The Artic Stadium will host its maiden FA Cup first-round tie on Wednesday night, as Cray Valley Paper Mills seek to extend their historical campaign in a replay against Charlton Athletic.

The eighth-tier side managed to hold their League One conterparts to a 1-1 draw at The Valley earlier this month, and a trip to Gillingham will be at stake in the second round if Cray Valley can defy the odds once again.

Already cementing their place in Cray Valley folklore, Steve McKimm’s side had to navigate a total of eight qualifying ties to even a shot at a giant killing in the first round, requiring replays to overcome all of Lordswood, Northwood and Carshalton Athletic.

Cray Valley’s affinity for getting the job done at the second attempt offers some hope of a historical night at the Artic Stadium, three years on from their inaugural appearance in the FA Cup first round, which ended in a 1-0 defeat to Havant & Waterlooville.

An identical scoreline was on the cards when Charlton’s Scott Fraser broke the deadlock nine minutes into their game at The Valley, but just three minutes after the restart, a slide-rule pass from Hassan Ibrahiym picked out the run of Kyrell Lisbie, whose cross was turned into his own net by Addicks defender Lucas Ness.

By avoiding defeat at The Valley, McKimm’s side can proudly boast their best-ever FA Cup result no matter what transpires on Wednesday night, but their knockout exploits have left them to play catch-up in the Isthmian South East Division.

The Millers have only played six times in the league this season, but they have gone unbeaten in all of them and madeit four wins for the new campaign with a 3-0 victory over Erith and Belvedere on Saturday, seeing them occupy a spot in the top half of the standings with a whopping 21 goals – only league leaders Three Bridges (30) have more.

Meanwhile, one can be sure that Charlton will have no time for FA Cup sentiment as they endeavour to avoid a disappointing night against eighth-tier opposition, who punished them for failing to take their chances back on November 5.

Charlton also have a perfect run to extend on Wednesday night, as they have prevailed in each of their five FA Cup replays against non-league teams, although their most recent one was back in 2010 against non-Premier League side Luton Town.

The season before that saw Charlton suffer their most recent FA Cup exit to non-league opposition away from home – a 1-0 defeat to Northwich Victoria in the first round – but they have only fallen at the opening hurdle once in the past 13 campaigns since that humiliating evening.

Goalkeeping gaffes were the theme in the Addicks’ League One encounter with Portsmouth at the weekend, as after Alfie May had cancelled out an Abu Kamara opener, a rush of blood to the head from Ashley Maynard-Brewer allowed Colby Bishop to restore Pompey’s one-goal advantage from the penalty spot.

However, in the thid minute of injury time, Conor McGrandles beat Will Norris with a tame near-post header to steal a points for Michael Appleton’s side.

Nevertheless, that 2-2 draw leaves Charlton with just one away win under their belt in 2023-24, while their only FA Cup victory on the road since March 2014 came against Gateshead in 2021. Therefore, another chapter in the Cray Valley fairytale cannot be ruled out on Wednesday.

Cray Valley PM vs. Charlton Athletic Head to head

These two teams have only previously met once in this season’s FA Cup, playing out a 1-1 draw.

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