Peacehaven & Telscombe at Wembley? We can have a dream and a wry smile about it!

The SCFL premier division side are 180 minutes of football away from following in Littlehampton Town’s footsteps and playing in the FA Vase final at May’s Non League Finals Day.

The Golds were the first Sussex team to get to the showpiece – could The Tye become the second 12 months later. Their manager and captain have spoken to us about their hopes of further progress – while also talking of the need not to get ahead of themselves.

After a fifth round win on penalties at Harefield in Middlesex on Saturday – when, not for the first time this season – keeper Nathan Stroomberg was the one of the shootout heroes – they will play Hellenic League side Corsham at home in the quarter-finals on Saturday, March 11.

P&T manager Mark Shutt is a qualified UEFA B coach and has been in charge of Peacehaven for seven years. He’s head coach of the men’s football programme at University of Brighton and also a youth coach for his son’s side at the club. “Along with this I run an additional midweek training session for all the kids of the community where you can turn up and play under the umbrella of the club,” he said.

Shutt admits he didn’t see this Vase run happening. “It has very much been a gradual thing that has been creeping up on us,” he said. “The team spirit has been the solid base to build off, along with the fantastic technical ability of the lads to get us over the line.

“The Harefield game was going to be a battle – facing a direct style of play I had to pick a side that was best equipped to deal with this. The boys were an absolute credit to themselves and the club, followed the game plan and were in my opinion unlucky to have not scored and won the game in normal time.

" Having had some 150 supporters travel to Uxbridge to support us was amazing and it was amazing to share the celebrations with them both pitch-side and also back at our clubhouse.

"The next round is less than four weeks away and we have five games to play between. No cliches intended but Wembley is still some way off and with a lot of football to be played between now and the May final the focus has to be on the next game – but that doesn’t stop us all from having a dream and a wry smile about what could be.”

Skipper Ross Barclay says he and his team-mates are enjoying the ride – though says a recent defeat to Crowoborough shows the importance of concentrating on a game at a time.

"With the win at Egham in the previous round it was always going to lead to excitement throughout the club. However, it’s no shock that in football when you’re not at the races teams will punish you – and credit to Crowborough, it’s a tough place to go at the best of times but we really weren’t at it, which resulted in us being on the end of a defeat.

"A loss like that helps keep feet on the ground because no teams get anywhere being complacent. Thankfully we were able to rectify the Saturday performance with a dominant win over Saltdean three days later which helped build the confidence back into the lads going into the Harefield game.

"I would say that on Saturday Harefield probably settled into the game the better of the two sides – however this is expected when you are at home. Throughout the game I would argue that majority of chances fell to us and it was more of a case that we definitely didn’t deserve to come away losing the tie.

"Penalties are a lottery but it always breeds confidence into lads knowing that we have Nathan Stroomberg in goal. Saturday was our third shootout of the season and Nathan has been our hero on each occasion.

"We still needed to put our penalties away and Tegan Freeman’s decisive one showed incredible courage especially for a 20-year-old. When we saw it rocket into the top corner it sparked celebrations where you didn’t know who to run to as it was such a special moment for everyone involved including friends, families and supporters. The celebrations didn’t really stop until the early hours of the morning.

"Two games from Wembley sounds close, however we’re at a point in the competition where all teams will have quality and there’s no room for complacency by looking further than the next game in front of us. With the last-eight game being a month away it does make mean the club can really promote to the community the day itself and also gives us as players more time to prepare, rather than two weeks’ notice like we had to prepare for Harefield.

"The beauty of the FA Vase is that you are always playing against the unknown which can sometimes be to your own benefit knowing that we have to focus on being the best us we can be. So, at this current point I don’t know much about Corsham but I can guarantee they will be hard-working as no team would have made this far without that characteristic within them.

"I would like to add my gratitude to everyone that travelled on Saturday - it was absolutely terrific to take the numbers we did and again them being there guided us through tough parts of the game.

"We are now so thankful to have a home tie in the quarter-final so the fans that haven’t been able to get to these away ties can get an opportunity to be part of this amazing journey.”