Billingham Synthonia skipper Simon Shaw will miss tomorrow' s FA Vase quarter-final home tie against Bideford but he will still be shouting for his team mates.

Shaw misses one of the biggest games in Synners' history because of a three-match suspension for five bookings, the last of which he collected in the previous round's 4-0 home win over Mildenhall.

Darlington fans will remember the full back also missed one of Quakers' biggest ever matches, the play-off final at Wembley against Plymouth, because of injury way back in 1996.

"I'm a bit gutted about it, but the way I look at it, is that I've got a chance of playing in a semi final. I could have played in the quarter-final, picked up my fifth booking, and been suspended for the semi final," he said.

"We know less about Bideford than we do about Mildenhall.

"We've noticed that some people think we are second favourites, but we believe that we are more than capable of beating Bideford.

"We're playing really well. We had a really good win on Monday at Blue Star, and we've beaten Nissan and Shildon as well in recent weeks. Everybody feels that we're in a rich vein of form, and confidence is high.

"Our attitude is that reaching the quarter-final isn't enough, and we want to go as far as we can. We've come this far, and we've got a hell of a chance of playing in a major cup final at this level.

"We've saved some of our best performances for the Vase, and if we'd started the league season as well as we've played in the second half of the season, then we would have been up there challenging for the title.

"We've been reasonably lucky by getting a lot of home draws, but you need luck like that if you're going to do well in a competition. We've been at home in every round except one, and we've made home advantage count.

"I'll be cheering the lads on from the sidelines - because I want to play in a semi final."