SLOUGH v Harrogate Railway
FA Cup First Round
Saturday November 16
Winning club receives £20,000

THE TRAIL SO FAR (featured club in italics)

Extra-Preliminary round - Greenwich Borough 1 Three Bridges 4

Preliminary round - Three Bridges 3 Didcot Town 1

First Qualifying Round - Chipstead 1 Three Bridges 3

Second Qualifying Round - Three Bridges 1 Aveley 3

Third qualifying round - Canvey Island 2 Aveley 0

Fourth qualifying round - Slough 3 Canvey Island 2

First Round - Slough v Harrogate Railway (playing Saturday)

Thankfully, not every manager in Slough is as cringeworthy as David Brent quoting Dolly Parton while the world falls around his ankles. Compared to the shenanigans at The Office, the town's football club is built on sanity.

Leading the way is manager Steve Browne and his player-coach Michael Gilkes, the former Reading, Wolves and Millwall winger who is still taking on full-backs at the age of 37.

Gilkes played more than 550 times as a professional - most notably the epic 1995 First Division play-off final at Wembley, when Reading led Bolton by two goals but still lost 4-3.

An FA Cup First Round tie against Harrogate Railway isn't quite the same - Slough hope the game will attract their first 1,000 crowd of the season - but Gilkes couldn't be more excited about this latest phase of his life.

"I'm able to combine playing, coaching and taking a business degree so life is great at the moment," he says.

"I'd had a fantastic career as a professional but when Millwall didn't offer me a new contract, I had to do something else. I'd grown up with Steve (Browne) in Hackney and when he asked me to come and play for Slough, I was happy to see how it went.

Then this summer he asked me to do the coaching, I've already got my UEFA B license and I take all the training sessions at the club. It's fantastic."

Gilkes experienced highs and lows as a player that can only hold him in good stead to be a coach and manager.

"I remember beating Luton 4-1 in the Simod Cup Final at Wembley. Then there was that play-off final against Bolton, it was a fantastic occasion but we had just come back from Lanzarote the Thursday before the game and we just ran out of steam in the final minutes.

"The unluckiest time for me was at Wolves. I moved on deadline day in 1997 and they looked set for the Premiership. But I did my cruciate knee ligaments in my third game and was out for seven months. As soon as I got back, I ruptured my hamstring and had another year out."
It is up to Browne and Gilkes to raise Slough's status. They were relegated from the Conference in 1998 because their stand didn't meet requirements and are now eighth in the Ryman League First Division.

Top scorer Tony Boot will be the main threat to Harrogate while goalkeeper Gary McCann is in line for his Rebels debut after a move from Aylesbury last week.

"The other Ryman teams left in the FA Cup are all in the Premier Division, we are the last First Division team left," says Slough's proud club secretary Roy Merryweather.

"We have to take the responsibility of being favourites against Harrogate but it doesn't always mean that much. Canvey were favourites to beat us; they are a division higher and have a good recent cup pedigree. But we turned them over."

Slough will have to do without midfielder Veli Hakki. He has been jailed for two years for his role in a hooligan riot at Millwall's New Den.

PRIZE MONEY (£20,000) WILL BE SPENT ON.... "We don't own our ground and at some stage we either want to buy our current ground or build a new stadium" - Secretary Roy Merryweather

DID YOU KNOW... Every FA Cup final in the past decade has featured either Chelsea, Manchester United or Arsenal

* The FA Cup Trail is compiled by Joe Bernstein.

The FA.Com will let you know how Slough fare in this cup-tie and we will follow the winners through to the next round.