Everyone at the club is on a massive high at the moment, says Phoenix joint-boss Steve O'Boyle

PHOENIX SPORTS’ joint-manager Steve O’Boyle says the whole club is buzzing for their historic FA Cup debut.

The club travel down to their Southern Counties East Football League rivals Deal Town on Saturday to contest an Extra Preliminary Round tie at The Charles Sports Ground.

Phoenix have started the new league campaign in top form, beating Greenwich Borough 1-0 at the weekend, courtesy of Ricky Freeman’s penalty, and coming away from Fisher with a 3-0 win on Monday night, courtesy of Enoch Adjei’s brace and another Freeman goal.

The side, jointly-managed by O’Boyle and Tony Beckingham, climbed to the top of the table following their win at Champion Hill on Monday night, but go into their FA Cup tie in fifth-place.

Deal Town are now managed by Darren Anslow, but his side have suffered two opening defeats, going down to a 2-0 defeat at Croydon, before going down to a 4-1 home defeat to Rochester United on Tuesday night.

The Kent coast outfit are in seventeenth-place in the table (bottom four).

“It’s fantastic for the football club,” said O’Boyle.

“The football club has come a long way in a short space of time.  The club are absolutely buzzing for Saturday.  I think we’ll take a lot of support down there, we’ve got a coach going.

“Everyone at the club is on a massive high at the moment, they can’t wait for The FA Cup and hopefully we get through because there’s a big party back at Phoenix that anyone is welcome to come to and I would imagine it might be a late one.

“I don’t really like playing league rivals in The FA Cup or FA Vase really. All the time I’ve been doing it I haven’t really played too many. I normally get a Sussex side in the FA Cup and FA Vase. We’ve got two league rivals, Croydon (in the FA Vase) and Deal.

“At the end of the day it’s The FA Cup. It doesn’t really matter. We’ll have a good day. Let’s hope we enjoy it.”

There is added pressure to the game because there is £1,500 worth of prize money up grabs for each winner of the 184 ties at the weekend.

“It would be nice to get a little cheque for the club really if we can get through,” said O’Boyle.

“We’re confident. Obviously we’ve had a good start to the season and hopefully we can go down there and put a decent performance in and come back with a cheque and into the next round.”

O’Boyle hopes the men in green can make his trip to the Kent coast a worthwhile one for him personally.

He said: “The only thing is I don’t normally do too well down at deal so I’ve not great memories for me.  It’s a bit of a bogey club for me really.

“Off the top of my head I can’t think I’ve beaten them as a manager down there for Erith Town or Phoenix.”

Visit Phoenix Sports’ website: www.phoenixsportsclub.org

Deal Town  v  Phoenix Sports
The FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round
Saturday 16^th August 2014
Kick Off 3:00pm
at The Charles Sports Ground, St Leonards Road, Deal, Kent CT14 9AU