SMILING Salisbury City assistant boss Barry Blankley became everyone's best friend after yesterday's FA Cup second round draw pitted the Whites with a dream home tie against former European Champions Nottingham Forest.

Blankley, who was attending a family reunion in Aldershot when the draw was televised live on BBC 1, grinned: "Everyone's buzzing now and suddenly they all want to buy me a drink!

"I'm going to text Nick (manager Nick Holmes) and ask if he can put me 250 tickets by - and that's just for immediate family!"

Whether Whites will be able to stage the game at their Raymond McEnhill Stadium home is in the hands of the FA and Wiltshire Police.

They will be making their recommendations over the next three days.

Salisbury's Conference South rivals Havant & Waterlooville have already fallen foul of police intervention and been made to stage tonight's first qualifying round tie against Millwall at Portsmouth's Fratton Park ground - with police costs of £35,000.

Salisbury's Old Sarum home has a limited capacity of around 3,000, which would be a tight squeeze for what is arguably the tie of the round against Colin Calderwood's League One leaders.

Live TV coverage is also a strong possibility for the David v Goliath' battle scheduled for the weekend of December 2/3.

For full story see today's Daily Echo.