HIGHWORTH Town keeper Gary Stevens insists heading into 'the Morgue’ today will not intimidate him.

The 26-year-old had to endure a barrage of abuse in the second half of Highworth Town’s FA Vase semi-final first leg and that was at the Elms.

The vocal North Shields fans were bouncing on the stanchion behind the goal and offering plenty of less than friendly banter to Stevens last Saturday but the Worthians number one has thick skin and put in an excellent performance.

Stevens was unlucky to concede as a horrible bobble off the pitch presented a chance to the Shields’ Dean Holmes to score the game’s only goal.

Most locals at the Elms might have struggled to understand the dialect of some of North Shields’ less cohesive fans, although Stevens was not thanking his luck from unique personal experience.

“My ex-girlfriend is from Huddersfield. So as I can understand her, I can understand them, if that makes sense,” said Stevens.

“When they scored it wasn’t nice, but it’s just the normal stuff like ‘you’re rubbish’ or ‘you’re fat’ - am I? It’s all standard, nothing I haven’t heard before.

“It wasn’t really intimidating, I find it quite inspiring really. If we were a bad team they wouldn’t do it, they’d just watch the game rather than seek their own little advantage.

“When they scored it was nice for them to do it in front of their own fans, but for me it really was just a case of ‘don’t listen to it, just crack on with your own game’, it was the same at Tunbridge Wells and Tadcaster.”

Grounds like the Elms and North Shields’ Darren Persson Stadium are not used to the volumes of fans these big cup games have attracted and the clubs have had to make adjustments for reasons of crowd safety.

Fortunately for Stevens, it looks like one such measure will work in his favour.

“I think they might have cordoned off parts of their ground,” he explained.

“The grass banks aren’t going to be for supporters and I think they’re behind the goal, so I might only get it for 45 minutes of it.”

On preparing for matters on the pitch Stevens is surer of the plan for him and his team-mates.

He said: “If we score early then it will be a tense game from their perspective.

“Losing 1-0 at home we know what we’ve got to do. None of us have ever been part of a two-legged tie before, so we wouldn’t know whether to push on or defend deep.

“At least we know now we have to win.”