GOALKEEPER Paul Thompson wants to help Chippenham Town go one better than his former club Devizes Town did three seasons ago and reach the first round proper of the FA Cup.

The Bluebirds stopper, a £2,500 buy from Devizes in the summer, almost helped Brian Newlands' men into the draw for the first round and a tie against Second Division Brentford in 1999/2000.

The Wiltshire side were defeated 5-2 by then-Conference club Kingstonian before 1,000 supporters and missed out on a bumper pay day at Griffin Park.

Devizes had trailed by a single goal with ten minutes remaining, but two late goals ended their cup dreams.

While Thompson is keen to avoid a repeat of the painful exit, he believes Chippenham can go all the way to the first round of the competition in mid-November having entered at the second qualifying round stage.

Said Thompson: "I'd rather go out in the first qualifying round than the fourth to be honest because we were really down in the dumps when we went out at Devizes.

"When we went down there it was a good day out and there were 1,000 people there.Devizes were the lowest non-league club left in the competition.''

But Thompson is unlikely to be between the posts as Chippenham look to negotiate their first FA Cup hurdle at home to Weymouth on Saturday.

A groin injury sustained in the 1-1 draw at Grantham on September 7 has kept him out for two weeks, and Thompson believes it will be another seven days before he is ready for first team action. He said: "I want to be fit, of course, but I don't feel as though the injury is better yet. It just feels like one wrong kick or one wrong stretch and it might go again.

"I've still got another couple of days to go before the game, but I just feel another week's rest might save six weeks out if it all went wrong.''

James Bittner has stood in for Thompson for the last three matches, but is keen to avoid becoming cup-tied by playing in the Weymouth clash.

Thompson will patch himself up return to the starting line-up should Bittner elect not to play.

Said Thompson: "If he doesn't play then I will. I'll strap it up and do what I've got to do. If Tommy could get another goalkeeper in then all well and good, but I won't see an outfield player go in there for the game.''