It might still be summer but the FA Cup kicks-off in earnest for Hitchin Town this weekend.

Hitchin Town manager Mark Burke is expecting a stern test when his side travel to Haringey Borough in the FA Cup first qualifying round on Saturday.

The Canaries go into the game having picked up their first win of the league season against Royston Town, beating their local rivals 1-0 at Top Field on Bank Holiday Monday.

Despite Haringey playing in the league below, they have made a strong start to the season – winning four out of five games, sitting third in the Isthmian North – and Burke expects a tough game on Saturday.

“It’s going to be tough. Haringey away will be a bit of a potential banana skin,” he told CometSport.

“They are doing really well in their league and we sent someone to watch them against Chesunt.

“They are a good team who play good football.

“It will be tough because they are on a high and we are just getting our confidence.

“They have nothing to lose, we are a league higher and they should expect us to be the favourite.

“I’d rather be the underdog.

“We could do with an FA Cup run this season because we’ve not had one in a long time, so if we can have one it would be great.”

When the side met previously in the FA Trophy, Hitchin came out on top in a replay on Haringey’s old grass pitch but the Canaries boss is expecting a cmpletely different test on the London clubs new plastic 4G surface.

Burke told CometSport: “They have a plastic pitch but I’m not concerned about it as we train on one all the time and it will suit as we’ll be able to get it down and play.

“We played them away before and beat them in a replay. It poured it down.

“It was proper mud that day, a real quagmire, but it will be the complete opposite this time.”