it as a chance to write rugby league folklore.
York, the only team from National League Two to reach the last eight of Challenge Cup, have been given little hope by the bookmakers of becoming the first non-Super League side since 1996 to reach the semi-finals.
Agar, though, is just looking forward to the day knowing his side have nothing to lose.
He told the Evening Press: "There's a massive gulf between Super League and National League Two, physically, strength-wise, pace-wise and even skill-wise, and Huddersfield are going well, so it's a major challenge.
"But it's exciting. We're in a unique position. We know it's a mighty task but the players can write themselves into history books and into rugby league folklore, making one of the biggest upsets there's ever been."
He added: "Even if the 17 players play to the best of their ability it does not guarantee us a result. But we're not really interested in the scoreboard - we're more concerned with playing well, and if we do that the scoreboard will look after itself."
Agar, whose squad has been decimated by injuries and unavailability recently, has the bonus of being able to choose from 19 players.
Chris Langley is ready to take banned Aaron Wood's centre spot, while loose-forward Damian Ball is also fit and second-row John Smith is back from a ban and is battling for a subs' spot with Dan Briggs, who hopes to recover from a knee knock.
"It's a luxury having 19 players," joked Agar. "It will be hard on the guys that don't make it but I prefer to have one or two different permutations and albeit narrow ones it's better than having to scrape around to put a team together."
Langley meanwhile has urged fans from the Minster city to walk tall at the home of the Giants.
The former Huddersfield three-quarter has not ruled out York's chances of causing one of the Cup upsets of all time against his old club, and has called on the Knights faithful to enjoy the day whatever the result.
"We're really pleased with the way the supporters are going and the players are really buzzing off it," he said.
"We're hoping York fans can outnumber Huddersfield and I'm certain they will be more vocal. It's a massive help to us on the pitch regardless of the result."
As for York's chances, he said: "We've got a chance without a doubt. At the end of the day it's 17 versus 17 and there's no pressure on us at all.
"We're going to take a lot of supporters and it will be a massive day out for everyone, and because people don't expect us to win we can concentrate on playing good rugby without any pressure."
He added: "Last week's performance was disappointing but this is a totally different concept. We'll have a different team out and it's Cup football.
"Whichever 17 pull the York shirt on will give their best, win lose or draw, and that's the main thing."
Huddersfield, who boast several household names and "seven or eight players" from Langley's time there, are likely to stick with the squad that competed well against world champions Bradford last week, with the addition of prop Jim Gannon.
Langley added: "We're concentrating on ourselves. We've read that Jon Sharp (Huddersfield coach) has said he will give us respect, but we will try a few things out this weekend, try to mix it up a bit and hopefully surprise them. You never know what might happen."
Updated: 10:50 Saturday, March 27, 2004
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