PETERSFIELD Town’s historic Emirates FA Cup run rates as one of the best memories Ian Saunders has of the world’s most famous cup competition.

His playing career brought him plenty of good days in the cup but he is putting the current cup run right at the top of his memory tree at the moment.

Before this season, Petersfield – in either their United or Town form – had only ever won two games in their history in this competition and they had never got beyond the First Qualifying Round.

But this current record cup run is vying with the achievements of winning back-to-back league titles in the Wessex League over the last two seasons as Saunders’ best achievement at the club.

He said:“I have been lucky to have played for some good clubs with great FA Cup memories. However, to get as far as we have with this club, knowing what efforts we have put in both on and off the pitch – well, this season will rank right up there.”

While publicly the Rams boss will always remain coy about his team’s chances of being cup giantkillers again, it is not lost on him that Saturday is probably the biggest game in the football club’s history to date.

“This Saturday is huge for us,” he added. “We are a very small fish in a huge pond, so to be rubbing shoulders competitively, albeit on a one-off occasion, with a club like St Albans really does show how far we have come in three short years.

“We certainly never expected this sort of cup run, so we will just try and do ourselves and the town as proud as we can on Saturday.”