Oxford City FA Cup windfall 'will make the world of difference'

The Vanarama National League South club will receive £72,000 as part of the deal, which sees the second round tie at Meadow Lane shown on BT Sport 1.

City, who have progressed from the second qualifying round, have already earned £42,500 in the Cup so far.

And the part-timers would pocket a further £27,000 if they were to beat Sky Bet League Two leaders County on Saturday, December 2.

City have made no secret of their financial troubles in recent years and director of football Justin Merritt knows the Cup windfall will make a big difference.

He said: “It’s obviously fantastic for us as a club, we’re delighted.

“We were hopeful of a highlights package, but to get a live game, it makes the world of difference to us.

“We’re a club that are going through a difficult period in its history.

“We’ve got a debt we’re servicing and we’re working every day trying to clear it all.

“But for us that just makes the sustainability of the football club a lot more achievable.

“It’s not like we will suddenly be investing money in players and so on, but we will look at the whole club, improve the facilities and make sure we can keep going.”

City, who sit third bottom in the sixth tier of English football, pulled off one of the shocks of the first round in beating League Two outfit Colchester United 1-0 earlier this month.

It was the club’s maiden victory over a Football League side and ended a 48-year wait to be in the second round draw.

City are already planning for an overnight stay in Nottingham next month ahead of the earlier kick-off time of 12.30pm.

And Merritt is hoping there will be more reasons to celebrate in the future.

He said: “It’s really good to have excitement about the place and we will be talking about some positives rather than how tough it has been.

“We’re delighted.

“We want to give a good account of ourselves and to pull off another shock would be what dreams are made of.”