IT is great to be through to the next round of the FA Cup after we beat Thamesmead 5-0 in Tuesday’s replay.

I wasn’t at the game for personal reasons and I watched the game yesterday afternoon.

It was hard not being there and felt very strange. But the game must go on and football comes first.

(Assistant manager) Harry (Wheeler) was in charge and he is more than capable so I let him get on with it - we had picked the team.

I rung Harry after the game and got feedback, and he had a lot of positive things to say.

I said to the players on Sunday (after the first match) that Thamesmead had missed an opportunity. They should have beaten us and they didn’t do that.

But I knew, with a full team, we would be OK for the replay.

We were only playing with nine men for much of Sunday, with Josh Urquhart sent off and Jamie O’Hara pulling a muscle after I had made all of my substitutions!

So, I am over the moon with qualifying but fuming about these sendings off. It is a joke.

We have had three in our last three and four in our last nine and it is not good enough.

After Josh’s sending off I said the next person sent off for a stupid foul I would ban myself! I will take a look at what happened on Tuesday but we can’t keep getting red cards.

We visit Hungerford in the next round, which will be our biggest test so far. They will be physical, although their manager has recently left and that may help us. I have also heard their pitch is not the greatest quality so that might be a leveller.

Let’s hope everyone gets to the ground at any rate. Last Sunday, Jezza (Jeremy Lynch) went to Billericay and Elliot (Kebbie) went to Thamesmead, even though the game was in Dartford!

I was annoyed but I didn’t feel guilty about leaving them on the bench after that.