Wrexham face Marine in David v Goliath cup tie

The Mariners, who play in the Northern Premier League Division One West, beat higher level clubs Chester, Colchester and Havant & Waterlooville to reach the third round of the competition for just the second time in the club’s history last season.

The fantastic run ended with a 5-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur but Marine, managed by former Chester boss Neil Young, will aim to experience the magic of the cup again when Wrexham head to Rossett Park for Saturday's fourth qualifying round tie.

The capacity has been set at 2,150 with Wrexham being allocated 350 tickets, and former Reds defender Raven hopes to make the most of home advantage.

"Luckily it is at our place and we will have our fans behind us, it will be full," said Raven.

"2,500 fans are expected, it will feel like 10,000 so the atmosphere will be great.

"I think empty stadiums might have worked in our favour a little bit last season.

"When we had Colchester away, they didn't have their fans behind them and we stifled them and frustrated them which was great.

"Fans can make a huge difference in football so having them behind us will hopefully give us that extra boost on the day."

But Raven, who made seven league appearances for Wrexham at the end of the 2017-18 season, knows the odds are stacked against Marine.

"Wrexham are a huge club in the National League and have been in the press a lot lately for obvious reasons," said Raven.

"It will be a good game. We are organised, we are hard working, it is a blend of experience but mostly young lads who have got legs and enthusiasm, so it will be a good, old fashioned cup tie.

"We are aware of what Wrexham has got and the money they have spent, bringing lads in from the league, so it will be no easy task.

"We are massive underdogs, there are a few leagues between us. Wrexham are a huge club and Marine a small part-time club so it is David and Goliath stuff again and we are looking forward to it."

Raven admits last season's cup heroics gave him a huge boost as the 36-year-old comes to the end of his career.

"It was brilliant with all things considered; my age, where I was at in my career and beating the teams we beat to get to the third round," said Raven.

"We beat teams two, three, four leagues above us to get to that stage and get rewarded with a tie like Tottenham.

"Before the run I thought my career was fizzling out and you accept that is the case, and then something like that comes along!

"It rejuvenates your passion again, especially with the lockdown. With everything that happened, it kept us going and put a smile of peoples faces."

The clash with Tottenham raised over £300,000 for the club from the selling of 30,697 "virtual tickets" to fans of Tottenham and other clubs who wished to support Marine but were unable to attend the match due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"That turned out to be a huge boost for the club," said Raven.

"It wouldn't have happened in normal times because we would have had 2,500 fans in the stadium but we ended up selling 30,000 tickets.

"7.5 million people watched it on television and the messages we were getting from all over the place were brilliant.

"People grasped the magic of the cup."

Raven was gutted Wrexham missed out on the play-offs following a poor run-in when he was at The Racecourse after manager Dean Keates took over at Walsall.

“It was disappointing because when I joined I think we were second or possibly top. Maybe that was the effect I had! said Raven.

“I only played a handful of games. When Dean left, I was convinced we had the backroom staff and the players to get over the line.

“I was one of the voices that said we didn’t need to change anything or bring anyone in but I was probably wrong with that.

“Little things crept in because there wasn’t that leadership there which I was really disappointed about.

“I was disappointed I wasn’t part of a promotion there, but they have got the infrastructure in place now and the financial backing; it will be sooner rather than later I’m sure.”