Lordswood manager Nicky Southall’s love affair with the FA Cup is continuing now he’s manager.

His side followed up a season-opening 2-1 win against Corinthian in the Southern Counties East Premier Division with a 1-0 victory over Erith & Belvedere in the extra preliminary round of the FA Cup last Saturday.

League success is the goal but Southall has twice been to the FA Cup quarter-finals as a player and will forever be remembered for his stunning goal as Gillingham beat then-Premier League Sheffield Wednesday in the competition in 2000.

A late goal from Jake Embery won Lordswood the game against Erith & Belvedere to set up a tie at home to Shoreham next weekend.

Southall said: “The FA Cup for me was a massive part of me wanting to be a footballer and dreaming of being in the FA Cup.

“The FA Cup is always something I look out for and as a kid you wanted to be an FA Cup winner, it wasn’t about winning the league.

“I have been lucky enough - or unlucky - to have played in two quarter-finals of the FA Cup and lost them both 5-0!

“Shoreham won’t be easy in the next round but we’ll be at home and we’ll fancy our chances to try and get through.”

They return to league action this Saturday at home to Fisher before playing away at Bearsted on Tuesday night.

With two wins behind them from two tricky games, Southall’s delighted with their start.

“I couldn’t have asked for much more,” he said.

“The boys are buzzing and so they should be.

“Corinthian are one of the teams in the league who will definitely be up there again this season, no doubt, but we went there and got a win from a funny old game.

“The referee was injured, we were trying to find a linesman, we had a man sent off, they had a man sent off. I think the game finished at about 5.25pm!

“It was our secretary (Steve Lewis) who eventually ran the line - he’s done it before when a referee got injured and has qualifications - but they didn’t want to do it.

“They were 2-0 down and trying to get the game postponed after 30 minutes.

“We had to wait and get someone in. The assessor didn’t want to do it but Steve did it, even though he had a tight groin and we deserved the victory.”

Southall joked that Lewis was “bad for both teams,” but added: “Bless him, he didn’t have to do it, but we had to get the game finished so we were really pleased.

“It was a tough FA Cup draw against a team that just got relegated, a bit of an unknown how they will react after relegation.

“They definitely have quality in the side, especially in the forward areas and we did well to keep a clean sheet. On another day it could have been more, but Matt Gething put one over from a yard or two out.

“Overall, I think we deserved the victory and the clean sheet was the biggest plus for us. I am really pleased with that.

“If we keep clean sheets the players we’ve got in will get us goals, you can see they’ve got them in the league above.

“We move onto Fisher this week and they took a bit of a hammering at home (losing 5-2 against Redhill) so they will want to bounce back. We’ll have to be on our guard and try and get three wins in a row.”

Lordswood had a free midweek which meant Southall could watch Bearsted’s FA Cup replay to prepare him for next Tuesday’s game. Assistant boss Ross Wiles took training.

Both games so far for Lordswood have been a test of fitness and Southall believes the hard work from the summer has been paying off.

He said: “With all of those hill runs we were doing, I don’t think in the first game we would have got the win but the fitness levels got us through.

“Saturday again, we kept going and going and going, and the goal we scored would probably grace the leagues above, pass and move and finish, it was really good.”