'I'm a project manager but about to beat Erling Haaland and Mo Salah to goalscoring award'

Gary Lockyer looks likely to claim the 2025 Mitre Golden Ball as the top scorer in the FA Cup. The 32-year-old, who plies his trade with Isthmian League South East side Ashford United, has scored 10 goals in the prestigious competition - and he could go on to beat elite strikers like Erling Haaland and Mohamed Salah to the accolade, despite being nowhere near the Premier League. Speaking exclusively to Mirror Football ahead of the fourth round of the competition, Lockyer said that he is flattered to be in the running for The Golden Ball in partnership with Mitre. He explained: "Growing up as a kid, that’s what you expect don’t you? You expect to hit them levels, but obviously certain plans and stuff like that, you don’t get there - you don’t get to them levels.

"You’re not quite good enough to get to them levels, so you know, to now be in that bracket is like you said ‘quite flattering’. You never put your name against their names, but they’re at the level for a reason. I’m at my level for a reason, so you know, eventually we get to that time at the end of the season - the final etc - where we come in so early. "I think our first round was I believe, the end of July, beginning of August. These guys don’t come in until last round, which was the end of January. There’s a lot of waiting to see how they do, but it’s flattering. Like I said, I’m not really their level in terms of where they continuously do it, week in, week out, but it is good to put yourself in that bracket.".

Lockyer opened his account for the FA Cup in a 3-0 win over Egham Town at the beginning of August, slotting home two goals, before adding two more in a 1-1 draw and a 3-1 win over Harrow Borough. The striker doubled his tally with four more goals against Three Bridges in a 6-1 win in the first qualifying round of the tournament, before finding the back of the net once against Corinthian in a 3-0 second qualifying round win.

Lockyer struck gold once more to take his tally to 10 in a 3-2 loss to Chertsey Town, which saw Ashford United omitted from the competition. And while there are still numerous rounds to go until the FA Cup is up, Lockyer feels confident in scooping the top scorer award due to bigger teams often playing reserve sides to keep their players fit. He explained: "You know what, I do feel confident. I think there was a couple of times, especially from the non-league teams that we present ourselves in, there was a couple of times that these guys got to eight goals and were still in the competition, and I was keeping an eye out for their scores.

"But yeah, lucky for myself that they went out and I think now the pro clubs and the elite clubs have come into it, I think with their easy ties they tend not to play with their strongest 11 and focus on certain games around that they’ve got there. So I feel very confident that I can do it.". At the time of writing, Lockyer currently leads the pack in terms of goals scored in the 2025 FA Cup with 10, with next best scorers Declan Howe of Gainsborough and Harvey Sayer of Lowestoft holding eight - although both sides have now been knocked out of the competition.

Exeter City's Josh Magennis is the next closest man to Lockyer who is still in the competition, with four goals to his name thus far. His side face Nottingham Forest in the fourth round on Tuesday. Like many other non-league stars, Lockyer has a full time job - working as a project manager for a telecommunications company. And he also shared how difficult it can be to juggle his love of the beautiful game with other commitments. He added: "I think a lot of people don’t realise that I’ve got a young family - four young children.

"My daughter plays for Brighton and Hove women u12s. I’ve got two sons that play football as well, and then I’m also working full-time. We train on a Tuesday and a Thursday night, we play on a Saturday, we also sometimes play on a Tuesday night. So it’s constant. I know these elite players, that’s what they work for. "They train, they drive, their mindset throughout being the best of the best, they just east, sleep and breathe football. Whereas we’ve got other commitments to think about." He continued: "Sometimes I would finish training in Ashford in Kent, and then I would drive to Slough at 10 o’clock at night to work until 6 o’clock in the morning.

"I’d come home, get three/four hours sleep and then pick the kids up from school etc. So yeah, it’s demanding. It’s a very demanding aspect, especially when you get a little bit older, I’m 32 now so the body can’t take as much. When you’re younger, obviously you can do a lot, but your preparation sometimes isn’t great. But that’s the story of a non-league footballer I suppose.”. While many elite level footballers dream of bagging a Champions League, a Ballon d'Or or a Premier League title throughout the course of their careers, Lockyer's dream ambition is to break club records with Ashford United and scoop this year's Mitre Golden Ball. He continued: "I’m obviously at Ashford United, I’m a local boy. I live about a mile and a half from the ground.