Our continuing series of exclusive interviews with the men who have taken Tunbridge Wells to the FA Carlsberg Vase Final on May 4th sees us speak to a left back who has this season rejoined the club after a spell at Erith and Belvedere… it’s LEWIS MINGLE.

Many people of course can only dream of playing at Wembley, and it was courtesy of the BBC that the scale of the Wells’ achievement finally registered with Lewis as he explained.

“It’s just about sunk in for me after I saw footage on the BBC local news and that topped it off for me that we’re there now aren’t we – that’s what convinced me that we’d achieved what we have.”

“It;s unfortunate that we’ve had so many games called off because of the pitch that we’ve had to play so many games – but we’ve dug deep and had to and we’ve tried to grind out results. Some of them haven’t been good but I think that’s only to be expected I guess!”

“We’re all really focused on Saturday and let’s face it, we’ve rested so many players in different games that I don’t think we’ve played the same side twice since the Semi Final.”

“We’ve got a big enough squad to have maybe coped with three games a week but four games a week is totally ridiculous but that’s how it’s all ended up and we’ve got to deal with it.”

Many of the players have told us that they didn’t even start thinking of how far Wells could go until the later stages. For Lewis, it was the opposite; “I started believing quite early on in our run that we could go all the way as the spirit in the team is really, really good and we were all playing for each other rather than just singularly; battling hard and urging each other on.”

“Quite early in the rounds we had the belief that we weren’t going to be beaten and we were just driving on and on and on! That said, obviously there have been the low points too – Larkhall was really tough when we were down and Jack Harris came on and scored to level in the last 15 seconds and also obviously the second leg at Shildon.”

“We were down only for someone to step up and take the weight of the team on their shoulders when Perry (Spackman) came up from the back and scored what was the winner on aggregate.”

So what does make Tunbridge Wells tick? Lewis is in no doubt the part that boss Martin Larkin has had in the success… “Martin is a great man to play for! I left “stupidly” at the beginning of the season to go to Erith and Belvedere and missed the club and him so much that I had to come back – I get on well with Martin; he has a chat with me and gets me in the zone where I need to be.”

“Getting to the Final has made us all realise exactly what goes with it as well, but with the spirit and belief that this side has it really does deserve to win something, and winning the Trophy was a great start! It’s also happened to a really good club as we’ve got a great set up, and I think that it’s well beyond time that the club pushes on going forward!”

Lewis then turned his attention to waiting for the call to leave the dressing room on the day itself. “I can’t wait to get out of the dressing room and get the job done nice and early! I haven’t got any issues with us not playing well or anything like that. I think we’re all going to be switched on and I know that I’m going to be out there switched on and go out to do my job to the very best of my ability!”

Picture supplied by Jake Stanford.

Join us later for the next in our series of “Road to Wembley” as we speak to every member of the Tunbridge Wells squad. Next up is Chris Oladogba…