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Paul Caddis’ vice-like grip on the FA’s velvet sack shows no sign of loosening this season, with Hereford FC granted yet another home draw in the FA Cup, which sees Ilkeston Town making the trip from Nottinghamshire on Saturday.

The original Ilkeston Town was liquidated in 2010 after a 114-year history. Ilkeston FC was formed the following year, which was in turn liquidated in 2017. Ilkeston Town FC was then founded and has yet to be liquidated. The club’s history on face value seems to feature more liquidations than a Welsh weather forecast, but that initial 114-year term is pretty impressive and the end of that iteration of the club must have been quite depressing for all involved.

A lot of players seem to go through Ilkeston, and given that the likes of Montel Gibson, who scored for fun there, eventually arrived at Edgar Street, you can safely assume that there will be one or two in the team that starts on Saturday who will be young perhaps, but very good and dangerous players destined to play higher up the pyramid. This is a genuinely tricky draw, even though yet again it’s at home, although given current home form that may just add to the trickiness. There will be absolutely no room for complacency given that they’re from a competitive division one level below the National League North, and will be able to play with the freedom of having nothing to lose. They will be a handful, they’ll be absolutely up for it, and the home side will lose if they don’t take it seriously. I’d suggest that there’s probably a Rizla paper’s width between Saturday’s opponents and the three teams who have unexpectedly come away from Edgar Street with NLN points recently, in terms of quality.

L'Varn Brandy, 22, is an attacking midfielder who started out at Derby County as a young pro, later signing for Sheffield Wednesday. Centre forward Tom Cursons, 21, has a very impressive eight goals in nine games to his name so far this season.

They’re called the Robins, which is a bit disappointing if you’ve spent as much time as I used to in the Bristol-Cheltenham-Swindon triangle, where Robins are everywhere (I should just add that it goes without saying that the only Bristolian football fans to have in your life are Gasheads, not Robins, just for clarity, otherwise certain people will never forgive me). At this stage of the FA Cup you want the romance to extend to the opposition being nicknamed The Cropdusters or The Fairies or The Space Cadets – something madly leftfield but with an intrinsic link to the town or village the club represents.

Anyway, The Robins have had a solid start to their season, sitting three points outside the play-offs. They lost 2-0 at Worksop on Tuesday, but they were probably so excited about the big Cup game they couldn’t shoot straight. Ex-Hereford goalie Matt Yates was on the bench for that game.

They’re required to mix it with the likes of Macclesfield, Guiseley and Blyth in the Northern Premier, so they’ll be battle-hardened, streetwise and unlikely to be remotely wowed by the occasion.

Some surprising news in the week was the aforementioned Montel Gibson departing for the bright lights and deep pockets of, er, Matlock Town, also a Northern Premier outfit. Fortunately, Jason Cowley is perhaps just a fortnight away from returning as terroriser-in-chief up front. Incidentally, Matlock lost at home to Gainsborough Trinity in front of 500 people whilst Ilkeston were losing to Worksop. I hope Montel knows what he’s doing.

Ahkeem Rose will hopefully celebrate the turning of his short-term contract into what is hopefully a season-long contract with a goal or two here. Indeed, after two consecutive games without scoring, it would be good for the National League North’s top scorers to get back among the goals before the visit of Kings Lynn next weekend.

Alex Babos should be back in contention here following his absence last weekend, although it may come too soon for Kyle Howkins’ return from injury, and may not be worth the risk even if he is fully strapped up like an Elastoplast Robocop and almost ready.

With Gibson gone and this one not quite having the importance of a league match, Adam Rooney may make his seasonal reappearance here at some point from the bench. Like Willo, he still looks as fit as a butcher’s dog at an age when many men succumb to the twin attractions of crisps and the sofa.

This match is all about the Twin Towers though, with the winner edging closer to playing Man City in the final. I haven’t bothered looking at what the prize money is for winning this as it’ll be derisory, an amount that wouldn’t even cover Matlock’s weekly crisps budget.

COYW