CHELMSFORD City travel to Gateshead looking to secure an FA Cup upset and a spot in the second round of the FA Cup.

The National League South promotion hopefuls make the 275 mile journey to the side a division above them in the first round on Saturday.

And Rod Stringer will hope his team’s trend of reaching the second round continues up north. The last three times the Clarets have reached this stage (2010-2012) they have gone on to progress.

Stringer has an Essex Senior Cup match at AFC Hornchurch to contemplate first (played after the paper went to press) and says a decision on his starting XI will be made after that tie.

“We’ve got a big game against Gateshead on Saturday so we will have to rotate the squad on Tuesday (in the Essex Senior Cup).

“We play AFC Hornchurch so I will give some minutes to the boys and then we’ll pick the team for Saturday from that.”

Chelmsford suffered their first away defeat of the season on Saturday, conceding a 90th minute goal at Chippenham Town having battled back from 2-0 down.

Will Richards volleyed into the net in the 90th minute to give Chippenham all three points.

Dave Pratt had put the hosts ahead at the far post on 27 minutes after goalkeeper Sam Beasant had failed to punch the ball clear.

And Scott Twine doubled the Bluebirds’ advantage with an unstoppable effort from distance.

Chris Dickson had a penalty saved for the visitors, although the rebound was converted by Michael Spillane.

And when Dickson netted a long-range lob on 88 minutes it seemed as though Chelmsford had escaped with a draw.

But Richards bundled home a corner in added time to ensure Stringer’s men left with nothing.

“Obviously I’m disappointed, you can’t be happy with a defeat. But I felt we played really well for the opening 25 minutes,” said Stringer.

“I did not slaughter them at half-time, I said ‘come on, it’s going to be tough going uphill’ but we got ourselves back in the game and then a minute after scoring they go up the other end and score.

“To be fair they did not play any football. All they did was smash it and it’s effective over here. The pitch is very narrow, it’s got a big hill, it’s not what we want to play on but you have to give credit to Chippenham because they had a go.”