Hollands & Blair boss Scott Porter believes his side have everything to gain from this weekend’s Extra Preliminary Round of the FA Cup.

Ashford United are the opponents heading to Star Meadow on Saturday - a side from the league above.

“There from the league above us and we know they will be good,” said Blair boss Porter.

“We just have to go out there and play to the best of our ability.

“It’s a free hit for us.

“We’ll go into it and enjoy the occasion and hopefully get a big crowd.”

Blair are playing a new style of football under Porter as they look to change with the times.

With a super new surface at Star Meadow, there’s less of the old-school approach.

Porter said: “Football has changed. You have to change with it or you get left behind.

“I was very successful with the way I played but there are not many players out there like that now. A lot of the players are now technically good, they want to play football and with the young kids we’ve got they have been at academies.

“Look at the pitch we have and the facilities. We’re changing. I have great staff behind me, (first team coach) Darren Anslow works at Bromley, a massive plus.

“We’re all working out of football, not just a Tuesday and Thursday (at training), we’re doing a lot of classroom work, we are changing, but it is good and enjoyable. We know where we have to tinker it and the lads are all buying into it.”

Blair endured a frustrating start to their Southern Counties East Premier Division campaign last Saturday, beaten 1-0 at Tunbridge Wells.

Porter’s men had plenty of the ball but few of the big moments went their way, including some decisions by the officials that left the management fuming.

Both Porter and Anslow were cautioned for dissent, seething at game-changing decisions that went against them, including two penalty appeals, one for handball and one for a foul in the box.

A goal on 68 minutes settled it. Wells broke from a Blair corner, a cross into the area hit home substitute Dominic Wynter-Stephen and bounced in off the woodwork, wrong-footing keeper Dan Ellis.

“It was a smash and grab from them, simple as that,” said Porter.

“A corner routine didn’t work, we got caught, could have dealt with it better for their goal.

“The only negative was that with the majority of the ball that we had, in the final third, we weren’t clinical enough, not good enough or sharp enough, but overall we played some decent stuff.

“We kept possession, we had the majority of the ball, we had a couple of clear-cut chances then there were the two penalty decisions which went against us and that took a bit out of us, momentum-wise (because of the) frustration from the way they refereed the game.

“We will pick the bones out of it, we know where we need to improve, we know we need to bring in a couple, we are missing a couple as well. We will watch the videos and do what we can to get things right.”

Rob Gilman was missing through illness which meant Lewis Allan was taken out of midfield to go centre-half, while Alfie Giles, the new signing from Maidstone, was also away.

“Those are two big players for us and we had to change a few things,” said the manager.

“Even if it had been a draw we would have been disappointed, to have lost the game we’re hugely disappointed.

“We have some new lads in and a new system. We were frustrated, but we go again, we had a lot of positives and we have a free hit on Saturday.”