Herne Bay boss Steve Lovell is targeting a good FA Cup run this season to match some of his achievements as a player as the anniversary passed this week of arguably his greatest day in a Gillingham shirt.
On August 29th, 1987, Lovell scored four of the eight that Gillingham put past Southend United at Priestfield, but here in 2023, his focus is one hundred percent on getting The Bay into the Second Qualifying Round of the FA Cup this weekend at the expense of Combined Counties League side Redhill.
“Going to Redhill and they’ve had a good start to the season. I think they’ve won all their League games so far, so it will be the same as when we went to Bedfont in the last round – a League below, but you’ve got to give these teams credit and be wary of them as they will give us a good game.”
“It’s been a matter this week of making sure everyone has recovered from the two games last weekend and we go in there and give ourselves a fighting chance.”
“I remember last year, I took Ramsgate to a side below us and we lost because we weren’t up for the game so, we have to make sure this weekend that we’re OK and perform like we did in the two games over the Holiday weekend.”
“I think we played the best we have all year despite losing to Ramsgate on Monday and we were unlucky not to get something out of the game – take that into Saturday and I’m sure we’ll be fine!”
“We played better on Monday than we did in winning at East Grinstead on Saturday. We huffed and puffed and had chances early on to put the game to bed, but we didn’t. And that gives opponents a chance to get back into the game, but overall, it’s been a decent start for us.”
As a player, Lovell reached the last eight of the Cup, but sadly it’s a night that has its’ place in history for all the wrong reasons as he recalled.
“Playing for Millwall we played Luton – the notorious game in 84/85 when they ripped up all the seats and there were horses on the pitch. We had to leave the pitch – it was “THAT” game. It was 0-0 when we left the pitch, but when we came back, we lost 1-0 as Brian Stein got the winner.”
“As a manager, I got to the Fourth Round with Gillingham when we lost to Swansea after beating Cardiff, but as a Non-League manager, I don’t know… I don’t think I’ve ever had a really good run at it and got anywhere near getting a League club!”
Looking back to 1987, Lovell admitted, “it probably was one of the highlights of my career at Priestfield. When I arrived at Gillingham, I got injured straight away and people doubted my fitness which took a while to get back.”
“I hadn’t scored before that Southend game and to get four was brilliant as before that I was struggling to get going and to get the four did give me the push on that I needed – I went onto score another hundred for the Club in my career there and it was great to get off the mark even if I didn’t get any the following week when we put ten past Chesterfield.”
“I remember driving home to Wales after that game and was speaking to my wife and she will tell us that she’s never known me more upset about a game – we’d won 10-0 and not scoring any goals and I got brought off as well – it was amazing and a bit bizarre; happy memories though!”