By Paul Fletcher BBC Sport Online

Farnborough have seemingly no chance of defeating Arsenal in the FA Cup on Saturday.

The Nationwide Conference club are up against the Double holders, a team packed with internationals and capable of sweeping all before them.

But Paul Fairclough's Stevenage showed what can be achieved when they took Newcastle to a replay in the fourth round of the FA Cup back in 1998.

Fairclough now works for Arsenal as a scout and, not surprisingly, he has given Gunners boss Arsene Wenger a full briefing of what to expect.

The former Stevenage boss gives BBC Sport Online an insight into his scouting report ahead of the big tie.

The fear factor

If the Farnborough players do not believe they can beat Arsenal they might as well not bother turning up.

"One of the most important issues with this game is the mental attitude and approach of the Farnborough players," said Fairclough.

Arsenal do an awful lot of celebrating

"At Stevenage we made sure our players were totally mentally prepared to the point where we believed we were going to beat Newcastle.

"We are not talking about putting people into trances or anything but what we did - and I'm sure Graham Westley at Farnborough is doing the same - is to look at the players' fears.

"We had a meeting with all the players and honestly and openly listed all our fears and worked out how to deal with them."

Fairclough and his players discussed what to do if Alan Shearer scored in the first minute.

When it happened they were not shell-shocked and took the game to Newcastle.

Inside Shearer's head

A big part of the process of believing that an upset can happen comes from focusing on the fears of the opposition.

What is Shearer thinking?

"To increase our confidence we did role reversal.

"Each player took on the role of a Newcastle player and discussed what sort of fears they would have.

"It can be total humiliation for Arsenal so Farnborough's players have to tap into that fear in some shape or form."

Taking shape

Farnborough have prepared for the match by heading to a training camp in the Spanish resort of La Manga.

"I think they will use their time over there to look at playing a different system and I have reported that to Arsenal," said Fairclough.

"You cannot really step up the fitness side of things.

"They can improve their sharpness but it is a bit late in the day to improve long-term stamina."

Pump up the volume

Before Stevenage's match with Newcastle, Fairclough did everything he could to familiarise his players with competing in a high-profile match.

Fairclough blasted crowd noises out during training

He borrowed tapes of crowd noises from the BBC and blasted them out at top volume during training so his players didn't freeze when they ran out in front of a packed Broadhall Way.

The Stevenage boss also had black and white shirts at training sessions to remove any intimidation when his team finally came up against the famous Toon jerseys.

"We'd also taken them to see big games to soak up atmosphere - which I think Farnborough have been doing."

Pitch battles

Farnborough's cramped ground and basic facilities could have worked to their advantage had they not switched the tie to Highbury - and Fairclough reckons a big positive has been wasted.

Farnborough could have played the tie at Cherrywood Road

Stevenage held Newcastle in front of their own fans at Broadhall Way and Fairclough acknowledges the role home advantage played.

"There is no doubt there will be fears in the Arsenal changing room - but not as much as there would have been had the game taken place at Farnborough.

"When we put ourselves in Newcastle's boots to try and see things from their perspective we thought a lot of their fears would have been about the ground."

He hurts too

Fairclough had covered just about everything possible by the time his team took to the pitch - but the unexpected still happens.

"Just before half-time Gary Crawshaw made a crunching tackle on Stuart Pearce and the England defender cried out loud.

"Gary came into the dressing room and said 'Stuart Pearce is human, he is just like me.' That had a massive effect on the players - the realisation that they are flesh and blood."