Maidstone captain Steve Watt this weekend continues an FA Cup story which began with his debut for Chelsea at Stamford Bridge almost 10 years ago.

Watt, then 19, lined up alongside Didier Drogba, Eidur Gudjohnsen, Joe Cole and Glen Johnson for a third-round tie against Scunthorpe, which the Blues won 3-1.

He recalled: "I’d been ill over the Christmas period but I came back to Chelsea at the beginning of January.

"Jose Mourinho approached me in the lunch line and asked me if I wanted to play at the weekend. Obviously I said yes.

"On the day itself, I was relatively calm. The nerves didn’t kick in until the game had finished.

"We started poorly and went 1-0 down to a goal from Paul Hayes, who I later played with at Barnsley. He gave me plenty of stick about that goal but I always told him it was nothing to do with me, it was Alexei Smertin."

Watt’s family had travelled down from Scotland to watch the game – and they were in good company at the Bridge.

"John Terry told me he was looking after my family," Watt said. "My mum, dad and grandad had a meal with John, my agent and Frank Lampard.

"John and Frank would bend over backwards for you. It was good to have players like that to learn from on the pitch but also to see how they conducted themselves off the pitch.

"They looked after the young players. I was so reassured to know my family were being looked after. It meant I could go out there and play – and for a 19-year-old on debut, in front of 40,000 people, I did OK."

Read the full interview and five pages of Maidstone United coverage in Friday's Kent Messenger.