Phil Banyard Linnets boss Carl Heggs is focusing on football rather than finance ahead of his side's FA Trophy encounter with Salford at The Walks this afternoon.If Heggs' men overcome Unibond First Division North strugglers Salford they will receive �4,000 in prize money and the chance of a money-spinning first round draw against a big Blue Square Premier side.

Phil Banyard

Linnets boss Carl Heggs is focusing on football rather than finance ahead of his side's FA Trophy encounter with Salford at The Walks this afternoon.

If Heggs' men overcome Unibond First Division North strugglers Salford they will receive �4,000 in prize money and the chance of a money-spinning first round draw against a big Blue Square Premier side. With Wednesday's deadline to clear the club's �65,000 Inland Revenue debt looming, victory could be crucial for the Linnets.

But Heggs insists the financial benefits of the competition are merely a side issue for him: “Since I've been at the club it has always been struggling for money,” he said.

“The club's been mismanaged and it's in an awful lot of debt. I've been aware of it and I've worked on a budget which is a quarter of what any other manager has had probably for the last 10 years, so I don't want to focus on the money side of things, I just want to be judged on the football side of things.

“I'm trying to get a young, fit, powerful, quick, enthusiastic team - all the things I promised when I first came to the club and I feel like I've kept to my end of the bargain.

“This game, like all games, is a cup final to me and we will prepare properly and do everything we possibly can to win. The rewards of winning would be great for the club, there's no doubt about that, but the bottom line is I have to do what's best for my team to win and I try not to get involved in the money side.”

Victory today would open up the possibility of a first round tie against the likes of Luton Town or Oxford United and Heggs believes that would be a fitting reward for his players, especially after they were knocked out of the FA Cup at the first hurdle in September: “As a manager of a non-league football club, barring the big league fixtures which you are guaranteed, to have one special day a season is very nice, and I don't think it's too much to ask,” said Heggs.

“We were not at the right stage of our rebuilding when we played in the FA Cup and we got turned over. Play that tie today and we win 5-0, so we missed the opportunity of that because we were in a rebuilding process.

“Now it's virtually built, we've just got to add one or two more players, so if we can get a Luton Town at home and get the whole place buzzing and get 3,000 fans down there, it's a special day that was not expected. That's what I want, for myself, for the players and for the area of King's Lynn.”

The freescoring Linnets have hit 23 goals in their last three home games and Heggs added: “Scoring goals at that rate is a bonus, but where I'm pleased and satisfied is that the players understand the high standards that I set and they are all reaching them. I don't have to motivate the lads any more, they know what I expect.”

Heggs was handed another boost this week with news that left-back Lathaniel Rowe-Turner has opted to stay at The Walks for another month after turning down an offer to join Torquay United. The manager said: “It's a massive boost, because it's not Lathaniel taking the easy option or a lack of ambition - he sees King's Lynn as a club with an enormous amount of young talent where there's Football League clubs coming to watch.

“I haven't forced a decision on him, because it would be wrong of me to sell King's Lynn over a Football League club, but he's decided to stay here because he's got more chance of joining a better club from King's Lynn than he would do if he went to Torquay and that goes to show how far we have come.”

Heggs' only fitness concern today is midfielder Joe Magunda, who missed training on Thursday with a chest infection and if he has not recovered Jordan Smith will step in for his full home debut.