Lowly Linnets will get cash boost in Cup

The Gulls can never have faced such lowly, with all due respect, opposition as Lymington Town when they enter the Emirates FA Cup at the Second Qualifying Round stage this Saturday.

The ‘Linnets’ are halfway up the Sydenhams Wessex League Premier Division, they number their usual home attendances in scores instead of hundreds and their secretary doubles up as treasurer.

No financial controllers, hospitality managers or heads of physiotherapy adorn Town’s tiny Sports Ground.

Rumours that the place has a capacity of only 90 – cheers, Wikipedia – can be discounted, but Saturday’s tie will undoubtedly be the biggest single payday in the Hampshire club’s history, even with gate receipts being split.

The amateur team is managed by a man who, by his own admission, squandered a highly promising professional career.

Stuart Doling was such a talented young forward at Portsmouth in the early 1990s that he was given a five-year contract amid hopes that he might follow in the footsteps of future Spurs and England star Darren Anderton.

But a mixture of high life, hubris and injuries cut his career short.

He now has a core of key players at Wessex League level, including lively striker Ashley Jarvis, a former Brighton & Hove Albion trainee, Jake King and Ashley Evans.

King and Evans both scored at Lymington beat Lydney Town 2-1 in a replay in Gloucestershire last midweek, after a 2-2 draw by the Hamble river.

Town followed that victory by losing an FA Vase tie 2-1 away to Combined Counties League club Eversley & California last Saturday.