Alfreton Town aim to make history as they take on Walsall in the FA Cup

The Reds will take on League One side Walsall, the game kicking off at 12.30pm and being broadcast live on BBC One. Should they progress, they could draw a Premier League or Championship club in the next round.

The club have been working hard to ensure the game will go ahead given the current freezing weather, with a large number of covers currently blanketing the pitch in anticipation of more sub-zero temperatures overnight on Friday and into Saturday morning.

And chairman Wayne Bradley is confident it will be enough.

He said on Thursday: “‘We’ve been working with the FA since we identified the weather forecast and been preparing for it since.

“We’ve managed to keep that frost away from the soil and and now we’ve managed to put another layer of covering over the pitch.

“The powers that be are telling me that they’re comfortable that this game will go ahead.”

Bradley added that the game will be a sell-out, with the whole town embracing the tie.

He said: “We will have a sell-out come Saturday. We’ve made sure tickets have gone out daily to make them accessible to every aspect of the community.

“I’m delighted to confirm that the majority of supporters will be Alfreton as opposed to Walsall.”

Manager Billy Heath says he has tried to treat the game the same as any other, but knows the expectations of an upset will be there.

He said: “We’ve just tried to keep to some form of normality. There are no special arrangements on the playing side. We’ll prepare exactly as we do for every opponent.

“But in reality we have got to go and embrace everything that’s in front of us, and if we do that and still the result isn’t the one we want, that’s fine, as long as we know in ourselves we gave everything.”

Striker Jake Day, meanwhile, is excited by the prospect of reaching round three.

He told BBC Sport: “Before this season I hadn't been past the second or third qualifying rounds.

"To think we could face a potential tie with a Premier League club if we win our next match, it's the stuff of dreams.

"We've tried not to speak about the FA Cup since the first round because we've had a lot of league and cup games. It's not been easy.

"The FA Cup is all about dreaming. We're a part-time team, live on national television, in a game where a win could earn you a crack against someone from the Premier League.

"But we're trying not to get ahead of ourselves. Walsall is a big, big game and it will be very difficult. They'll want to reach the third round as much as we do.

"It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for many of us."