ACCRINGTON Stanley striker Paul Mullin believes he and his colleagues face a tough couple of days – but is confident they can be successful.

The Reds face Tranmere Rovers at Prenton Park tonight in their hastily re-arranged FA Cup First Round replay before taking on Bournemouth in a vital League Two clash just 48 hours later.

This evening’s trip to the Wirral was only fixed on Monday morning when broadcasters Setanta chose to televise the tie live.

And Mullin said although the news came as a shock, Stanley wouldn’t use their hectic schedule as an excuse.

He said: “We were only told on Monday afternoon that the Tranmere game had been brought forward so it was all a bit of a shock.

“You can understand the club wanting the financial boost because of the size of the budget the club operates on, but it didn’t give us a lot of time to prepare.

“The fact that the game is on the TV has caused a bit of excitement in the camp and there’s usually a couple of new haircuts knocking about – not with me and my brother obviously!

“But we won’t use that as an excuse. We’ll be ready for both games.”

The first game at the Fraser Eagle Stadium on Saturday ended in a goalless draw, thanks mainly to Reds stopper Kenny Arthur who produced a number of top class saves to force a replay.

Mullin added: “We did okay. They had the better chances but we matched them. We’ve become a more solid unit in the last three or four weeks and that’s shown in the league.

“The game against Bradford (that Stanley lost 3-2, conceding three goals in the last 10 minutes) really hurt us. The atmosphere in the dressing room afterwards isn’t something any of us wants to experience again.

“It was just a mad 10 minutes and, if we re-played that game 100 times, we’d still win.

“We’ve been working hard on things in training and we’ve become a lot more dogged and that was obvious on Saturday.

“We can’t make a lot of personnel changes but we’ve just got to get our heads down and get on with it.

“A run in the FA Cup would be good. We’ll go there and give it a good go and enjoy the occasion, especially as it’s on live TV.

“But I’m sure survival in the league is what everyone at the club wants and that’s why the game against Bournemouth is so massive.”

The Lancashire Telegraph exclusively reported on Monday that Stanley had spoken to the Cherries about moving the weekend’s game back 24 hours – a request denied by Bournemouth.

But Mullin wasn’t surprised that the League Two outfit decided against giving the Reds more time to recover.

He added: “I don’t blame Bournemouth for doing what they did. I suppose they will want to try and take advantage of any situation they can.

“It makes it extremely difficult for the players and manager because we have such a small squad but hopefully, come Sunday, we’ll have a cup tie at Peterborough to look forward to and another three points in the bag.”