WORCESTER City will be going all out to build up a first-leg lead against Crawley Town in the Dr Martens League Cup final tonight (7.45).

City boss John Barton will be looking for City to establish a cushion at St George's Lane to take into next Thursday's second leg at Crawley, as they try to win the trophy for the first time in 61 years.

But even if they don't, Worcester can still approach the second leg with confidence, bearing in mind their excellent away record this season.

Manager John Barton said: "Ideally we would like to be in a position of taking a lead down to Crawley next week. It is important to take that on board, and hopefully we can do that.

"But we have to be careful about it, accepting that it is our home leg. There will be more onus on us tonight, but it is a two-legged situation.

"There will be all sorts of twists and turns, but we have 180 minutes to get it right, and that's what we are going to do.

"We have two games to bring the club its first silverware outside of county cups in 61 years. The importance is there from that statistic alone."

City have already beaten Crawley 2-0 at home in the league this season, but Barton believes that result will count for nothing tonight.

"Nobody in a final is easy, and they won't be viewing us as easy either," he said.

Barton plans to stick to the same 14 players involved in Monday's 4-1 win over Halesowen, although he has not ruled out making changes to the starting line-up.

City will be looking to striker Mark Shepherd to repeat his two-goal show in their 5-3 semi-final victory over Newport.

Barton also wants the St George's Lane supporters to play an important role, with a bumper crowd expected tonight.

"It will be nice for the fans, who this year have been tremendous, and for everybody at the club who have seen some pretty lean times over the last few years.

"We are in a final and hopefully they can come along and play their part, as they have done all season."

Worcester will select their starting line-up from: McDonnell, Carty, Burrow, Joyce, Heeley, Weir, Lutz, Ellis, Cottrill, Owen, Shepherd, Hyde, Tucker, Greenman, P. Wyatt.