All Saints Catholic School & Technology College PE teacher Jey Siva will be leading Canvey Island out this evening as they look to continue their memorable FA Cup against Boreham Wood in front of the BT Sport cameras.

The Gulls, who are the lowest ranked side left in the competition, host National League side Boreham Wood in a second round tie at Park Lane this evening (7.45pm) as they look to pull off yet another upset.

Siva, who teaches year 7-13 at the Dagenham-based school, is honoured to be able to lead his team out and have his students watching on with eager eyes.

“It’s an amazing feeling to be honest, obviously I’ve played for the last 10-12 years in non-league football, but I’ve never been on TV and never been to this round before,” Siva said.

“It’s really exciting, being captain, I get to lead the boys out which is an absolute honour.

“The school has been really supportive, especially Nick Pauro, he’s been plugging it all over Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

“It’s really nice, lots of staff members have been emailing me wishing me luck, which is a nice hype and for the students it’s nice as a lot of the boys dream about playing football and making it as a professional so it’s nice for them to see someone playing on TV that they get taught by.”

Canvey have been unable to play since beating beating Banbury United in the first round at the start of November due to the coronavirus pandemic after their Isthmian North campaign was suspended.

They have beaten Ware, Dereham Town, Biggleswade, Bedfont Sports, Cray Wanderers and Banbury United in the competition already.

“The first game of the season we played Ware and won 2-0, a couple of my old University friends were playing for Ware, so it was nice to beat them.

“We never thought we’d go on this sort of run, but unfortunately in the middle of it, I fell with coronavirus which side lined me for 2 or 3 games which was hard.

“In the last round I wasn’t fully fit and had to watch from the bench, I came on in the last five minutes, but I’m back to full fitness now and the manager has given me the nod for tonight so be nice to get back in.”

Canvey will now be hoping to pull off another shock upset and bag a huge tie in the third round - which the draw will take place for this evening as well.

“We will be warming up while the draw is happening, obviously we’ll be focused on the game, but in the back of our minds we’ll be thinking who have we possibly got.

“I’m sure it will be an added incentive if it’s a Premier League club away, that would be crazy.”

He added: “We’re on BT Sport, professionals are on it a lot but for us non-league footballers, part-time, it’s just amazing and it’s big for our students and our school.

“It is quite an achievement, for me personally I’ve never been in a professional set-up, but now I’m leading out a team in the second round of the FA Cup. I couldn’t ever imagine doing that.”