By Joe Harbert

Kennington boss Dan Scorer admits being entered into this season's FA Cup was never something he imagined when taking charge of the club six years ago.

The Ashford-based outfit were confirmed into the world's oldest national football competition for the first time in their history on Monday evening - another huge step for a side who were still plying their trade in the Kent County League a little more than two years ago.

Scorer says that whilst he pledges to enjoy his team's extra preliminary round fixture, which is due to take place on Tuesday September 1 with a reward of more than £1,000 on the cards, he acknowledges his side are still focused on winning promotion from SCEFL Division One this campaign.

The 29-year-old said: "I'm absolutely delighted and it's a real reward for all the hard work that was put in, not just last season, but since I've been here to help the club develop into the side it is now.

"I never envisaged this happening when I first took over in 2014, even though I and the chairman have always been ambitious to move us forward, so we want to enjoy it this year.

"Given everything that has happened, it would be nice to have the game at home against a side where we have a real chance of progressing to the next round.

"At the same time, it's a good money-earner for the club and if we can get a step four side like Phoenix Sports, that works well for us, also.

"Obviously promotion is still the focus - we want to keep developing and moving the club in the right direction, and of course if we can get ourselves into the Premier Division at step five, we're almost guaranteed the FA Cup and FA Vase every year if we stay there.

"But we want to enjoy being a part of it this year and then we can assess how well we want to do in those competitions afterwards.

"Ultimately, it will be another massive marker in showing the local community how much we've grown from a village side into the team we are now."

With Ton's opening league match not currently due to be played until September 5, Scorer believes this summer's pre-season will allow him to add the finishing touches to a squad he already describes as 'fantastic.'

Speaking ahead of Saturday's friendly against ground-sharers Ashford United, he added: "With the league and three cup competitions, it's definitely going to be a season for a big squad.

"I've got three lads involved at the weekend who I'll have another good look at - they've certainly been impressive in training.

"We then play at Faversham Strike Force on Wednesday night, so that will give us two good opportunities to have a look at them, and then hopefully the squad should then be where we want it to be with 19 or 20 players.

"We've already shown our capabilities against a number of higher clubs over the last few years, and hopefully we can show that again on Saturday against Ashford.

"I think it will give us an idea in terms of where we are against their standard - we probably won't see a lot of the ball, but of course we've got a handful of players in our side who have already played at their level.

"So we've got a really fantastic squad and we're in a really strong position to start the season how we're hoping to, so I'm just eagerly awaiting the fixtures now and obviously the draws for the cup competitions."

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