SE Dons, the south-east London club founded by rapper Don Strapzy, sit one victory from the FA Cup first round proper after a maiden cup run that has already claimed four teams from higher leagues, according to SkySports.
The club, which three seasons ago was playing Sunday League football, beat Chichester 3-2 with two goals in added time, then thrashed former National League side Weymouth 5-1 away. A fourth qualifying round tie against Sholing, two divisions above them, now stands between the Dons and a place alongside clubs with Premier League histories.
From YouTube sensation to genuine football club
The story began in 2014, when Andrew McHugh, better known as Don Strapzy, and a group of friends formed a Sunday League team. According to Wikipedia, the club won the Orpington and Bromley District Sunday League twice, in 2021 and 2022, before a 2024 link-up with Forest Hill Park opened the door to Saturday football and promotion followed. The SE Dons name was adopted for the 2025/26 campaign, and the club now plays in the Southern Counties East Premier Division.
Along the way, the Dons built something rarer still: a genuine community. More than 250,000 YouTube subscribers follow videos that take supporters inside dressing rooms, onto touchlines and into the lives of the people who make the club what it is. The Non-League Football Paper this week devoted its podcast discussion to the Dons' FA Cup dream alongside Tadley Calleva's, a measure of how far the story has travelled beyond their home ground, The Garrison.
What makes the run significant, beyond its improbability, is what it says about access. The Dons are one of only three clubs remaining in the competition to have started in the extra preliminary round, the FA Cup's entry point for its smallest clubs. Six matches into their first campaign, they have already beaten four teams from higher leagues, including a 2-0 debut win against Erith Town in August.
The people behind the run
For McHugh, the run carries a weight that goes well beyond football. His father, known affectionately as Mr Old Skool, and his mother, Paula, who helped with the kits, have both passed away. Their names remain woven into the club: shirts bear Mr Old Skool's name, and supporters sing for him in the 70th minute.
“It's allowed me to keep my parents' names alive,” McHugh told Sky Sports. “My mum, anything for Paula. People that haven't met her, I hear my mum's name all the time.”
He credits his family and his faith with a life that could have gone otherwise.
“My life could have gone so differently,” he said. “I've got friends who are gone. They ain't coming back.”
The dressing room reflects that seriousness of purpose. Captain and goalkeeper George Kamurasi, known as Big G, is of royal lineage in Uganda's Tooro Kingdom and has himself known grief, having lost his parents. Forward Alex Teniola, who joined from Baitezee Squad, one of the Dons' great Sunday League rivals, scored the 95th-minute winner against Chichester five minutes after coming on, toe-poking the ball under the goalkeeper.
“I've always been a SE Dons sort of player,” Teniola said. “I wear my heart on my sleeve. And that's the kind of culture that's bred at SE Dons.”
“What you see on camera is real,” he added. “No one is acting.”
Why the ambition is sincere
McHugh makes no apology for dreaming in public. The jokes about drawing Manchester United, once confined to conversations with his father over a Guinness, have hardened into genuine tactical consideration.
“If we manage to beat Sholing, I'm asking myself, do we want the big tie now? Or do we try and get one that we can potentially go through?” he said.
“The way God is writing this script right now, I wouldn't be surprised if we get to round three.”
The Europa League has even entered the conversation, tongue in cheek. “If we can win the FA Cup, we'll be in Europa League next season,” he told Sky Sports News. Should the Dons beat Sholing, Leicester City, Sheffield Wednesday or Reading are among the clubs waiting in the first round draw.
A reminder of what football can still be
There is a civic lesson in this run, and it is worth stating plainly. English football's pyramid has become a machine for concentrating wealth at the top, and the romance of the cup has too often been reduced to a marketing line. Yet here is a club built by a rapper and his friends, from a Sunday League pitch to the cusp of the first round proper, filling away ends and making grassroots football a spectacle again, as the rivalry with Baitezee Squad once did with hundreds turning out.
The Viking-style celebrations, the music and the catchphrases built the audience. The football is now matching it. That a club can grow from a community project into a competitive force without losing its character is not a nostalgic curiosity; it is evidence that the game's lower reaches remain its most productive soil.
Sholing will provide no favours. They play two divisions higher and have their own cup dream to protect, and McHugh is under no illusion about the scale of the task. But a place in the first round proper would put a club born in Sunday League football into the same draw as teams with decades of professional history.
“It's history, bro,” McHugh said. “We're literally making history.”
FAQ
Who founded SE Dons and when?
The club was founded in 2014 by south-east London rapper Don Strapzy, real name Andrew McHugh, and his friends, initially as a Sunday League team.
What does SE Dons need to reach the FA Cup first round?
They must beat Sholing in the fourth qualifying round. Sholing play two divisions above the Dons.
Which clubs could SE Dons draw in the first round?
Leicester City, Sheffield Wednesday and Reading are among the clubs waiting in the next round, according to SkySports.