"It would be phenomenal" - Harrow Borough boss Baker plotting cup shock against Shaymen

The two teams go head-to-head on Saturday for a place in the fifth round of the competition, with the winners then being just three more rounds from Wembley.

Harrow are 17th in Southern League Premier Division South, two divisions lower than Halifax, and are two points above the relegation zone, having won six of 23 league games this season.

When asked what would it mean to the club if they beat Halifax on Saturday, Baker said: "It would be phenomenal.

"It's not the biggest game in the club's history but it's not far off it.

"I think it would be one of the biggest wins in our history.

"Make no mistake, FC Halifax is a massive, massive club, it's a club that were in the Football League most of the time I was growing up.

"The National League is well above what it was a few years ago in terms of pay structure, full-time teams.

"If we were to beat them, it would be the club's biggest win certainly in my time here and probably in 30-odd years.

"It would be a huge result against what is a giant non-league football club."

Harrow came from 1-0 to win away at Swindon Supermarine, from the same division, in the last round.

"I think it's the furthest the club's gone in the Trophy for about 25 years," said Baker.

"I've been at the club coming up to eight years and it's just been one of those competitions every year where we're out in the first round.

"It's great, we couldn't have got a much bigger draw put it that way.

"To get a home draw against a top Conference side, and a big club with a lot of history.

"We've got a very young team, and I could hear a couple of the lads the other day saying 'it will be the biggest team I've ever played against'.

"It's quite nice to hear that, so I certainly know how much it'll mean to the players and the club."

Harrow are the second-lowest scorers in the division and lost 5-1 at home to leaders Western Super Mare last Saturday.

On what Halifax should expect from his side, Baker said: "I don't know some weeks!

"I've got a really hard-working team, very fit, lots of pace and we do have a go no matter who we play.

"Sometimes that's worked really well for us, like against Concord earlier in the competition, we went for them, but on Saturday it went against us.

"If you picked a team we're similar to at a higher level, it would be Leeds United. We have a go, we'll try and score goals, we're not really ultra defensive but on the flip side of it, I think we'll have to play with a little bit more caution than we normally would.

"Anyone we play against in our league, we'll go for it. We might lose 5-1, we might win 4-3, we're not a 1-0 specialist.

"But I think I'll have to be a bit more sensible on Saturday in how we approach it because what you don't want is what we had on Saturday, where we showed the opposition a bit too much respect at times and the game's over after half-an-hour.

"I know Halifax were watching us on Saturday.

"We'll certainly have a go, there's nothing worse than going out of a competition when you think you could've been more adventurous.

"The key for us will be getting the balance right."

Baker feels the pressure is on Halifax going into the game.

"I'd like to think so. There's certainly no pressure on us except for the pressure we put on ourselves," he said.

"I think its a different kind of pressure.

"We've had draws where we've played teams from leagues below and I don't like that because all the pressure is on you - even if you win it's expected anyway.

"I think the pressure on our boys is whether or not they can cope with playing in a game of that size and playing a team of that level.

"We're very young, got a lot of inexperienced players.

"We played the team top of our league on Saturday and I felt that side of it affected our players.

"But we went to Concorde in a previous round, who are in the Conference South, and won 4-2, and were fantastic and rose to that pressure.

"I have no doubt Halifax will deal with that pressure absolutely no problem at all - experienced manager, experienced players.

"It's whether or not we can cope with that side of it."

Baker has been in charge at Harrow for eight years and says he expects to have a fully-fit squad to choose from, other than on-loan striker Anointed Chukwu, who is cup-tied.

The Harrow boss said: "Obviously they'll (Halifax) be fitter, stronger, physically they'll be bigger and they will be better man for man all round the park.

"So we've got to try and find where their weakness lies, where their strength lies is what we'll have to deal with but ultimately, we'll have to look at what their weaknesses are.

"They won't have many against us.

"The only positive you take is you look at their last game in the Trophy, they only won 1-0 at Guiseley, and I've watched a bit of that and I felt Guiseley had some really good chances second-half.

"We went to Portsmouth in the FA Cup last year and lost 1-0, and we were in the game for the whole 95 minutes.

"It'll be about finding a way of how we can do that. We create chances every game we play, you'll probably just create fewer on Saturday, so it's about making sure you take them.

"We'll need to be better than we've been in on or two games lately to have every chance."

On what crowd Harrow is expecting on Saturday, Baker said: "Unfortunately we don't get big crowds.

"There's so many teams within a ten-mile radius where we play in London, which is a shame because if we were out in north-west London we'd probably get 600 or 700 every week.

"We probably average 300 or 400, some weeks we might get 150.

"We'd expect a couple of hundred to travel down from Halifax maybe."

Baker added: "You want to go out and have a good go.

"You just want to come off the pitch thinking you couldn't have done much more.

"We said the same message last year when we went to Portsmouth, who were about 80 places above us.

"Don't have any regrets, concentration levels will need to be 100 per cent all game and make sure you stay in the game, don't throw the game away early.

"We're a very, very young team. Our previous league game, I think our average age was 20, 21 and for one or two of the players it will be a decent opportunity to put themselves in the shop window.

"We do have players who can play higher, it will be a bigger crowd than normal, there might be a couple of scouts there - if they go out and perform on the day it could change their career.

"If we're as good as we can be and you maybe catch them on an off-day and have that little bit of luck we've had in other Trophy games this year, you give yourself a fighting chance."