Kings Langley aiming to cause FA Cup upset

FA Cup ' Magic'

It is only six seasons since Kings Langley was a Spartan South Midlands League club. They could be celebrating reaching the FA Cup first round proper for the first time in their history tomorrow.

The Southern League Premier Central side has already gone further than ever before in the competition by beating Barking, Folkestone Invicta and Corinthian-Casuals to secure a place in the fourth qualifying round. All those victories were achieved at home but Kings hit the road tomorrow for the first time on their cup journey to travel to Maidstone United.

The odds are against Kings – their opponents are ninth in the National League South table – but that won’t faze Chris Cummins’ side. In fact, it’s a position they’ll relish.

Director of football Darren Eliot said: “It’s a one-off game, it’s 11 against 11, they’re the favourites of course, they’ve come down from the league above, they play on astroturf but that comes with some pressure for them.

“We’ve got no pressure. We’re going there to do what we can but we go there as underdogs and that’s how we like it.”

Eliot is optimistic at least 100 fans will make the trip to Kent for a tie he believes represents “the culmination of years and years of work from lots of different people that are either involved or are not involved now who have got us to this point."

He continued: “I think for the club it’s the exposure we’re now getting. I’ve noticed Watford Football Club are tweeting about us a little bit more and our followers are going up.

“Our crowd today (the attendance was 291 for Saturday’s 4-0 win over Rushall Olympic) I thought was really good compared to what we might normally get on a wet, cold Saturday when people might do other things, but they came here and that’s part of the exposure we’re getting.”

The cup run may be increasing Kings’ exposure, but it is also proving financially beneficial as well. The club have already banked £22,500 in prize money with a further £6,250 guaranteed as a result of reaching the final qualifying stage – the winners of tomorrow’s tie will receive £18,750.

Asked what difference this has made to Kings, Eliot explained: “We had little bits of debt floating around, all football clubs have that and people have patient with us so we’ve been able to satisfy them. And we did it very quickly because we knew we might not be able to do it again.

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