For the first time since 1971, the name of Tonbridge is involved in the First-Round proper of the FA Cup, and the man behind this historic run has been talking to KSN.

Boss Steve McKimm will lead his Angels into FA Cup battle on Saturday lunchtime against SKYBet League Two side Bradford City who themselves are led by former Scottish International Stuart McCall.

Tonbridge earned their place in the First-Round courtesy of wins over Farnborough, Chichester City and Taunton Town, with their win over the Somerset side two weeks ago the last game that McKimm and his side have played competitively.

“We’ve been gearing up to it since Friday when we had a behind closed doors game at Brighton against their under 23s,” McKimm told us.

“It was a very good workout and we’ve had sessions on Tuesday and another one on Thursday before the weekend.”

“The boys haven’t said much about the game, when we met up on Friday for the first time since we beat Taunton, they were obviously excited about the draw. They’re looking forward to it and can’t wait to get going.

“The two-week break that we’ve had since the last round and a proper competitive game has been tough if we hadn’t had the game at Brighton. They were brilliant inviting us down, we played on a lovely surface against a very good side, and it certainly helped us in terms of what we want to do and want we want to try on Saturday.”

“We’ll approach the game exactly as we would any other game and we’ll continue to do our homework on them right up until kick-off. The players will be given information, but I don’t want to swamp them with it!

“I want them to enjoy the occasion and not worry about certain aspects, give them the bullet points and let them enjoy the day, play to the best of their abilities and who knows what could happen.”

As a player, McKimm reached the First Round and beyond, and as he admitted, he’ll take that experience into the Angels dressing room on Saturday as he admitted.

“Every manager is different,” McKimm said, “and you take things from all the managers you’ve played under and on occasions like this, I remember when we played Notts County in the Second Round when I was at Gravesend and we didn’t play until tea-time.

“The manager (Andy Ford) had us stay in a hotel the night before and then we trained on set pieces before going back to the hotel for a bit of a sleep and then get ready.

“It was totally new to near enough every one of us, but we put on a brilliant performance that night to lose by a late goal. So different things help in different ways, I can take things from every manager that I’ve played under in big occasions and the main thing is to keep the boys at ease and keep their minds occupied just on the game and nothing else i.e. TV cameras and what could happen if we win and stuff like that.

“My job is to just try and keep them all calm, but I’ve got a group of level-headed players anyway and as long as they’re not phased by the cameras, I think they’ll give a good account of themselves.”

But it’s an FA Cup game and the old cliché is that anything can happen – and it surely can!”

“A decision could got for you, it could go against you; people could freeze on the occasion, people could thrive on the occasion; there’s lots of pros and cons to it but I’m sure that we will only enjoy the day fully if we get a positive result. But other than that, we’ll still enjoy it as it’s a massive achievement to get this club into that First Round…”