KNOCKOUT fever returns to Harrogate Town and their manager John Reed is eager to land his own stunning blow.

Town - buoyed by attracting the UniBond League premier division's highest crowd of the day last week when 605 witnessed the toppling of Southport - return to Wetherby Road tomorrow to host another premier division foe in Barrow.

This time a place in the third round of the FA Trophy is up for grabs rather than vital promotion points, but the plunder is equally as precious to the buoyant Reed.

The man, who has led a team out at Wembley when he steered Bridlington Town to an FA Vase final against Yeading 13 years ago, has a secret desire feeding his motivational powers ahead of tomorrow's intriguing tie.

The next round of the Trophy introduces the top Conference clubs into the draw and there's one side that Reed would be thrilled to be paired against - Farnborough Town, who last season routed his Harrogate men 6-1 in the FA Cup second round.

Declared Reed: "The next round is when the big Conference boys come in and I would love a rematch against Farnborough, especially if we could bring them here to Harrogate.

"I'm like that. I like to settle old scores and I would love nothing better than to have a another smash at them. But first we've got the not so small hurdle of Barrow to get over."

Harrogate have twice played Barrow already this season, both games being at the Cumbrians' Holker Park base. Town lost 2-0 in the FA Cup but recently gained revenge with a 2-1 win that has helped Town to secure third place in the UniBond premier division.

Tomorrow's visitors are managed by former Doncaster Rovers striker Lee Turnbull, whom Reed knows well as they hail from the same village just outside Doncaster.

While he expected no quarter from the tie, Reed was ecstatic at the present form of his charges, hailing the 3-1 trouncing of Southport as the best performance in his near three-year reign at Wetherby Road.

"To be honest, we could have had seven or eight goals. We utterly battered them. We out-fought them, we out-gunned them and the tempo we showed right through the game was first-class. And that was in front of the UniBond's biggest crowd of the day.

"If we can do that again and get a crowd topping 700 it would be a massive boost."

With Michael McNaughton and Scott Bonsall out injured, Ben Sherwood, Richard Dunning and Josh Bowker have been added to the Harrogate squad.

A wake-up call will have to be heeded to get Northern Counties East League premier division title-chasers Pickering Town back on the right track at home to mid-table Armthorpe Welfare.

That was the verdict of Pikes' manager Steve Brown after his men tumbled out of the FA Vase with a 2-0 defeat at Shildon last week.

Said Brown: "For the first time in quite a while we were second best - it wasn't that we played badly.

"It was a bit of a wake-up call and now I need to see what sort of reaction I get from the players. They've been good and bright in training so hopefully they will be able to bounce right back."

Pickering will be without former York City youth team skipper Pete Vasey. He pulled a hamstring in the cup exit and is not expected to recover in time. That will force a reshuffle with Brown weighing up several options, including a call to young York-born centre-back Lee Pallender.

Former Crewe, Harrogate Town and Harrogate Railway striker Ian Hart may also come into contention for a place on the bench after recovering from injury.

Considered opinion relayed to new Harrogate Railway Athletic boss Martin Haresign is that his men will yield nothing from tomorrow's premier division hike to sixth-placed Sheffield.

But that verdict will only act as a spur to Railway, insisted the manager.

"After Sheffield we've got a county cup tie against Farsley Celtic on Tuesday and everybody's been telling me that we're going to lose both, so this is our chance to prove those people wrong," he said.

"I know Sheffield are a big, strong side who are difficult to beat, but it's the type of game from which it would be great to pick up points. We have picked up over the last few games so we want to continue that."

Haresign's assistant Ian Blackstone is unavailable as is Damien Holmes, while striker Steve Davey will complete a ban.

But back into the squad come Shaun Constable, Phil Turner and Damien Place after all three missed last week's 1-1 draw with Borrowash Victoria.

Confidence is high that lowly NCEL division one side Tadcaster Albion can register their fifth win of the season when they entertain Carlton Town tomorrow.

Just last month Tadcaster travelled to Carlton where they perished 2-1. But Albion boss Wayne day was convinced his men should have prised at least a point from that outing. Tomorrow offers the chance to make amends on home turf provided the Albion ranks re-discover a more ruthless streak in front of goal.

"We were the better side and we were really disappointed to have come away with nothing. We saw nothing then to suggest we could not get a win tomorrow," said Day.

"Our main problem over the last four matches has been that we are missing good chances from close range. We are just not putting the sitters away."

Defenders Paul Hook and Paul James are serving suspensions, but Rob Walker is back from a dead leg to bolster the defence.

Updated: 14:39 Friday, November 28, 2003