ARSENAL stand just one step away from another FA Cup triumph.

But their final clash with Chelsea at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium tomorrow is a million miles from their cup origins.

Just as Dorothy's journey to the Emerald City started on the Yellow Brick Road, so the Gunners' proud FA Cup history began in the leafy glades of the New Forest.

The romance of the FA Cup is that it pits together the minnows and giants of the English game - and these days an average Premiership club could have few smaller fish to fry than Lyndhurst.

The village may be known as the capital of the New Forest but it is seen by many only as a traffic-congested nuisance on the way to a Forest campsite.

Few know that, tucked away behind the High Street, is the homely ground of one of the country's oldest football clubs.

Lyndhurst FC was founded in 1885 and pre-dates Arsenal by just a year. Their proudest boast is that they are the same age as Southampton FC.

In fact, as a senior club back then, Lyndhurst played in a higher standard of football than Southampton and, as such, entered the FA Cup.

Thus it was in October 1889 that they were drawn to play a bunch of munitions workers from the Woolwich Arsenal in London.

It was Arsenal's first first-class competitive match and the city slickers proved too much for the country boys, whipping them 11-0 in a qualifying round meeting.

But, while Arsenal were destined for greater things, Lyndhurst stayed at home in their Forest backwater, content to pit their wits in those days against the likes of Brockenhurst, Cadnam and Burley in the New Forest League.

Unlike Arsenal, there was no Herbert Chapman to transform their fortunes and lift them to greatness.

Wellands Road's setting is so distant from Highbury's it could be on a different planet.

But there is a warm and welcoming clubhouse on which Lyndhurst's heritage is proudly displayed - including an engraved scroll from the Football Association, congratulating the club on its centenary.

Sponsorship here is more likely to come from the local butchers and there are no club megastores pushing out millions in merchandising.

It is a world of which most Premiership football fans would know nothing and would probably scoff at.

But, while there might not have been Premier League titles, FA Cup triumphs and European adventures for Lyndhurst to savour, Arsenal's first-ever FA Cup opponents are proud of their heritage.

Current chairman Neville 'Bunny' Hutchings has served the club for 56 years since he first turned out for the club as a 14-year-old.

"We're proud of what we have got and what we have achieved here," he said. "There aren't that many teams around as old as us, and this club has been going proudly for 117 years.

"It was in places like this that football grew - and without the likes of us, clubs like Arsenal probably wouldn't exist."