Ritchie Hanlon has plenty of his own FA Cup memories from his playing days but the Kings Langley boss is now relishing the chance to show what his side can do when they meet former side AFC Rushden & Diamonds on Saturday.

The preliminary round tie between the two holds special significance for the 37-year-old, who spent two spells with the original club before they folded in 2011 amid serious money troubles.

Now Hanlon, and sidekick Paul Hughes, will be hoping to progress to the first qualifying round in what the former midfielder describes as one of the ties of the round.

“First and foremost it’s important to get Kings Langley on the map. We have been doing it on a lower level but a few more people will be interested now,” he explained. “Everyone is taking notice because Rushden are on their way back.

“We want to put on a good show and let people see what we can do and what this club is about and hopefully show we’re a good little village team.”

Hanlon has his own memories of the FA Cup, not least of all with Rushden & Diamonds. Asked for his favourite cup memory, he said: “Scoring against Brighton & Hove Albion in the FA Cup live on Sky was pretty good and so I know what it means being in the FA Cup.

“We just had a very good team at that time at Rushden,” he added. “They had Bobby Zamora banging them in at the time and we went 2-0 down before I scored the penalty to get us back in the game.

“We should have made it 2-2 as well because their played handled it on the line and we should have had another penalty.”

Kings could not extend their own unbeaten run to threeSouthern League Division One Central matches on Saturday as they went down 2-1 at Royston Town.

A late goal from former Watford scholar Ollie Cox halved the deficit but despite have another late chance through the midfielder, Kings could not snatch a point.

“The deserved to win,” admitted joint-boss Hughes. “I would not say we were unfortunate not to get a draw, they well deserved to beat us, largely because we did not play at the tempo we normally do.”

Kings host Northwood on Bank Holiday Monday.