Telford boss Watson wants Cup joy to brighten up the Bucks
AFC Telford boss Liam Watson will urge his players to hand the club a big boost on and off the field by beating Spennymoor Town in the FA Cup tomorrow.
The Bucks, currently bottom of the Conference Premier, will net an immediate £12,500 prize money and find themselves in the draw for the first-round proper if they can see off Jason Ainsley's Evo-Stik First Division North high-flyers in the fourth qualifying round.
That would put them in the running for a potentially lucrative tie against Football League opposition.
Watson last week called tomorrow's game, at Spennymoor's Brewery Field, the biggest of the season.
He said: "It helps the finances long term and short term, and it takes away a little bit of the doom and gloom from what has been a tough season so far by giving a little bit of brightness with a new competition.
"But it will be an extremely difficult game and there wont be any risk of us taking it lightly, none whatsoever because you want to be in that draw for the first round."
Watson knows first hand how beneficial a cup run can be for clubs at the Bucks' level.
He guided former club Southport to a relatively glamorous first round tie at home to Sheffield Wednesday, then of League One, in 2010. The Sandgrounders eventually went down 5-2 on the day but reaped big financial rewards from the match, which saw almost 5,000 pack into Haig Avenue.
And Watson said: "On the day we didn't perform great but the club made £100,000 out of it so it was good."
Club bosses have been very vocal about the need to attract greater revenue to help Telford become more competitive in the non-league's top tier in the coming years.
A cup run would certainly boost the coffers, but Watson is also keen to add to the Bucks' FA Cup legacy, and has memories of the current club's predecessor Telford United playing top opposition in the competition back in the 1980s.
