Cray Valley boss Steve McKimm fled the country when he was sacked in the summer – and watched his daughter become a world champion.
McKimm was axed as manager of Carshalton Athletic at the end of last season and took the opportunity to fly straight to the USA to watch his daughter Lois make history representing England at the World Cheerleading Championships.
And Lois' gold medal on the world stage helped kickstart a winning run of his own. He returned to a phone call from Cray Valley PM – and he has led them all the way to the FA Cup first round.
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The Millers head to local rivals Charlton Athletic on Sunday – located a mere three miles from their home ground – for another fairytale moment in a season laden with wins.
The cup runs have been bittersweet for McKimm, as Cray Valley have knocked Carshalton out of both the FA Cup and FA Trophy – despite being a division lower.
"When I got told I was no longer at Carshalton I went away with my daughter," he said. "She is a cheerleader, she's 15, and I went to Florida because she was representing England out there. She became a gold medalist so it was a trip that I am glad that I went to.
"Cray Valley two weeks later rang me up and I came down to have a chat with them."
Cray Valley's record this season has been quite remarkable. The only competition they have suffered defeat in is the county senior cup, where teams regularly field rotated XIs. It is some feat for a team that only retained six players from last season.
"It comes down to the players' mentalities," McKimm said. "Some players buy into what you want to do straight away. After we beat Lordswood in the FA Cup 4-1 in the replay [preliminary round in August], I went into the changing room and told the players some things that I was not happy about.
"Not on the field, but off the field, in terms of the players' togetherness. They were together, but nowhere near where they are now.
"I have come to realise that as well, it takes a bit of time to build. It has been built now and they are fighting for every ball for each other.
"They are not best mates – nobody is going to be best mates in a team – but they fight for each other, they'll stick together and do it for each other."
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But while the odds will be stacked against that run extending at Charlton, McKimm can count on the support of a man who knows how to upset the odds. He used to work as a coach under Paul Doswell at Sutton United – the man who inspired their historic run to face Arsenal in the fifth round.
And Doswell also has experience of visiting The Valley, after his Havant and Waterlooville side were drawn away there a couple of years ago.
McKimm said: "I spoke to him after the draw, he phoned and congratulated us, he wished us well and said he hopes we enjoyed the day just as much as they did [Havant at Charlton]."
McKimm's last experience of the FA Cup first round came during the Covid years while manager of Tonbridge Angels. They faced League Two's Bradford City in front of BBC TV cameras, but were on the end of a 7-0 tonking.
It proved to be an educational day for McKimm, who believes the lessons learned will only go to help them at Charlton.
"I have made the first round quite a few times as a player, second round a couple of times, but getting there in the Bradford game was the first time for Tonbridge in 48 to 50 years, so it was just a day to remember. It will hold us in good stead and hopefully we won't make the same mistakes we did against Bradford.
"I went very bold. They weren't doing too well in their league and we went 4-4-2 thinking we were going to score some goals against them. On that day, they were very, very good. Stuart McCall (then-Bradford manager) said to me afterwards that it was the best they had played in a while, but we went bold and we were playing a league side that work every day, train every day, have better fitness and we came unstuck.
"Since that day, we have changed our way of playing – whether it be 3-5-2, 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 – and we have been watching Charlton so we will be working out what is the best way to go about playing against them."
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