EVERY football fan dreams of lifting the FA Cup but Tony Rogers has a more realistic wish as his Whitchurch Alport side kick-off their road to Wembley tonight.

Rogers used to be a follow-Wrexham-all-over fan until watching a woeful 1-1 draw at home to Woking 12 years ago forced him to look elsewhere to get his Saturday afternoon kicks.

Five years ago, he ended up at Yockings Park - home of Whitchurch Alport. Now he’s the chairman at the Shropshire club who will host Shrewsbury side Haughmond in tonight’s FA Cup extra preliminary round tie.

“The FA Cup is a wonderful competition and if I was to have one dream tie then it would be seeing Whitchurch drawn against Wrexham at The Racecourse. That would be utopia for me, it really would,” he said.

Rogers, now retired after a career in finance, started watching Wrexham’s rise to footballing fame under John Neal in the Seventies.

“I’ve got absolute brilliant memories of watching Wrexham. There’s so many but the best has to be January 1974 when we beat Southampton 1-0 at The Dell,” said Rogers. “ I was still in school at the time so going away to games was always a great experience.

“I can remember the goal. David Smallman scored it while Brian Lloyd had the game of his life in goal.

“I was at the quarter-final at Burnley too and the one against Arsenal in 1978, the League Cup quarter-final with Liverpool in the same season and also that awful day at Chesterfield 20 years later.”

Talking about the great teams of Wrexham’s past brought back great memories for Rogers but the lack of excitement and entertainment forced him to turn his back on the Reds 12 years ago.

But his passion for a team in red still remains - down the A525 and just a short trip across the English border.

“I was ground-hopping on Saturday afternoons, going here and there and five years ago I went to Whitchurch,” said Rogers.

“It was a 1-1 draw against Rochdale Town and there was something about the place, the people that I got talking to, that made me want to go back. There were 88 there that day. Now we get about 250 for every home game.”

Covid-19 restrictions meant a crowd of 150 watched Saturday’s 2-1 friendly defeat to Nantwich Town but tonight’s capacity should increase to 300 and Rogers is expecting the game to be a sell-out.

“There’s great excitement about the game,” added Rogers. “Having Nantwich at home was great and now we’ve got the FA Cup.

“It’s tremendous for the club, the committee and the fans. We’re a team off the field as well as on it.

“We don’t have Roman Abramovich or Saudi Sheikhs here but we’re working hard to improve all the facilities here,”

As for the future and this season in the North West Counties Premier Division, Rogers hopes manager Luke Goddard can inspire his side to reach the top three - and take one of the three automatic promotion places on offer.

“We finished last year strongly but we’ll be up against the likes of Northwich, who will be very strong,” he said. “As for a five year plan for the club, my own ambition would be the Northern Premier League Premier Division - the third tier of non-league football. And, of course, that FA Cup tie at Wrexham!”