Cornwall may be the only county in England where football's not the top sport. The county's rugby team is one of the best -- they've been to the County Championship final at Twickenham five years running -- and Penzance-based club Cornish Pirates play in the second tier of English rugby.
But rugby will be put on the back-burner this weekend as National South side Truro City become the first Cornish side to compete in the FA Cup first round in 48 years when they travel to League One club Charlton Athletic on Sunday.
It's the first time they've made it this far in their 128-year history -- in a county where there are no professional teams -- and provides the latest example of FA Cup magic burning brightly below the Premier League.
"When I was a kid, we used to play FA Cup singles and the dream was to score the winner in the FA Cup final," Stewart Yetton, Truro's all-time top goal scorer, tells ESPN FC.
"We're a million miles away from that, but playing in the FA Cup was -- as a child in the early '90s -- a big thing. At the top of the game, they say the spirit of the cup isn't the same anymore, but that's certainly not the case for the lower league teams. For us, it still carries the same sort of magic.
"Just because the top five or six [in the Premier League] earn millions, they probably devalue it, but that doesn't mean it isn't still the biggest club competition in the country."
For Cody Cooke, the club's only Truro-born player, it's been "surreal" since a 2-0 win over Hampton and Richmond sealed their place in the first round proper.
"I thought it would calm down when I went back to work [teaching at Exeter College] but it's been the opposite: more people talking about it, media, colleagues, students... one came in wearing a Charlton shirt!" he told ESPN FC.
Prior to the history-making win over Hampton, the part-timers of Truro had knocked out Portchester and Sudbury in a cup run which began on Sept. 16 with the players already preempting a first-round appearance.
"None of us had ever sat at the top of the Conference South and we said as a group of players that we're never going to get a better opportunity," Cooke adds. "To get two home draws against lower opposition, for me, was meant to be. It was a snowball effect from the start and we all thought this could be the year."
While the club were officially founded in 1889, their story is a relatively recent -- and, at times, complicated -- one. Taken over by property developer Kevin Heaney in 2005 (when Charlton were a well-established Premier League club) they earned five promotions, soaring from the South Western League to the Conference South and winning the FA Vase at Wembley along the way.
In a rugby-heavy county, though, it's been difficult to make inroads. Despite having a catchment area of more than half a million people, crowds watching the club's games have rarely gone above 1,000.
Geography, too, has hindered progress. Their closest league rivals are Weston Super-Mare -- 150 miles away. It's for that reason the majority of the players live in Devon, with training taking place bi-weekly in Exeter, 87 miles from the club's Treyew Road home, which hosts, at a push, 3,800 supporters.
That makes for a lot of coach journeys. Some, such as the four-hour journey back from Hampton, go much quicker than others.
"There were a few beers cracked open... nothing ridiculous!" Yetton says of the celebrations. "It was a long journey back and a few of the lads had to drive. But the ones that weren't driving had four, five beers.
"We had some bad away trips at the end of last season when we were fighting relegation. We couldn't get a point for love nor money. You almost felt you couldn't talk on the bus. But on the way back this time you couldn't shut people up. It was just brilliant."
Yetton has been with Truro through it all: The promotions from the 11th tier of English football up to the sixth tier -- "we went to some horrendous places" -- but also the administration, winding-up order and subsequent relegation which nearly saw the club go out of business in 2012.
"Everything dried up and there were bad times of not being paid thousands of pounds of money and then having to write that off for the club to survive," remembers Yetton, who left the club in 2013 before returning last season.
Local businessman Peter Masters stepped in, oversaw promotion back to the National South and stabilised the club's finances. Some suggest he didn't quite realise what he was taking on, but now he's got a whole county dreaming.
"To see Truro's name come up on the television away at Charlton was pretty magical," BBC Cornwall's Ross Ellis tells ESPN FC. "It's done a lot for Cornish football. And every time a Cornish team gets far, the whole of Cornwall gets behind them. A lot of people from Cornwall have got behind Truro in recent games because they can see Cornwall being put on the map for football. The Cornish people tend to get behind the Cornish teams regardless of where they're from."
Team bus is rockin'...! pic.twitter.com/hqJ7KMGDxJ
— Truro City FC (@TCFC_Official) October 14, 2017
Cornwall is unique in that sense. It's not quite pushing for a referendum on independence like Catalonia, but there's a strong feeling of pride in a county which was granted minority status in 2014.
"People are quite excited," the former mayor of Truro, Rob Nolan, tells ESPN FC. "It's viewed as a Cornish thing more than Truro. We're very proud down here. We're looking at the Barcelona situation with interest, people saying how would we vote in a referendum on independence in Cornwall and here we are, with a chance to go up and show London that we're Cornwall and proud."
Could this just be the start of something bigger, then?
"Their long-term aims are really tied into what happens with the stadium," says Ellis, in relation to the uncertainty over City's home.
Their current ground Treyew Road was given up to an America hedge-fund and is due to become a retail park -- much to the annoyance of local residents -- and plans to build a Stadium for Cornwall in collaboration with the Cornish Pirates and Truro College have not yet been crystallised. There's the very real possibility, despite fighting for promotion to the National League this season, they find themselves homeless in the near future. A ground-share with Torquay United has been mooted.
"The club's future is uncertain," Nolan adds. "If they have to move to Torquay, what will that do? And if you're relying on a stadium for Cornwall to be built, will that ever be built? Will they ever come back from Torquay?"
Ellis adds: "I think the aim is to make them a good, stable National South team. If they get promotion beyond that, I think they're prepared for it. But they're waiting to see what happens with the stadium."
Promotion has become a real possibility this season, although Cooke is aware it could force the club into some tough decisions.
"If we went up, next year would be a struggle because all the teams above are full-time," he explains. "It would be a big step if we were to suddenly go full time. At the moment, without the ground, without a facility for training, I am not 100 percent sure.
"It's something we would have to sit down and talk to the chairman about. It would be a bit of a headache for him, I imagine, but [a professional team] is definitely something the county needs."
As the club continue to make progress on the pitch, it's a headache which seems increasingly realistic. But it can wait for now. Since learning of the trip to Charlton -- the players gathered at a Plymouth pub to watch the draw -- there has only been one thing on everyone's mind.
For Cooke and Yetton, it's their first ever time in the FA Cup proper. Captain Ben Gerring has been there before, as has coach Lee Hodges -- whose playing career took in Reading and Plymouth Argyle -- but for the majority of players, this is new territory.
"We certainly aren't thinking we're going to The Valley just to enjoy it," Yetton says. "The way we play, we're hard to break down, so if we can stay in the game, there's every chance we can get some kind of result. Our strength this season has been absorbing pressure and catching teams on the break.
"[Charlton] are a very good side, but we will certainly go there and fancy our chances of getting something. There are always a couple of giant killings. What's to say we can't be one of those giant killers?"
Doing the unlikely and beating Charlton would move Truro one step closer to the third round -- when Premier League behemoths like Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool enter the draw. But what would they prefer: a place in the third round or promotion?
"For me," Cooke says, "if we got a big draw in the third round, if it was a big club, a Man United, a Chelsea or an Arsenal, then I would say that."
Yetton's thinking bigger: "What's to say we can't do both?"