Gosport Borough manager Alex Pike laughed out loud when he heard the draw for The FA Trophy Semi-Final on talkSPORT radio.
Pike managed to avoid the Conference big guns of Cambridge United and Grimsby Town and now fancies his chances of achieving a rare doublem, as he prepares for a Hampshire classic against Havant & Waterlooville or Aldershot Town.
At 31, Pike was the youngest manager to win The FA Vase with Dorset Police and the former bobby, who has led Gosport from the Wessex League to the Conference South, is sensing more silverware.
The FA Carlsberg Trophy
Gosport Borough v Havant & Waterlooville or Aldershot Town
Semi-Final
15 & 22 February 2014
Winners receive £16000
By Nick Callow
He revealed: “I won The Vase in 1992 so it has long been my ambition to win The Trophy too.
“I joked at the weekend that I wanted the weakest team left in the competition, so I suppose this draw was on the cards.
“Either way, we are looking at a Hampshire derby so it is going to be a cracking tie whoever we end up playing.
“We have been getting crowds of around five-to-six hundred because we have had so many matches on top of each other due to the bad weather, but I fancy we would get upwards of 2000 for a Semi-Final.
“We are fortunate enough to have a 3G pitch for training, which is excellent, but there is no substitute for actually playing competitive matches.
“We are so far behind in our league programme but we will not moan about it as that is how it goes at this level and it is up to us to manage and deal with it.”
Havant & Waterlooville play Aldershot Town in their Fourth Round Proper game on Tuesday night, after Saturday's game was postponed.
