JUST two months ago Shaun Reay was ready to turn his back on football after enduring personal disappointment during his short time with Darlington.

Tonight the 19-year-old hopes his renewed love for the game will gather further strength by helping Blyth Spartans set up an FA Cup third round tie with Premier League Blackburn Rovers.

For now, though, Reay’s eyes are not focused on Rovers. Just Bournemouth, in a second round replay that has excited the Northumberland town.

And while the teenager would obviously relish the opportunity to compete on the same playing field as the likes of Roque Santa Cruz and Benni McCarthy, he is also just as excited about taking on the Cherries this evening.

The remaining 300 tickets for the replay – available after Bournemouth failed to sell their allocation – went on sale at Spartans’ social club last night and there should be a full-house, 4,200, inside Croft Park.

“I honestly can’t explain how excited I am, everyone is the same, we normally get about 400 supporters at matches so to hear there will be more than 4,000 is brilliant,”

said Reay, whose brace in the first round helped to knock out Shrewsbury.

“I know Setanta are showing it on the telly, which makes it even better, but I know that all of the lads can’t wait to face Bournemouth.

“People are saying we would be massive underdogs against Blackburn, but we are also huge underdogs against Bournemouth.

“Just to get a replay from the match down there was great for us. Wouldn’t it be brilliant if we could cause an upset?”

Had things turned out differently, instead of facing Bournemouth tonight Reay might have been turning out for Darlington in Johnstone’s Paint Trophy at Rotherham.

The young striker from South Shields, though, took it upon himself to ask to have the remainder of his contract at the Darlington Arena terminated after talking things over with manager Dave Penney and his assistant Martin Gray in October.

“It just got to the stage at Darlington were I really wasn’t enjoying it anymore, I wasn’t enjoying football,” said Reay.

“I wasn’t getting a look in at Darlington, even though I made one start against Mansfield and a few substitute appearances, and then I went on loan at Harrogate at the start of the season. Even there I was fifth choice, it was really disappointing.”

Gray actually put Reay in touch with Blyth manager Harry Dunn, but not before he enrolled on a one-year Association of Accounting Technicians course at college.

And, while he is looking for a part-time job he can juggle with playing semi-professional for Blyth, he hopes to be left counting the figures of success tonight. “The bonus would be massive for us all if we could win this and set up a date with Blackburn,” he said.

■ Supporters have been told to retain their stubs to help allocate tickets should Blyth progress.