Canterbury City goalkeeper Jack Delo has described reaching the last four of the FA Vase as one of his biggest achievements in football.

The 33-year-old skippered the Southern Counties East League side to Sunday's 2-1 quarter-final win over Biggleswade before a bumper crowd of 602 at Salters Lane.

Many of Delo's family were there to watch including mum Jayne, and wife Lacey, and that, he says, made the afternoon extra special.

He added: "I'd say it's up there definitely. When I was at Charlton (as a youngster) I played in the FA Youth Cup semi-finals, over two legs against Manchester United at the Valley and Old Trafford.

"That was brilliant because of the grounds you play at and the facilities, but in terms of atmosphere, this is men's football, this is local, this is where you live, I'd say this is up there as one of my best achievements.

"I won the play-offs with Folkestone to get promoted to the Ryman Premier, that was a good achievement but getting through this game means a lot.

"My wife came to watch me, I think it's only the second time she's ever been to watch me, so even she came out the woodwork.

"My mum was here, she doesn't get to watch me much, my brother with his girlfriend and his little boy, my brother in law and his little kid so it's nice. When you know that they are here to support you want to do the business and luckily it paid off today."

Delo spent much of the game being heckled by a large and good-natured Biggleswade contingent behind his goal and he admitted the stick he received actually helped him keep his concentration.

He explained: "The crowd were very noisy behind me and I thought I'm in for a long afternoon here. They did not stop giving me grief, I got called everything under the sun to be honest.

"Some of it was a bit...so you just look round and think 'Really?' But you've got to take it on the chin.

"In my early years especially I probably would have argued back a bit but today I just thought there's no point.

"I've got to stay focused, I was skipper so me turning round and getting involved would have been no good for anyone

"I just had to keep my head, I had my little bit of fun at the end which I thought was fair. As they'd given me 90 minutes of abuse I thought I could give them one minute of abuse back.

"One of their guys kept saying 'He doesn't want it, he doesn't want to know', so at the final whistle I turned around and I said 'I don't want to know, I don't want to know apparently'. That was very pleasing.

"At the back of mind with 10 minutes to go, although I was concentrating on the game, I was thinking I could have the last laugh here so just stay focused don't make any mistakes."

Delo – who has also played for Herne Bay and Ramsgate – admitted he feared the worst after Tom Cookman's early goal for Biggleswade, but he said the key thing was not to panic.

City hit back to win with goals from Chris Saunders and Dean Grant in a four-minute spell either side of half-time.

Delo said: "After the first 15 minutes, I thought it was going to be a long afternoon. They started at a very fast pace and were on us at every opportunity.

"They scored and we just seemed all over the place. I kept saying to the boys 'settle down, settle down, take your time' and as the half went on we kind of got in and around them and then we got our goal.

"We said at half-time, they started really well, they're a really good side but is that all they've got and we hadn't even started.

"We said let's raise it and try to stay in the game and we could not have asked for a better start to the second half.

"That's what Granty does, he never stops working and when he gets a chance he takes it.

"It wasn't the prettiest of games from us by any stretch of the imagination but I just think they're a young side, fit and energetic and maybe they were missing a couple of experienced heads whereas we had that today with people like Gary Sayer, Phil Starkey, Luke Wheatley and even Granty.

"He's played at a good level himself. It was just a gritty performance. We've got heart and desire and we battle to the end."