WITH a semi-final outing at Wembley and a victory over Chelsea to his name, former York City attacker Michael Coulson is not short on fairytale FA Cup memories.

But the 29-year-old forward, who is now playing for Scarborough Athletic in the Evo-Stik North League, is hoping the world-famous competition can throw up one more special occasion.

Coulson helped fire Athletic into the third qualifying round with a goal in last weekend’s 2-0 victory over Sunderland RCA.

His old team, meanwhile, were progressing past Salford and, while the North Yorkshire neighbours avoided each other in Monday’s draw, Coulson is dreaming that the tournament can live up to its romantic reputation by seeing both clubs pulled out of the hat together next time around.

For that still to be a possibility, City will need to overcome South Shields and Scarborough come out on top against Stratford Town next weekend.

Coulson has already netted four FA Cup goals this term, with the coastal club also having to negotiate their way past Marske United and Workington earlier in the tournament.

Stratford, meanwhile, will visit the new Flamingo Land Stadium sitting 16th in the Evo-Stik South standings and, on the Seadogs’ prospects and his Cup aspirations, Coulson said: “We’ve got a good chance of getting through and, then, we’ve got the opportunity of drawing a National League team in the fourth qualifying round, but I know who I would want.

“Since I left York, I’ve never been back, but I’d love to go and play at Bootham again. The FA Cup has been good to me in the past.

“I scored my first goal for Barnsley in the third round, I’ve played in a semi-final and have got some good draws so, hopefully, there’s another one to come.”

Coulson does not expect City’s passage into the next round to be a straightforward one, though, against a table-topping South Shields side, who are the only team to defeat fifth-placed Scarborough in 12 matches this term.

Visitors Shields won 3-1 in front of a bumper August bank-holiday crowd of 1,667 and, outlining a warning to his old team, Coulson declared: “They are a good side.

“We had a man sent off early on which didn’t help because, even though we were losing 2-0 at the time, I felt we were matching them and we had created enough chances to be level. But they were first class after the red card and kept the ball really well.

“They’ve got some really good, experienced players like Julio Arca, Jon Shaw and Matty Pattison and are very confident passing the ball around. I think they will be a threat to York and they’ve got a lot of fans who, like the players, will be up for it.

“York should have that bit more class, though, to get through.”

In their former guise prior to being wound up in 2007, Scarborough met the Minstermen as equals in the Football League and Conference.

Coulson now believes, with a move back to Scarborough having ground-shared with Bridlington for the last decade, the foundations are being laid for his home town to challenge City and current National League North table-toppers Harrogate Town for North Yorkshire supremacy again in the future.

The new stadium was part of a £15million leisure project that also includes an eight-lane swimming pool and fitness centre.

It has a capacity of 2,070 including 250 seats and, on the potential for future progress, Coulson added: “The people who run the club have done well to keep it going through some really hard times, but everything is now in place to take the club back to where it was before and I don’t see why that can’t happen, even if it will take a bit of time.

“The 3G pitch isn’t ideal, but getting a stadium back in the town was the main thing and it’s a nice, tidy ground, with room for it to be improved if the club rise through the leagues. For me, it feels nice to be home and we’ve had a good start to the season.

“There’s a bit of a buzz around the place and we’re getting nearly 1,000 people every game, which is very good for the level and I’m enjoying my football.”

Playing on the left side of a front three, Coulson has already hit double figures, including a first senior hat-trick, since leaving Scottish Premier League side St Johnstone in the summer, where he had failed to net in 18 outings.

The 29-year-old now combines his Seadogs commitments with a day job, while training twice a week with the club at York Sport Village, or just once if there is a midweek game.

He admits the transition from the full-time game has been a difficult one, but one he is trying to embrace.

“The manager didn’t seem to take to me at St Johnstone, but the team did well and got into Europe,” Coulson explained. “I missed both Celtic games, but did manage to come on at Ibrox against Rangers and started at Aberdeen, which was a really nice ground.

“It was a shame I didn’t play more because I felt comfortable at that level, but I didn’t feel wanted. I then thought I might get a decent club after leaving Scotland, as I scored seven goals in League Two the year before when we went down at York.

“But nothing came up that I really fancied and I decided it was time to put my family first, rather than travelling to the other end of country to play. There were clubs that were interested, but they just weren’t the right ones for me, so I made that decision to come out of professional football and training every day, which is tough when it’s all you’ve known for 12 years.

“You don’t realise what you’ve got, until it’s not there anymore. But I’ve got a good job working as a leisure centre manager at Flamingo Land, so that helped me make my mind up and it would take something special now for me to leave Scarborough.”

Coulson is not the only face familiar to City fans at his new club either, with fellow Bootham Crescent old boys Craig Nelthorpe, Emile Sinclair, Jamie Price, Jimmy Beadle, Charlie Binns and a 36-year-old left-back who was The Press Player of the Year back in 2005 also on the books.

“Dave Merris is captain,” the former Grimsby forward revealed. “He scored a good goal the other day and he’s still very fit.

“We’ve got a good, experienced squad with people who have played at a good level and that’s showing on the pitch.”

Coulson, who fought back from three cruciate ligament injuries as a pro, went on to insist he has no plans to hang up his boots in the near future, pointing out: “My body feels fine.

“I’ve played just about every minute and, whilst I had a couple of injuries last season, they had nothing to do with my knee, so I feel I’ve got a good few years left in me yet.”

Elsewhere, Jon Parkin and Jon Worsnop have joined in a four-man fight at the top of The Press Player of the Year leaderboard.

York City’s top scorer and goalkeeper are level on points at the summit with Josh Law and Sean Newton.

Parkin won three points towards the contest as our man of the match during last weekend’s 2-1 FA Cup triumph at Salford.

September Player of the Month pacesetter Worsnop (two points) and Alex Whittle (one) were also recognised for their efforts in the second qualifying round tie as our second and third-highest performers respectively.

Parkin, meanwhile, received the two Player of the Month bonus points on offer after topping out Twitter man-of-the-match poll.

]The Press Player of the Year standings: Law 10, Newton 10, Parkin 10, Worsnop 10, Heslop 6, Parslow 6, Morgan-Smith 5, Almond 4, Bencherif 3, Rankine 3, Whittle 3, Moke 2.

The Press Player of the Month standings for September: Worsnop 14, Parkin 8, Law 7, Heslop 3, Felix 2, Morgan-Smith 2, Parslow 2, Wharton 2, Almond 1, Whittle 1.

Goals: Parkin 5, Newton 3, Heslop 3, Morgan-Smith 3, Rankine 2, Almond 1, Felix 1, Law 1, Own Goal 1, Parslow 1.

Assists: Almond 7, Morgan-Smith 3, Newton 3, Parkin 3, Parslow 2, Heslop 1, Whittle 1, Worsnop 1.

Bad boys: Bencherif, Heslop both one red card, one yellow; Newton, Smith, Wharton all one yellow.