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Maidstone United will travel to Coventry City in the FA Cup fifth round

Giant-killers Maidstone have discovered their FA Cup fifth-round opponents.

The Stones will travel to Championship outfit Coventry City on Monday, February 26 (7.45pm), a match also being shown live on ITV4.

Dressing-room celebrations after Maidstone’s fourth-round win over Ipswich. Picture: Steve Terrell
Dressing-room celebrations after Maidstone’s fourth-round win over Ipswich. Picture: Steve Terrell

The Sky Blues emphatically beat the Owls 4-1 in a fourth-round replay at the CBS Arena on Tuesday night with goals from Callum O’Hare (2), Kasey Palmer and Haji Wright.

It followed a 1-1 draw between the Championship rivals in the first meeting at Hillsborough.

Stones boss George Elokobi said: “It’s a fantastic tie for us. It’s a great stadium to play in.

“I’ve played there a couple of times myself so it’s a brilliant tie for us and I don’t think it’s too far away from Maidstone.

“It’s a great football club, they were play-off contenders last season to go into the Premier League (beaten on penalties in the final at Wembley) and hopefully when that time comes we’ll be ready for them.

“It’s just going to be a great occasion again for our football club, for our fans, for our players, our owners, our community, to go out and put on a good show against a fantastic Championship side.

“We’re going to do our due diligence on them and show them every respect they deserve. I’m sure they’ll do the same with us.

“It’s good to have that clarity in terms of who you’re going to be coming up against because then we’ve got a scouting team to go out and see what they’re about.

“It’s going to be work on both sides, on the league and a little bit now on the FA Cup, based on the opposition we’re going to be coming up against.”

Maidstone have been waiting to discover their last-16 opponents since their shock 2-1 victory at Ipswich in round four.

The National League South side stunned the Championship high-fliers by scoring with their only two shots of the game.

Lamar Reynolds and Sam Corne were the players on target while man-of-the-match Lucas Covolan and some heroic defending kept the Tractor Boys at bay.

Maidstone were hoping to land Premier League opponents but in Coventry, they’re up against former winners.

The Sky Blues lifted the FA Cup in 1987 with a 3-2 upset victory against Tottenham.

Maidstone have earned more than £350,000 in prize money from their FA Cup run and will secure another £225,000 if they upset the odds again to reach the quarter-finals.

They will also receive a further £125,000 in broadcast fees on top of the £110,000 collected from the BBC televising the Ipswich game.

Ticket information for the Coventry tie will be released in due course. The CBS Arena has a capacity in excess of 32,500.

Maidstone were in National League South action themselves on Tuesday night, beating Torquay 3-2 at the Gallagher. Read our match report here.

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