AFC EMLEY boss Darren Hepworth is hoping Town fans will help him turn back the clock at the Welfare Ground on Saturday.

Scene of so many stirring cup-ties in the past, the hill-top venue hosts the twice-postponed FA Vase fourth-round tie against Suffolk side Hadleigh United (3.00).

It’s a great chance for Emley, who have a key Northern Counties East League First Division game at Shirebrook tonight, to make the last 16 of the national competition.

Busy Hepworth is determined to make home advantage count, and with Town away at Derby on Saturday, wants non-travelling fans to give his team a chance.

“We’re an ambitious Huddersfield club with a squad made up of talented and driven local lads, and it would be great if some Town fans got behind us,” he said.

“The name Emley is synonymous with exciting cup football going right back to the original club and their Amateur Cup runs of the late sixties.

“In more recent times they got to the FA Vase final at Wembley and the quarter-finals of the FA Trophy, and of course there was the FA Cup tie at West Ham.

“I’d rate the Hadleigh game as the biggest in our history (AFC were formed in 2005) and we’re determined to do everything we can to get through.”

Tonight’s match at Shirebrook will be Emley’s first since January 12, when Worsbrough Bridge were beaten 2-1 at the Welfare Ground.

And Hepworth is delighted to be back in action, even with the game against Hadleigh, of the Eastern Counties League Premier Division, so close.

“People say we’d be better off without the Shirebrook match, but I see it differently,” continued the boss.

“We’ve had some very good indoor training sessions, but you can’t beat being on grass and the lads are champing at the bit.

“The league is the most important things to us, and picking up three points at Shirebrook would lead us nicely into the Vase game.”

Saturday’s winners will seal a fifth-round trip to Ampthill Town or Enfield 1893, and Hepworth added: “We’d love a trip down South.

“But we have to get past Hadleigh first, and from tomorrow morning onwards, our thoughts will be on that game and that game alone.”