You don’t have to sell non-league football to Ipswich Town star Tyrone Mings.

Back in the day he actually played against Paulton Rovers for his non-league side Chippenham. Back in the day wasn’t that long ago.

And the man who joined Ipswich Town from west country Chippenham 18 months ago, was at Leiston on Saturday, to lend a bit of support to a couple of his friends – who ironically now play for Paulton.

“I have a couple of friends who play for them,” Mings said.

“Paulton were often in the league below Chippenham when I was there, but I remember playing against them, probably in a cup.

“I enjoy non-league. There are lots of good players in non-league and many just don’t get a break.

“But non-league is getting more recognition these days and rightly so.

“I’ve been to Sudbury and Braintree, but this is my first trip to Leiston – it’s nice.”

Mings – already being tipped for England under-21 honours – watched an enjoyable encounter between two determined teams and one that left Leiston manager Richard Wilkins satisfied with his side’s victory.

“I’m chuffed to bits,” he said.

“Cup football is all about winning, nothing else.

“Offensively we were very strong, but we will have to work on our defence a bit more.

“We were a bit naive in the second half, giving away silly free-kicks after being so strong in the first half.

“In fact half-time came at the wrong time for us. They needed to re-organise and they did that, even though they were sent out so early.

“I said to the boys the first 10 minutes of the second half are important, but we did some silly things from the off and they got back into the game.

“But we won which is the main thing and Leon Ottley-Gooch could have had two goals in the last few minutes.

“The FA Trophy is a good competition, it’s good PR for the club. We’ve had two winnable games so far – Leighton and now Paulton – and we’ve won them.”