YORKSHIRE here we come! The Rebels are on their way north for their biggest cup day out in four years.

This was the scene at Woodside Road yesterday afternoon as manager Sammy Donnelly and his squad headed for their date with Rotherham United.

The squad made an early start to their FA Cup weekend and were waking up in Yorkshire this morning anxious to hear Donnelly announce his line-up.

But they certainly won't be lacking in support as a fleet of worthing followers leave the south coast today.

The club are taking two supporters coaches while the Q Club, the Inland Revenue, the Frog Pond pub and a local carpet firm are also organising transport.

Rebels have sold out of replica shirts and polo shirts and were hoping to bring in fresh supplies to sell today.

Vice chairman Ray Smith said: "I've never known an interest like this in the club.

"I had a call from a woman in Hull who said she used to live in Worthing and would be coming to support us. She'd been following the club on our website."

Midfield powerhouse Paul Kennett will be supported by 11 friends and relations, including parents Keith and Pam.

Keith said: "We're expecting them to play well. We hope they win but we'd love to bring Rotherham back for a replay.

"Well be staying up there tonight. We're the ones with the air horns that you hear at matches."

Skipper Mark Burt is taking a big personal following up the M1 while the Rutherford family will also be out in force.

One man who will be hoping to see Rebels pull off a shock is their former striker Darren Freeman, now playing for the Albion, one of Rotherham's promotion rivals.

He'll be busy at Peterborough this afternoon but he said: "I'll wish Sammy all the best and I'll be looking for the result.

"I'm sure they'll put up a good performance. It's lot of fun for them and good publicity for the club."

Freeman played alongside Rotherham target man Leo Fortune-West at Gillingham and was in the same Fulham side as long throw expert Rob Scott.

He revealed: "Leo's a great laugh and a lovely fella and he's very hard to play against.

"But if you can keep him out of the picture you've done half the job.

"Rob pulled his arm out of its socket when we were training at an Army camp but he's recovered and he can lob the ball into the penalty area, no problem.

"I reckon it could be 4-1 to Rotherham, but that would be no disgrace for Worthing."

The Rotherham press seem to take some amusement from the thought of Sussex folk spending a long weekend in their town at the back end of October.

Rotherham's tourist board reckon their town attracts around 300,000 visitors per year and offers "rolling countryside, heritage sites and state of the art attractions".

None of which will bother 500 or so Worthing fans today. All they want is a Lee Bray cleansheet, a breakaway goal and the biggest result in the club's history.

That's not asking too much, is it?

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.