BRANTHAM Athletic manager Paul Skingley says making FA Cup progress this season would be a big boost for the club.

The Blue Imps travel to Hertfordshire tomorrow to play Moltan Spartan premier division outfit Broxbourne Borough, hoping to make it through to the preliminary round of the competition.

The winners of the extra preliminary round tie will receive £1,500 in prize money.

And boss Skingley, who enjoyed a productive run in the tournament when he was a coach at AFC Sudbury, knows it is an important tie this weekend.

He said: “We’re looking forward to it and financially it would be a real bonus to go through a couple of rounds.

“When I was at Sudbury we just missed out on reaching the first round proper and that was great.

“Financially, it’s important but that’s not something the players should concern themselves with.

“We’re expecting a tough game and we’ll need to approach it in the right way.”

Brantham have experienced mixed fortunes in the opening week of the new Thurlow Nunn League premier division season.

They enjoyed an excellent 1-0 win over Godmanchester Rovers last weekend, with Shaun Bartlett bagging their winner.

But they slipped to a home defeat by the same scoreline against FC Clacton on Tuesday night, with Aaron Condon grabbing a late winner for the visitors.

Brantham had a player sent off in each match, with goalkeeper Ryan Bedingfield shown a red card against Godmanchester and Michael Brothers receiving his marching orders against Clacton.

“I think the best way to describe our start to the season is mixed,” said Skingley.

“We had a great result against Godmanchester.

“They were the better side in the opening 30 minutes or so but we got better as the game went on.

“I think had we been a bit more ruthless, we could have won the game by more although that may have been a bit unfair on them.

“From our perspective, the decision made by the referee to send Michael off changed the game against Clacton.

“I don’t want to say too much more but we felt Michael got the ball first and it was a case of two players who were committed to winning the ball.

“After the game, the referee said he gave what he saw and we just have to move on.”

Matt Travis is pushing for a start for Brantham at Broxbourne Borough this weekend, after coming on for the final half hour against Clacton.

Skingley added: “Matt didn’t look out of place – he’s a very important player for us and he’ll be under consideration.”

Bedingfield and Brothers are both set to be available, with their respective suspensions yet to come into force.