Stuart Maynard knows from experience his York City players will face a hostile crowd and a tough pitch at Wealdstone on Saturday but even more recent history makes him confident they can cope.

The Stones are part-timers in a Conference with plenty of clubs with Football League pedigree and full-time playing staffs, yet they sit in a respectable 13th.

And having started his managerial career there, Maynard knows not to take them lightly.

"It's a club where I started off with Rory (Fitzgerald), the chairman, and the board that I owe a lot to for that opportunity," he said.

"It's one of the toughest places to go in the league. The fans really do make it hostile."

Given recent weather, the pitch could be as big a concern as those on it.

"It does struggle with water so, we do expect it to be a heavy pitch," says Maynard. "But when we turned up at Brackley, we knew the pitch was going to be heavy and executed the gameplan brilliantly (winning 3-2 in November).

"We've just got to keep worrying about ourselves. I'm a big believer that all the other teams, we can't worry about them.

WEALD DRILLED: York City manager Stuart Maynard knows what to expect at his old club (Image: Jonathan Gawthorpe)

placeholder image — WEALD DRILLED: York City manager Stuart Maynard knows what to expect at his old club (Image: Jonathan Gawthorpe)

"We've just got to be solely focused on ourselves, how we recover (from Wednesday's dramatic 3-2 win over Hartlepool United), and make sure that we have the best protocols in place, which we do with our medical team.

"The energy levels were incredible to come out of the game like Forest Green with that intensity and go all the way to 104 minutes in that game was incredible."