WESTBURY United manager Neil Kirkpatrick is under no illusions as to how difficult his side’s Wiltshire Cup semi-final against Southern League Premier Division South outfit Swindon Supermarine will be on Wednesday.

Westbury are second in the Toolstation League Premier Division table – two tiers below – but are still 33 places below their county rivals.

As such, Kirkpatrick believes them to be ‘massive underdogs’ for the tie.

United have beaten Royal Wootton Bassett Town, Shrewton United and Purton to reach the final four of the competition and have not yet faced a team from higher up the ladder.

Lee Spalding’s Marine will present Westbury with a new challenge, and Kirkpatrick feels their opponents will have to give his side some help if they stand any chance of making it through.

Kirkpatrick said: “We go into it as massive underdogs because they’re two leagues above us, they’re doing really well and challenging for the play-offs in that league.

“It’s one of those games where nobody will give us a prayer, but we’re looking forward to it – we’ll give it our best shot and it’s a free hit.

“Yes, it’s a semi-final and you want to win it, but we are huge underdogs.

“They’re going to have to have an off-night and we’ll have to be at our best.

“When we’re at our best, we know we can cause them one or two problems, so as long as we can stop them causing us problems, we might stand a chance.”

By the time the game is scheduled to go ahead, Westbury will not have played for two-and-a-half weeks and Kirkpatrick is wary of the effect the lack of action may have on his players.

The United manager plans to attack Marine regardless as playing their normal game is seen as the only method of securing a shock win.

He said: “We haven’t had a game for a couple of weeks, which isn’t ideal preparation, but it just means that the lads that were carrying knocks are clear of that.

“Supermarine have got huge experience in their side, but there are one or two areas that we’re looking to exploit.

“We know we make a lot of chances – we’ll have a couple of chances in that game, without a doubt, so it’s important that we take them.

“At the same time, we’ll have to defend like lions and hope we do enough.

“We’ve got absolutely nothing to lose, so we’ll go there and have a real go. We’ll play the way we normally do. Why change something that has got us this far?”