AFC Stoneham chairman Mark Stupple has spoken of his delight at drawing Yeovil Town in the FA Cup second qualifying round.
The Wessex League side have made this stage of the competition after a breath-taking 5-4 win over Basingstoke Town in the competition’s last round having been 4-1 down with 47 minutes played.
Speaking to BBC Solent, the chairman admitted he could not believe his side’s luck when they were drawn away at Huish Park having been the final tie chosen in the draw.
He said: “To get the draw we wanted out of the 160 balls in the bag, I can only think someone above us is looking down on us.
“I watched the draw and I knew Yeovil had not come out and it got down to just us and Yeovil and it was case of whether they were going to come out first and they did, Yeovil at home to AFC Stoneham which is just absolutely unbelievable.
“On a personal level a very good friend of mine used to play who them and I used to go down there a lot.
“They are a huge non-League side and anyone who knows their history going back to the 1930s, they were the plum tie in that draw. They were the biggest team in that draw and we were probably the smallest, that is the beauty of the FA Cup.
“Nine years ago we were in the Hampshire Premier League charging our players £5 a game to play and at that time Yeovil were in the Championship, so that shows you it is a funny, old game.”
The Eastleigh-based side have already made it through an extra preliminary round and a preliminary round of the FA Cup to reach last weekend’s first qualifying round, and then made history by going as farthest in the competition in their history.
The chairman added: “We have got over 100 teams at the club, more than 1500 players and what we are doing is creating one club who would love to get our managers, players, parents to Huish Park.
“It is huge for our club and I think we put a Twitter post out and within six hours we got over 10,000 views – for a team that gets about 80 for a home game.
“The other thing is the size of Yeovil and the ground. Our players and management team deserves this day and have the experience of playing at Huish Park is something they will remember forever.“