The other Perryman

"They were always hard sods," he said. "Yeading had the reputation that they didn't take any prisoners. In fact I had a few tussles with one or two of them, but quite a few were Spurs supporters, so I started getting them tickets for games and we have been closely linked with the club ever since."

Closely linked is something of an understatement for a man who claims to know every Yeading fan personally. "Even at a home game if I suddenly saw someone in a Yeading scarf I would think 'Where's he come from? Who's brought him along?'" said Perryman. That admission might be more impressive were it not for the fact Yeading's average crowd is 130. This despite their position at the top of the Ryman Premier Division. With home matches failing to generate £1,000 in gate receipts, it is easy to see why the £250,000 windfall Yeading stand to net from their FA Cup run will make such a difference.

"I would think it will secure our future for the next 10 years," said Perryman. "If we were to go up there's a lot of things we need to put in place - a stand behind one of the goals and terracing along one side, so the money's going to be available to do that. But the club is structured so that what happened with Farnborough couldn't happen here. No one could walk away with the money - any profit that the club earns goes back into the club."

Nevertheless, Perryman recognises that the club's progress will be forever encumbered by their small support base, and as a result ambitions must be tempered. "I think we have got the players to make the next step up to get into the Conference South but after that would be a step too far," he said. "There's no way the gates we get could support full-time players.

"The attendances are very frustrating. The Saturday before Christmas we played Cheshunt. We're top of the league and streaking ahead, we have just got through to the third round of the FA Cup and we get 150 people here. You can't lose heart over it, you have just got to be realistic. Everything you do you just have to say 'Hang on a minute this is Yeading'. We can't order a couple of thousand replica shirts and scarves."

THEY can, though, order several hundred, which is a novelty in itself. Until Yeading reached the third round of the Cup they had never sold a club scarf or hat, while shirts were almost as difficult to come by. However, the unexpected demand from Newcastle's rivals in the North-East has opened up a new market.

"We've always had two or three shirts tucked away and once every couple of months someone would say 'any chance of a shirt?' and I would go and get one out," said Perryman. "But since the draw we have been sending shirts up to Sunderland, one guy has had three or four packages of shirts - he keeps ringing up ordering another 10. He's doing well with them because our secretary said someone he knows was in a Sunderland nightclub where a girl was walking around with a Yeading shirt on."

Tickets have been selling at a steadier rate, although Perryman remains confident that Newcastle will not return any of their 8,000 allocation. Equally, most of the 30 executive boxes at Loftus Road have been sold, the largest of which will be home to brother Steve, who will be hoping for a second upset in 24 hours following Exeter City's trip to Manchester United on the Saturday. If that happened, the Perrymans could even meet in the fourth round. "I can't see it somehow," said Bill, before disappearing to empty the washing machine.