West Auckland manager Peter Dixon believes that their dressing room camaraderie can carry them into the semi finals when they go head-to-head against Bournemouth in their first ever Vase quarter final today.

The West squad set off yesterday afternoon for the south coast, and Dixon, who made the 600 mile round trip in midweek to spy on their opponents, said: “Our team spirit is fantastic, and that will be an important factor. It has carried us through these last three seasons, to this stage of the Vase and to the top of the Northern league table. We all socialise together, play together and win together.

“Even the players who are unable to play, John Campbell and Elliott Gardner, are making the trip down. There are no cliques, every player we sign we make sure that they can fit into our dressing room.

“Team spirit aside, we must be at our best, and perform like we did in the second half against Spennymoor last Saturday. We can’t afford to start slowly.

“The bottom line is, there are no mugs in the competition now. Bournemouth are a good team, they’ve done well in the FA Cup, and they’ve won five home games in the Vase so far.

“I don’t know how much I learned in midweek, they only used half of the players from the previous Saturday, and used a different formation. But Billingham Synthonia have been very good and have sent us a dvd of their game and given us a rundown on them.”