Ashford United fly Kent’s flag in the last eight of the FA Vase this weekend with arguably the toughest task off all the sides left in the competition.

For Danny Lye must take his side to Wiltshire to face Steve Claridge’s Salisbury side who are indeed many people’s favourites to lift the trophy itself!

But Lye and his Nuts and Bolts side won’t be phased with the job ahead, especially if you remember in the replay of
the last round they recovered from two goal deficit to knock out 2012 winners Dunston UTS on their own ground.

One man who knows Lye well is Clint Gooding the current assistant boss at SECFL leaders Hollands and Blair who spoke to KSN after H&B went further clear in the SECFL in midweek.

“It’s vitally important for our League that Ashford do well at the weekend. I know Danny very well and I myself have been around a long time and any exposure the League can get from a nationwide competition is surely good – we’ve
had it with Tunbridge Wells a couple of years back; Herne Bay before them and of course Deal won the thing in 2000.”

“Really to be honest, I think it’s very disappointing that Kent’s had such limited success in the competition really. It’s only in recent years that clubs have actually performed to the levels that they can do – it’s very important and it’s also important that from our point of view it keeps their minds occupied on something else other than trying to catch us.”

“That said of course we’ll all be rooting for them to get a result down there.”

“Danny’s been around almost as long as I have and he’s got a good team round him – he must have other they wouldn’t have got to the last eight of a national competition. His squad have got a lot of footballing knowledge and have been around the game a long time so I’m sure they’re all relishing taking on Mr Claridge and may the best man
win the game – fingers crossed its Danny!”

Whilst Ashford are in Vase action, H&B travel to face Erith Town on the back of an extremely comfortable 3-0 midweek win over Deal Town – a result that restored the Gillingham side’s six point advantage at the top of the division.

Gooding admitted that his side needed a response after losing 2-3 at Corinthian last weekend. “We asked the
boys for a response and that’s exactly what we got,” the Blair number 2 told us after goals from Rob Denness, Tom Michelson and James MacDonald sealed the win for Paul Piggott’s side.

Gooding went on: “We’re only focusing on our own performances and can’t do anything about what Greenwich do until I guess we play them at Easter! There’s still a heck of a lot of football still to be played before the end of
the season – we’ve got Ashford on Easter Monday after Greenwich on the Saturday.”

“I know its an old cliché but we are literally taking one game at a time and that means Saturday’s trip to play Erith Town.”

Join @ksnfootball on Saturday afternoon when both of these fixtures – Salisbury v Ashford United and Erith Town v Hollands & Blair form a part of our unrivaled coverage of Kent non league football.