THE Camrose social club was packed full of excited Basingstoke Town fans, players and senior officials when the Sky Sports News cameras rolled into town on Sunday, November 12, to capture their reaction to the live FA Cup second round draw.

Manager Francis Vines' Town heroes pulled off the shock of the first round with their superb 1-0 triumph over League One Chesterfield, to rightly capture the imagination of the national media as the valiant "cup minnows".

Basingstoke Town's name was in the hat for the second round for the first time since 1997 when, under ex-boss Ernie Howe, they drew Northampton after beating Wycombe on penalties after two 2-2 draws.

Nine years on, FA Cup fever and the fine run under Vines' stewardship to the second round has once more given the Town fans plenty to cheer about.

And the 150-plus supporters of all ages, who gathered at the social club, waited tensely to see who the club would face in the next stage of football's oldest knock-out competition.

Town's number 15 ball entered the machine at the FA's headquarters at Soho Square at 4.10pm and former England cricket captains Graham Gooch and Mike Gatting were charged with making the draw.

Spurs fan Gatting drew the home sides and Gooch the away - and the tension grew as Town's number appeared to viewers but kept getting missed.

Vines revealed: "When Hartlepool came out, I was thinking please, no, we don't want to go up there,' and it was the same for Darlington.

"I was hoping to draw Nottingham Forest or Bournemouth away, even Torquay - as Leatherhead proved they are beatable - because we'd get a lot of people going to those games.

"Especially Bournemouth. It's only an hour down the road. I reckon we'd have got at least 4,500 there and filled it. But it wasn't to be - at this stage anyway."

The draw went down to the last four balls - and fellow non-leaguers Chelmsford or north Hampshire rivals Aldershot, who drew 1-1 on Saturday, November 11, and replay on Tuesday at the Recreation Ground, were the clubs picked to host Town on Saturday, December 2.

The electric atmosphere and resounding cheers went up at getting a tie that offers a realistic prospect of progression to the third round - and a possible lucrative draw against one of the Premiership giants: Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal or Liverpool.

Boss Vines, along with Stuart Searle and Matt Warner, then spoke to the Sky cameras about the pairing as the raucous Town fans cheered to the rafters and sang songs.

And speaking on Tuesday, November 14, from home, Vines said: "It's all calmed down a bit now - but it's been great to raise the profile of the club and get on Sky, and then Meridian.

"We'll have to wait and see who we get - but it's a great chance to get to the third round proper. If we do, as a Spurs fan, I hope we get them at White Hart Lane!

"But we've got a hard game first, whoever we get. Chelmsford, with all their old Canvey Island players, are no mugs.

"If we play Chelmsford, I think we'll only get 500 tickets for the fans, as they only gave 560 to Aldershot, which will be a shame for the supporters.

"But if we play Aldershot, well, there's not many non-league teams who can hold 3,500 people and we can take a lot of our fantastic supporters there, because the backing all 500 of them gave us at Chesterfield for the whole 90 minutes was absolutely unbelievable. So I think I would rather us play Aldershot.

"We've got to start winning games in the league - but it is very exciting for us to be in the second round of the cup. We're all looking forward to it."