When the draw for Saturday's FA Trophy fourth round paired Stafford Rangers with Canvey Island, it brought back bad memories for their fans - and for assistant-manager Mark Grew.
Four years ago Rangers suffered their worst FA Cup humiliation of recent seasons when, under Ian Painter, they crashed 5-1 on the island.
And Grew will never forget the day that Canvey went on to embarrass Port Vale in one of the biggest cup upsets of the season.
At the time, Grew was Vale coach, but he is now hoping that, after dumping Scarborough out of the competition, Rangers can pull off another FA Trophy giantkilling act to exact another round of revenge.
Rangers' current player-boss Phil Robinson has not suffered the Canvey experience, although he recognises that his team faces a tall order to reach the last 16 against arguably the best non-league side outside the Conference.
"Mark has been briefing me about Canvey -- the name brings back nightmares for him. He was part of the backroom set-up at Vale and he has been able to give me some good background information about Canvey as a club and some of their players," said Robinson.
"Most of their squad have league experience and in their time have cost a lot of money in transfer fees."
Published Thursday January 29, 2004
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