Ben Chapman is hoping to rekindle memories of a previous Emirates FA Cup experience after he set up the winning goal in Saturday’s Second Qualifying Round win for the Fleet.
The former Dulwich player slotted in alongside Sefa Kahraman at the back at Carshalton but still found the legs for a mazy run and quick one-two to supply Elliott Romain two minutes from the end of Saturday’s game.
Now Chapman, who has been voted the online man of the match for the past two games by Fleet supporters, hopes he can sample once again the cup-tie atmosphere that saw 3,336 watch Dulwich Hamlet take on Carlisle United two years ago.
There are two more rounds to negotiate before that becomes a reality, with Fleet awaiting the draw on Monday afternoon, but Chapman hopes Saturday is the platform for the start of a run.
“Two years ago with Dulwich in Round One against Carlisle on BBC2, that was a very big game,” he told BBC Radio Kent’s Charles Webster. “I think it was a Friday night with all the cameras and a big crowd, the lights. That was a good experience and I’d very much like to do that again and get further than that.
“You always want to get further and further in the Cup and get one of the big clubs. It’s always nice for us as a lower league club to get through. It gets bigger and bigger and you get on BBC against your Championship or League teams. It’s always nice for players and it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
With Carshalton opening the scoring on Saturday, it was Fleet briefly staring down the wrong end of a cup upset but Chapman wasn’t surprised by the Isthmian Leaguers’ solid display.
“We already knew they were a very good team,” he said. “We’re obviously both footballing teams and I think our fitness and our work rate came out in the end and we got the win. But fair play to them, they were very good. We looked at them before and we could see they are a very good team. They had a lot of things that could potentially hurt us and beat us and they caught us on the counterattack. We showed resilience and dug our heels in and got the result.”
It was a result helped in no small part by Chapman’s late cross-field run and the Fleet’s No.22 revealed he thought he’d missed the opportunity when he slipped in the buildup.
“I always like to venture forward,” he explained. “For example for the goal, driving out from the back and then getting a little assist. Because the boys know where to go and where to be, it allows me to go forward and the boys tuck in because everyone knows their position. So it allows us to be different and for me to get forward.
“I ran basically the length of the pitch. I did think I was going to give it away when I slipped but I managed to keep going and played a good one-two with Joe [Martin] and a good cross and Elliott was just in the right position. He knows where to be and that’s why he scores the goals he does.”
Medway-based Chapman now awaits the next round draw this afternoon and fancies a bit of a local flavour to the Third Qualifying Round.
“Maybe Maidstone or Dartford, a local rival, get it going, get the fans out – it’d be a good game!” he said. “As long as you get another win. We’d like to keep the ball rolling now we’ve got that win. We don’t want to stop and wait another week. We’ve got a squad full of good players in depth, so the boys are going to have to battle it out otherwise they’ll take their spot.”
