Monday, November 7, 2022, will be a day that Non League club Bracknell Town will never forget.

Hidden away in the town and civil parish of Sandhurst within the Bracknell Forest borough, exactly 1,950 spectators visited the SB Stadium as the Robins took on League One high-flyers Ipswich Town in the first round proper of the FA Cup.

Ultimately, there would be no ‘Cupset’ in front of a packed crowd and the ITV 4 cameras, as the former Premier League team comfortably defeated the Berkshire outfit 3-0, although the Reds did do well to keep it goalless at half-time.

Receiving a huge round of applause from both sets of fans at full-time on a chilly Monday evening in Sandhurst, Bracknell’s cup run saw them defeat Harrow Borough, Chesham United, Yate Town, and Banbury in the qualifying rounds to tee up a tie against a team that won the competition in 1978 under the stewardship of the late Sir Bobby Robson.

Their efforts in the 2022/23 edition of the FA Cup will not be forgotten by those associated with the club in a hurry.

However, their match against the Tractor Boys wasn’t the first time that they had featured at this stage of the cup, and today, we will be looking back to when they forced their way into the first round proper for the first time.

During the 2000/01 tournament, the Robins were one of the many Non League teams that managed to get themselves into the hat of the FA Cup which saw them take on Football League opposition.

After qualifying wins against Hillingdon Borough, Ashford, Merstham, Banstead, and Thames Valley rivals Aylesbury, it looked like Bracknell were going to ruffle a few feathers in the cup.

A real outsider, they were drawn to play Lincoln City, then of Division 3 (League Two) at Sincill Bank.

Bearing in mind that the Imps were struggling in the league and had won only five of their 18 games that season, coupled with Bracknell scoring in their last 18 matches, the Berkshire team travelled up to Lincolnshire hoping to cause one of the biggest shocks in recent years in the FA Cup.

At the time, Town were used to playing in front of fewer than 100 spectators in their then-weekly Ryman League Division Three fixtures, but on November 18, 2000, 2,387 people attended the game with 500 fans making the trip up from Berkshire, but it wasn’t meant to be as Lincoln defeated the plucky Non League team 4-0.

Hopefully, we’ll see the Robins fly into the first round in 12 months' time for only the third occasion in their history.