Cypriot side rewarded for their rapid rise
NEW Salamis are set to become the first Cypriot-led club to take part in the FA Cup when they take on Colney Heath next month.
Formed in 1971 by supporters of Cyprus-based club Nea Salamis Famagusta, the club was hugely successful at Sunday League level and decided to join the Non-League pyramid two years ago.
Having won the FA Sunday Cup in 2016 and the KOPA League for a 12th time in 2018, New Salamis achieved promotion from the Herts County Senior League in their first season of Saturday football. Then they were top of Spartan South Midlands League Division One when the campaign was cut short in March.
Ambition
Now, they will make more club history in nine days time as they enter the FA Cup in the extra preliminary round.
“Normally, to get into the FA Cup you’d need to finish in the top four but after the season was abandoned they did a random draw and we were delighted to be picked out of the hat and get a home tie,” club secretary and first team assistant Andrew Kouroushi told The NLP. “We’re really happy and delighted to represent our community, the first Cypriot- led team to play in the FA Cup.
“We played for the first time in the FA Vase last season and got to the first round where we were beaten by Eynesbury Rovers, who reached the quarterfinals.
“It’s a tough draw against Colney Heath, they were top of the Spartan Premier Division last year, but we’ve got a new management in place this season, a few new players and it’s really exciting for us.”
Gus Gulfer, the former Barkingside manager, will lead the proud club into a new era and aim to climb through the leagues.
“I think our ultimate target is to get to Step 4,” said Kouroushi, with the club groundsharing at Haringey Borough this season having been at Enfield for the previous two. “Our ambition is to get to Step 5 this season because we missed out last year.
Core values
“More generally, we just want to do well and put the club on the map. Hopefully the Cypriot community can continue to get behind us. “We’re starting more youth teams so we’ve got a bigger base.
“We have a core of play- ers from Cypriot families.
We have to keep core values, obviously as you go higher it’s harder, but there are a lot of good Cypriot players out there.”
New Salamis were also relieved to hear supporters will be able to attend their historic cup-tie.
“We’re delighted we can have support for the FA Cup game,” added Kouroushi.
“It’s limited to 300 and if we got that we would be over the moon. We’ve got a meeting with our league next week where we’ll find out if we are starting on September 5.
“We’ll have played seven friendlies by the FA Cup so we’ll be raring to go.”
