MARK Lawn believes a Valley Parade wall of noise is worth a “five yard” start in tomorrow’s FA Cup showdown with Millwall.

City are confidently anticipating a five-figure crowd for the third-round replay. They have already sold around 9,000 tickets.

With a trip to Premier League leaders Chelsea for the winners, joint-chairman Lawn is banking on the noisy fan base to make home advantage count.

He said: “Look at the big games when we’ve been at home. The obvious ones are when we played Premier League teams but I also think back to the Burton play-off.

“If it wasn’t for the way everyone responded that night then we wouldn’t have gone to the final and got promoted.

“When we went 3-1 down and looked down and out, the crowd lifted the team and they got a goal back. The place was rocking for those last 20 minutes and you could see the impact on the players.

“An atmosphere like that puts the defending team five yards further back. They defend a little deeper and we can pressure them more.

“People have got to be realistic. I think this is going to be a harder game than the first one because Millwall are away and there’s a little bit less pressure on them.

“There’s a vast difference between League One and the Championship – look at how much money Rotherham have spent and they are still struggling.

“But look at the prize on offer. Chelsea are up there with Real Madrid and Barcelona as the best teams in Europe and we have the chance to pit ourselves against them on the same pitch.”

Valley Parade’s own much-maligned playing surface came in for more flak from Rochdale boss Keith Hill. The pitch is still suffering from the effects of the heavy rainfall in November and playing three successive home games at the end of that month.

But Lawn insists it should not be used as an excuse.

He said: “Let’s stop whinging about it. The pitch is what it is.

“The ground staff were in at 6am on Saturday and even earlier for the Notts County game. They are doing all they can but look at the amount of water – what else do you expect?

“The north-west has been hammered with rain and some other pitches are just as bad.

“I remember the old Baseball Ground was a lot worse and Derby won the league on that with Brian Clough, who used to get his sides playing football.”

City could be given a double boost on the injury front with the return of Andrew Davies and Billy Clarke. Phil Parkinson is hoping that both of them will be in contention.

Davies trained with the squad yesterday and Clarke has also got a chance after recovering from the knee problem, which has sidelined him since Christmas.

Parkinson said: “Billy has done everything but felt a little discomfort on Thursday when he was striking the ball full out. We got an injection into it and we’ll see how he is.”

Clarke’s return would give Parkinson the option of restoring his productive partnership with Jon Stead and playing the Irishman off the striker.

Meanwhile, City decided not to appeal Jordan Pickford's weekend record card after being told that he would serve his one-game ban in the FA Cup.