Canvey Island take on brand new opposition on Saturday week when Dr Martens League Premier Division Stafford Rangers come to Park Lane.

The occasion is the final qualifying round of the AXA sponsored FA Cup and, with more money reaching the grass roots of the game this year, the winners of this tie will collect a cool £20,000.

Gulls, who started the qualifying competition two rounds ago with a 9-1 thrashing of Somersett and Ambury V and E before pulling off a highly-praised 2-0 success at Dr Martens Western Division leaders Halesowen Town on Saturday, have already picked up £17,500 for their Cup exploits this term.

Now they'll be strong favourites to match last season's feat of getting through to the competition proper stage at which the Nationwide League Second and Third Division teams come in. Find out more about Canvey Island FC Said manager Jeff King: "Obviously we're delighted with a home draw and we didn't particularly want Nationwide Conference opposition at this stage.

"We made the second round proper last season and if we could at least match that again we'd be very pleased. Despite our ambitions to win the Ryman Premier title and gain promotion to the Conference, the Cup and our defence of the FA Umbro Trophy remain very important to us.

"I always work on the maxim that success breeds success and we want to do well in every competition we play in. In fact, I've had a word with our secretary Frances Roche to have a moan to the FA about scheduling the semi-finals of the Cup and Trophy for the same weekend . . . we could end up having to play on both the Saturday and Sunday!"

All joking aside, ultra-professional Canvey will show opponents Stafford every respect and "superspy" Micky Bright will watch the Midlanders in action before the big game - probably at home to Folkestone this Saturday.

Like Gulls, Stafford are former FA Trophy winners and their most famous former player is Stan Collymore, who started his career there before moving on to the big time.

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