BLYTH SPARTANS could have pocketed more than £400,000 by the time Blackburn Rovers depart the Northumberland coastal town in early January, but the non-league outfit’s former Premier League star is not convinced this season’s FA Cup run will end there.

Graham Fenton, who spent two years at Blackburn after Kenny Dalglish delivered the league crown to Ewood Park in 1995, is now the assistant manager at Croft Park.

And with Blyth chairman Tony Platten intent on playing the third round tie at the intimate non-league venue that has witnessed giantkilling in the past, Fenton is certain Blyth’s more wealthy counterparts will not be prepared for the occasion.

The 34-year-old, who joked that Blyth boss Harry Dunn ‘wouldn’t do a bad job’ at Blackburn before learning Sam Allardyce was all set to take over last night, took just as much satisfaction from Tuesday’s replay success over Bournemouth as he did when he won the League Cup.

“Croft Park will be such a culture shock for them compared with Premier League grounds, right from the cramped changing rooms and the proximity of our brilliant fans to the pitch to the actual playing surface,” said Fenton, who was part of the Aston Villa squad that won at Wembley in 1994.

“I’m sure the new manager will want to play a very decent team because if they send their reserves up here we’ll bank on ourselves to give them a really good game.

“To be honest, you can’t even contemplate a bunch of lads from Blue Square North to win a game against Blackburn.

We will do our best, enjoy the day and set up to get them on the break.

“We are under no illusions.

They are on £50-60,000 a week.

Our lads probably get between £100 and £200 a game.

It will be a day out for the lads playing against some of the best players in the Premier.”

It is the fourth time in Blyth’s 109-year history that they have reached the third round of the FA Cup, but none have been as lucrative as this adventure.

Already Blyth have earned somewhere in the region of £150,000, but with another Setanta televised tie pencilled in for January 5, that figure will rise to around £350,000, before ticket sales and commercial benefits.

“It’s absolutely unbelievable,”

said Blyth’s Bishop Auckland-based manager Dunn after the last-minute victory over Bournemouth.

“Everyone concerned with the club is going to have a magnificent Christmas.”

Dunn paid tribute to the goal hero, 19-year-old substitute Ged Dalton, who had his hopes of a professional career dented last season.

“Ged was at Carlisle and luckily Mitch (Cook, former Scarborough player and manager) tipped us the wink that he was being released,” said Dunn, a former Whitby Town boss.

“He wasn’t particularly happy and we were only too glad to take him on. Now he’s an FA Cup match-winner.”