Hat-trick hero Adam Birchall celebrates on Tuesday night Picture: Paul Amos

by Andrew Gidley

Dover chairman Jim Parmenter is relishing the meeting with Gillingham after his side cruised through their FA Cup replay with Farnborough on Tuesday night.

The 5-0 win sets up a huge Kent derby on Saturday, November 6 when Gillingham will host Dover in the first round proper.

He said: "It’s going to be a fantastic day out for the club and the supporters and a very big match for Kent football."

The tie will see former Whites boss Andy Hessenthaler come face-to-face with his old team.

Striker Adam Birchall netted a hat-trick for Dover as they won through comfortably on Tuesday night.

Birchall was brought to the club by Hessenthaler and admitted: "It will be nice to see him again, and a lot of the boys have good memories of his time here."

Parmenter was angry in the summer after Hessenthaler’s initial replacement, Ian Hendon, left Crabble to become assistant at Gillingham. It’s something he’s now keen to forget.

He said: "Things happen in football, but you can’t bear grudges and hold things against people for too long.

"(We are) in the first round proper for the first time for a long while, so what is there to worry about? That’s history, we are looking to the future."

*For comprehensive coverage of Dover’s FA Cup triumph read this week’s East Kent Mercury newspaper.