THE FA Cup has given us a great opportunity to boost the bank balance at Worcester City.

With Bourne Town at home on Saturday, the draw has been kind to us this year and, with the difference in leagues, there’s no excuse not to win.

We have faced Tamworth for the last two years and were beaten by the odd goal last season.

They were one of the worst sides we could have drawn at the time because they were flying high and ended up winning promotion.

All the talk around the club since the draw has been about the much-needed cash on offer — £4,500 — for winning the match and, if we can get through, we have another opportunity to make more money in the next round in a couple of weeks.

That said, myself and the players remained focused for Saturday’s visit of Thurrock, a game we lost 2-1.

It would be great to get to the fourth qualifying round and draw a Luton or Oxford but it would be even better to get to the first round proper.

I have had some good cup runs in my career.

As assistant manager at Tamworth, we reached the third round and played the likes of Stoke City and Norwich City.

They are great times that I can look back on.

I would like to do the same with Worcester and there’s no reason why we can’t go on a cup run.

It is a break from the league although I would have loved a game on Monday to get last Saturday out of our system.

We were poor against Thurrock and sometimes it’s nice to get another game under your belt quickly.

I was extremely disappointed over the weekend with the result and the performance, it was well below standard.

One plus point was Josh Emery, who protects the ball and links up play in midfield.

We have to be brave and not be scared to give him the ball.

Last weekend saw some great derby matches with Manchester United and Manchester City and Chelsea against Tottenham.

While I was at Birmingham City in 1993, we had a massive two-legged League Cup match against Aston Villa.

That was one passionate derby. We were in the league below them at the time and lost both games 1-0.

We were expecting to get hammered because we were not doing well in the league but came out with our heads held high.

It distracted us from the league because the build-up started three weeks beforehand and everyone was talking about it.

Playing against Dean Saunders, Dalian Atkinson and Kevin Richardson was great and I have the highlights on tape.

Being in Blue Square South, we don’t have a derby at Worcester and that’s disappointing. Newport County and Bath City are too far away really.

Because of where we are in the country, our nearest clubs are in the north division with the likes of Redditch and Solihull.

We might not have a derby but we have a chance to progress in the FA Cup, so let’s grab it.