GARETH Davies is confident that his Fairford Town team will be able to mix it with higher-level opposition this weekend as they aim to match their best-ever performance in the FA Vase.

Davies’ Hellenic League Division One West table-toppers roll out the red carpet at Cinder Lane for Andover Town, who play in the Premier Division of the Wessex League, in the first round proper on Saturday.

The second round is the furthest Fairford have ever progressed in the Vase – they have reached that stage six times, most recently in the 2003-04 season – and having seen his team lose 2-1 to local rivals Highworth Town before beating Longlevens 4-1 in cup competition earlier this month, manager Davies is sure that his troops have what it takes to hand Andover a shock.

“The Vase is big. You always want to do well in it and you only have to look at what Highworth did (reaching the semi-finals in 2014-15) to see that it is doable,” said the Fairford boss.

“We’ve played teams from a higher level already this season and the games against Highworth and Longlevens have given us a yardstick as to where we are as a team – they’ve shown that we’re not a million miles away.

“It’s going to be tough but we’re just concentrating on ourselves. We like to think that we’d give most teams a game.”

Meanwhile, Jeff Roberts’ Highworth Town, who were 4-0 winners over Lydney on Wednesday night in the league, face an intriguing trip to ambitious Combined Counties League outfit AC London on Sunday (kick-off 3pm).

Only founded in 2012, AC London’s 21-year-old founder and chairman Prince Choudary is also his team’s manager and last season, they played at the 16,000 capacity Crystal Palace National Sports Centre but are currently groundsharing with Surrey-based Banstead Athletic, who are also in Vase action this weekend.

The Worthians’ opponents also boast Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers and former Fulham defender Zesh Rehman as club ambassadors.