Thatcham had to defeat Christchurch a fortnight ago to reach the Preliminary Round stage. Town won 3-1 in a game which featured four converted penalties (three by Kyle Tooze; one by Addwell Chipangura for the visitors).

That was the first FA Cup tie Thatcham had won since defeating Andover New Street 7-1 in 2019/20. Meanwhile the Street defeated Hythe & Dibden 4-2 in their Extra Preliminary Round tie with Lewis Williams scoring a hat-trick and Joshua Moore also on target.

In August 2019 The Kingfishers cruised past New Street, who were two divisions lower, in a Preliminary Round tie. On a sweltering afternoon Town opened the scoring on 16 minutes when Joe Selman’s cross was headed into his own goal by Jamie Pollard. Felipe Barcelos and Selman added goals before half-time, then Barcelos converted a penalty on 65 minutes. Luke Hooper pulled one back before Selman scored his second. Scott Rees struck twice late on to complete a 7-1 win.

In this season’s Wessex League, New Street have made a good start. They drew against Laverstock & Ford then Millbrook. A third successive draw was avoided when Callum Sweeney scored a 90th minute winner to defeat US Portsmouth, then on Tuesday they won 2-0 at Blackfield & Langley. Meanwhile Town won their Southern League fixture against Shaftesbury on Tuesday after losing at Exmouth.

Town’s FA Vase winner Ross Cook was a prolific scorer for New Street, scoring over 100 goals in the previous three seasons. Full-back Issy Kaba, who played 9 times for Town in 2022/23, returns to the Mettal Stadium with Andover this afternoon.

In his programme notes, boss Yashwa Romeo said,

“It is a long league season of 42 games yet it’s always a relief to get some points on the board as early as possible. While we weren’t good at Exmouth, we could have come back with a point were it not for a couple of mistakes. But it was a weight off the shoulders to see us play much better and win against Shaftesbury on Tuesday.

We could have scored 3 or 4 in the first-half and been out of sight. It became a bit of a cagey game in the second half where, again we had a couple of clear cut chances. Shaftesbury had some shots, mostly from distance, but they did hit the workwork. However, on balance I felt we deserved the win.

It was good to see Oli be the matchwinner. He seems to have really benefited from his season with Reading City. His partnership at the back with Mo has looked good and he has become much more of a threat at set pieces. He scored quite often from them last season so it was great to see him get one for us.

This season I think our squad is in a much better position to make progress in the cup competitions. We will be expected to win at home to a team from a lower division but Andover New Street are a good side and boast some decent players including one of our former players, Issy Kaba.

The FA Cup was always a big deal for me as a player and I have fond memories of reaching the First Round proper three times, once with a step four side (Burnham). There is nearly always a step four team somewhere that makes it to the First Round and gets to play on TV. But one step at a time - we will need to work hard today if we are to get through this particular tie.