St Albans City joint manager James Gray insists there is no pressure on his side as they bid to pull off an FA Cup upset at Grimsby Town this weekend.

The Saints can cast aside their struggles in the league on Saturday when they travel to the National League outfit in the first round of the FA Cup.

City will be big underdogs for the tie but the visitors believe they are capable of causing the Mariners problems.

Gray said: “The pressure’s off now because we go to Grimsby which is going to be good for us.

“The expectation inside the group will be we want to go and win the game. But outside a lot will be thinking we can’t get anything up there. But we feel we can and the pressure’s off us a little bit and it will be on Grimsby in front of their own fans. “ Although the Saints are second bottom in the National League South, Gray was encouraged by Saturday’s performance in the 1-1 draw at Havant & Waterlooville and believes his team are improving.

Gray said: “It bodes well for us that we’re on the up and we’re improving. I watched Grimsby on Friday and they are a very good side.

“They’re very physical, have good energy and are a full time outfit. They’re probably playing way below where they should be as a club anyway. It’s a big club but we’ve got no pressure on us now.

“We know what we’re going to try and do and we saw a few weaknesses in their armoury and we’re going to try to exploit that.”

The Saints took the decision to rest top scorer Louie Theophanous at Havant ahead of the Grimsby tie.

Harry Crawford was handed the opportunity to impress and the former Boreham Wood striker took his chance as he fired the visitors into the lead.

Crawford opened the scoring after 28 minutes when Kevin Krans’ through ball released him and he struck a 25-yard shot past goalkeeper Ryan Young.

But Havant equalised in first-half injury time when James Hayter ran onto a long punt from Young before firing home.