Tony Russell guided Cray Wanderers to the Isthmian South East title last season, but come Sunday’s FA Cup Second Qualifying round tie with Soham Park Rangers will finally look to lay a personal ghost to rest.

That is to guide a side on a Cup run as he looks to take his side to within two games of the First Round proper.

Reflecting on a terrific 5-1 road win in midweek, Russell told us, “It was a good win for us at Bishop’s Stortford – it had been coming – sadly there were some things that happened at the end which wasn’t great, but on the football side of things it had been coming, so I wasn’t that surprised in getting the result, only the margin, going into the game we’d been playing really well.”

“Against Haringey Borough recently we probably had just as many chances, but Tuesday really was a strange night and it was a shame about what happened at the end!”

“Other than the draw at Kingstonian, I think we’ve already left too many points out there. We’ve lost one game this year and that was to Folkestone and I still don’t know how we didn’t win the game – two one up with nine minutes to go and hit the underside of the bar with five minutes and bang, bang they’ve scored from nowhere and we lose three two.”

“We’ve drawn games that we should have won – for the group it’s been a satisfying start and we’re not over the moon. We’ve had a lot of injuries already this year and the young boys have stepped up. Tom Phipps has only played two games; Andre Coker, who’s our marquis signing has only played two games; Karl Dent’s missed the majority of the games, and to have only lost one game in eight, I cant knock the way that we’re playing expect for one game in the last round of the FA Cup against Bedfont Sports, we’ve been superb!”

He then turned his attention back to the Greatest Cup Competition in the World, the Cray boss admitted, “You know, I’ve never had a Cup run in all my time as a manager! Never had a good Cup run – the FA competitions have never been kind to me, and I think winning two games is as far as I’ve ever been to the extent of the Cup at my personal level.”

“But for the Club it’s important – any time we can put some money back into the club especially with what’s going on with the new ground and so if we on the playing side can help it out financially as well and support the club we’re dying to do that.”

“For me personally, I’m keen to get it done and keep winning and go as far as we can – if we get through this round, we’re only two rounds away from the First Round.”

“It’s just getting that bit of luck – I’ve never had it but Vinesy has whilst he was at Tooting and Mitcham one year when they got to the First Round and he’s spoken to the players about it and the atmosphere around it.”

“It’s whetted everyone’s appetite and I think we’ll be a handful for most Non-League teams if I’m honest in terms of whatever level we play in a one-off game you just never know.”

“Looking at the reports we’ve had on Soham, we know that they’re going to be decent – their wide players are meant to be very good and cause problems whilst they’ve got a holding midfielder who gets them playing and a lot of their play goes through them. And they’ve got strikers who will be a handful up front – it won’t be easy and will probably be the round before that we’ve got to make sure that the boys are motivated and won’t take our opposition lightly.”

“We scored two early goals in the last round before we took our foot off the gas and that nearly cost us at the end so hopefully we’ll have learned our lesson – they’re going to be a dangerous side, they’ve got nothing to lose at all, they’re the underdogs and come into it with that spirit and that’s always dangerous. So, we’ve got to make sure that we play our game and get the job done!”