‘I was so excited,” says Kyrell Lisbie, as he comes to terms with the boundless magic of the FA Cup. “I said to my dad prior: ‘Imagine getting Charlton away’ – and we did. I couldn’t believe it.” For the Cray Valley Paper Mills forward Sunday’s tie is a dream come true for a variety of reasons.
A 10-minute drive separates eighth-tier Cray Valley’s ground in Eltham, south-east London, from League One Charlton’s 27,000-capacity stadium, making it the most local of local derbies and arguably the most attractive game anyone in the non-league side’s squad could have hoped for. But for Lisbie it has even greater resonance. His father, Kevin, played 176 times for Charlton from 1996 to 2007, including 113 times in the Premier League. Kevin will be at the Valley, where he scored a hat-trick in a 3-2 defeat of Liverpool in 2003, to watch his son.
