Grayson set to miss out

Stafford Rangers will be without top scorer Neil Grayson for the first time this season as the FA Cup heroes tackle St Albans at Marston Road tomorrow.

The 42 year old veteran spent a night in hospital this week with concussion and manager Phil Robinson has decided to rest him ahead of their FA Cup date with Brighton.

Robinson said: "We won't be risking him this weekend - we are giving him plenty of time to recover."

Grayson was carried off following a collision with Maidenhead's goalkeeper on Tuesday and spent the night in hospital before being released the next day.

He was not the only casualty from that first round replay. Defender Craig McAughtrie pulled a calf muscle in the warm-up and was replaced by two-goal hero Liam Murray, while midfielder Craig Lovatt also limped off.

Robinson has Del Olaoye and Brian Quailey waiting for their chance to partner Guy Madjo up front, but Olaoye himself has been suffering from a knee strain.

"We really are down towards the bare bones again at the moment," said the Rangers boss.

Although the Cup has taken centre stage at the moment, Rangers face an important Nationwide Conference game with St Albans tomorrow. Rangers lost their unbeaten run at Halifax last Saturday and will be keen not to lose ground in their quest for Conference safety.

However Robinson says the Saints will pose some problems: "Since their good start to the season they haven't picked up as many points as they would have liked, but even within that period they have pulled off some great results against the better Conference teams, so we need to make sure we're at our best."

Like Rangers St Albans were promoted at the end of last season via the play-offs.

Rangers (from): Alcock, Sutton, Daniel, McAughtrie, Talbott, Robin Gibson, Lovatt, Murphy, Street, Madjo, Edwards, Olaoye, Oldfield, Dacres, Quailey, Murray, Alex Gibson.