School pupils at the Hartsdown Academy in Margate were treated to a very special visit from the cup itself, ahead of Ramsgate's first ever FA Cup Round 2 match.
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00:00 The FA Cup, 6.3kg of silver, wrapped in tons of football history and previously held by
00:08 some of the sport's greatest.
00:11 Seen here held by former Medway school boy Chris Smalling when he won with Manchester
00:15 United in 2016.
00:18 Ahead of Ramsgate FC's first ever foray into the second round of the competition, the Cup
00:23 itself has been on tour, stopping here today at Hartsdown Academy, which just so happens
00:29 to be the workplace of Rams manager and school deputy head Ben Smith.
00:34 "I think it breeds belief and confidence, you know, that local people can have success.
00:41 If I go back to the game against Woking, one of the goal scorers was TJ Jadama, ex-student
00:50 of Hartsdown Academy.
00:51 So it's nice to show students that actually this is an ex-student here and hopefully they
00:59 can be the next TJ and not only a fantastic player but a fantastic role model for the
01:05 work he does in the local community, his coaching.
01:08 So it's great to show what our alumni can achieve."
01:12 "It feels surreal coming back to the old school where it all started and speaking to
01:17 the teachers, seeing some of them here.
01:19 We used to talk about the FA Cup loads in school, so it feels good to bring it back
01:24 here and have it for the community.
01:26 So I know a lot of the kids that go to this school and way back when I was here I didn't
01:30 think I'd be at this point but obviously we've worked hard to get where we are and hopefully
01:36 for them and for some of our family we get to the next round and get through."
01:40 And with a capacity away crowd set to travel to Wimbledon this Monday, many of these youngsters
01:45 will be left to watch the game live on TV.
01:48 "I think it's brilliant how far they've come and how much further they can go.
01:53 You can look up to them and use them as a role model."
01:55 "I've had about three and a half thousand people ask me for tickets so yeah, there's
02:00 been massive response from all the fans.
02:06 It's just the pubs, all the local pubs are showing it live, there's so many people interested
02:13 in it.
02:14 It's just everywhere in the local area, even outside the local area everyone's talking
02:17 about it."
02:18 "You can't get physically much closer to the Cup than this but in terms of football,
02:23 Ramsgate have never been this close either.
02:25 If they beat Wimbledon on Monday, well, they'll be even one more step closer to the FA Cup."