Cray Valley Paper Mills boss Steve McKimm was a relieved man that the Isthmian South East side were still in the FA Cup after SCEFL side Lordswood gave McKimm and his side plenty to think about in the 1-1 draw at the weekend. 

Talking to KSN after the game and ahead of Tuesday’s replay, McKimm conceded, “You play against a team from a lower league, and they’ve got nothing to lose, we’ve all done it, and they play with freedom. And if you look at that game, I think a few of my players played with fear and you shouldn’t have fear playing football as it’s a joy!” 

“You’ve got to give Lordswood credit, they did exactly what I said to my team they would do. They worked hard, good quality that can hurt you and if you don’t nullify it, you’ll come unstuck. And it proved it with their goal, we played a square ball, midfield nicked it, great ball, great run and it’s a goal.

“Then we’re climbing a hill and to be fair to my players, we came back into it and got the goal. After that it was nervy stages, we had two or three chances in the second half and our keepers made a terrific save and it wasn’t to be and so it’s back to our place on Tuesday.” 

“Think you’ve got to remember in any cup, as long as you’re in the draw for the next round at the end of it, whether a replay or you get through, that’s the main aim, we’re in the draw.

“Now we have to do better at home on Tuesday than we did on Saturday, and that’s taking nothing away from Lordswood as I thought they were good. I took my time out and went and saw them against Whitstable last week as I knew they’d be a threat, and they were.

“We just weren’t at our levels we were when we won at Sittingbourne last week, we were miles off it. That’s nothing against Lordswood as I thought they were very, very good!” 

“What they’ve achieved is good; the stadium’s good, I knew what we were in for and to be fair to the players, I don’t think they quite recognised what a team can produce, football is football, highs one week when we win 3-2 and maybe it should have been more comfortable and then follow that with a draw against a lower league team and think you’re lucky to be in the draw.” 

“We didn’t play to our potential Saturday; we weren’t allowed to play to our potential Saturday and some of our players were definitely off it. Those combinations need to be rectified for Tuesday night.”