Brackley back from the brink and aiming for another FA Cup shock | Paul Doyle

Last season Brackley escaped relegation from the Conference North on the final day of the season – now they are one win away from the FA Cup third round

As they prepared for Saturday’s FA Cup second round tie at Blackpool, the players and staff of Brackley Town held a quiz in their hotel , just as they had done before their match at Gillingham in the previous round. Here is a question that was not asked on either occasion: which club had to wait until the final minute of last season to avoid relegation from the sixth tier of English football but is now on the brink of joining the elite in the third round of the Cup for the first time in its history? The answer is obvious to everyone at Brackley, the Northamptonshire club who are enjoying a radical upturn in results on all fronts this season.

A 1-0 victory over Tamworth in April, coupled with Lowestoft Town’s failure to beat Gloucester City, enabled Brackley to survive in the Conference North on the final day of the 2015-16 campaign. That was the second season in a succession that they had cut it so fine, and this time it was only goal difference that kept them up. But now they are riding high in their league and advancing in two cup competitions as well as flying the non-league flag in the FA Cup, one win away from going into the third round draw with the holders Manchester United and all the other top clubs.

Related: FA Cup photo essay – a look at Stockport v Woking in the first round

“We managed to stay up by the skin of our teeth last season and that gave me the opportunity to stay at this level and make the changes that I felt were necessary,” says the Brackley manager, Kevin Wilkin, who was appointed in September 2015 in the hope that, with time, he could emulate the success he enjoyed during six years in charge of Nuneaton Borough, whom he guided to the highest level of the non-league pyramid.

“We didn’t keep very many of last year’s squad and the profile of player that we’ve taken on board is better suited to being competitive at this level,” says Wilkin, whose recruits included four players with whom he worked at Nuneaton – James Armson, Adam Walker, Alex Gudger and captain Gareth Dean. “I know what they bring as players but also as characters. And the character and spirit that we’ve got in the changing room now is a big part of why we’ve done so well this season.”

It has already been evident in the club’s Cup run, most obviously in the replay against Gillingham, when the non-leaguers, all of whom are part-time players, recovered from the disappointment of losing a two-goal lead against the League One side and ultimately prevailed 4-3 in extra-time thanks in part to a hat-trick by Armson.

“You might have thought at 2-2 that there was only going to be one winner but all through this season we’ve shown the resolve you need at crucial moments,” said Wilkin. “We might be limited in certain areas but we have great spirit, we all have a go for each other.”

Brackley’s previous best result in the FA Cup had also been against Gillingham, who they eliminated in the first round three years ago before losing in the second to Macclesfield Town. Some of the money earned from that run went towards the construction of a 3G training pitch not far from St James Park, the club’s home ground where the highest league attendance so far this season was 642 for the visit of Darlington 1883 (they have sold 230 tickets for the trip to Blackpool).

“The 3G surface is excellent and having it allows us to schedule things with confidence, since we always know we’ll be able to train on Tuesdays and Thursdays,” says Wilkin. Except that the schedule goes out the window when the club finds itself competing in several cup competitions at once. They take on Blackpool without having trained at all this week because they had a FA Trophy replay against Mickleover Sports on Tuesday night, winning 3-1 to continue pursuing honours on four fronts.

Counting their progress in the Hillier Senior Cup, and the fact that they have had to contest five FA Cup matches to win the right to face Blackpool, and Saturday’s match will be their 27th of a season that began four months ago. That is one more than played so far by the professionals of Blackpool.

“Everyone now works incredibly hard on the fitness and sports science side of things so the difference between non-league and league is not so much in how often you train, it’s in how much rest you can get,” says Wilkin. “We’ve got guys who after a night’s training are up at 6.30am to do a full day’s work as a tarmacker or a bricklayer. That’s difficult. The rest element is something they miss out on in non-league. But you can come through that.

“The fixtures may be backing up on us a little bit but we’re enjoying it. We’ve got a game plan for Saturday and we’re determined to try to apply it. The Cup run has been a lot of fun and we’ll do our best to make it continue. This is certainly more fun than last season.”