THE New Saints boss Scott Ruscoe believes his players do not need any extra motivation to record themselves in the history books as the latest side to record a league and FAW Cup double.

Saints face Connah’s Quay Nomads, who pushed TNS all the way as they recorded an eighth straight Welsh Premier League title, at Cefn Druids’ The Rock home on Sunday.

Many of Ruscoe’s squad were in the line-up in 2017 when they were beaten in Bangor by Bala Town – Saints’ last final appearance – and the TNS boss wants them to use the memory of that defeat to push them to victory.

“The lads don’t need to be motivated for this week – it’s a cup final and it’s one we haven’t been in for two years,” he said after Saints’ final win of the league season on Friday against Nomads.

“The last time was Bala where we lost 2-1 and I will be reminding them of that because we were coasting in the game and we threw it away.

“We were 1-0 up but they had two chances for two goals. If we get that first one, we can’t take it easy because it’s very important to win this so I don’t think we need to be giving them extra motivation.”

Ruscoe’s side have not tasted defeat in 2019 but while he is fully aware of the benefit of keeping his side’s preparation on track, he admits he has changed up their plans this week.

And he added that we was surprised by how Nomads set up on Friday, so extra planning into their Plan A and Plan B might be needed.

He also believes that Saints will be more used to their surroundings.

“We have changed things up a little this week,” added Ruscoe, who is in his first FAW Cup final as a manager.

“The lads didn’t train on Monday because we had the awards night on Saturday, but we started back in training on Tuesday,” he said.

“We’ve got four good training days before Sunday and we’ll have a look at how they set up on Friday to see if they’re going to anything differently.

“But we’ll be ready for that on Sunday and we’ll have a look at a few things that caused a problem.

“They have a threat in Michael Wilde, in Andy Owens and a new centre-forward too.

“But we will assess them all and ensure we don’t go off-route with the players too much because we want it to feel like as normal a week as possible.

“It helped us that Nomads did something different on Friday, because it means we can just focus on ourselves.

“They played with three wider, off-set strikers rather than being in an orthodox formation but they dropped two players right back in so that they could frustrate us.

“We had lots of possession but we didn’t have too many clear-cut chances. We will have another look at this if they do it again on Sunday.

“But we’re still expecting the long throws, the playing for corners and their keeper booming up high balls.

“But one advantage is it’s on 3G and we’re very much used to that type of surface.”

The game is live on S4C’s Sgorio channel and kicks off at 2.45pm.