While some attention has been paid to the scale of the police operation for the match, Alan is concentrating on matters on the field.
"It is a game that is very important on the football side, and that is what everyone must remember, it is a football match, nothing else," he says.
"I hope it passes off without incident and certainly hope that the minority that can get involved in these games don't turn up.
"We want a cracking game with that nice little edge that these games bring - and that the best team wins.
"Hopefully that will be us."
It is a second clash with an FA Cup semi-final side in just over a week following the loss at Sunderland - who face Millwall - on Saturday, and he says:
"It's great for this league and it would be even better if one of them could go on to win it.
"Teams at this level can be looked on as second class and there is a bit of snobbery - which is unfortunate and unfair.
"Obviously I would love to be in the semi-finals of the cup too - but I'm not sure I would swap our league position."
Alan is hoping to get down to some hard work on the training ground after the weekend and he explains:
"After this game at least we go week to week, which gives us some breathing space and time to work on things that haven't been as we would have wanted over the last few weeks.
"We have been on a good run, but it has not been a great run, and we need to put a great run together if we are going to get promoted."
Alan was once more impressed with the crowd on Wednesday and adds:
"We couldn't have asked for more than 31,000 against Crewe and they were terrific on the night.
"After the Sunderland result they would have been entitled to stay at home but they came in their masses again and we repaid them with a good performance, which was nice."