Gary Johnson has plenty of miles on the managerial clock, but the drive to succeed is still as strong as ever.

Cheltenham Town’s boss, now deep into his 62nd year, is looking to steer the club into the third round of the League Cup – these days known as the Carabao Cup – for the first time in their history.

Standing in their way are one of the most celebrated names in English football – West Ham – the club that spawned World Cup winners Bobby Moore, Sir Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters back in the Swinging Sixties.

Despite the Londoners’ Premier League status, the tie has got all the ingredients of a potential cup upset tomorrow with the Hammers arriving at Whaddon Road on the back of two defeats in their opening two league games. Not for nothing have Sky TV chosen this as their live game.

Johnson, however, is refusing to get carried away by any thoughts of a giant-killing.

“Who have they lost to?” he asked, before answering his own question, “Manchester United and another Premier League team. That’s a different level. They’ve got some very good players, they’re a very good team and it looks like they’ll be playing a strong side against us. You can’t say they’re on a bad run.”

Cheltenham haven't started the season with the pedal flat to the floor either and while the club from the East End were losing 3-2 at Southampton on Saturday, Johnson’s boys were going down 3-0 at Carlisle.

Unlike Slaven Bilic’s side, however, the League Two club have at least enjoyed a couple of wins this season, including the 4-3 extra-time win at Oxford in the first round of the Carabao Cup after trailing 3-1 at half time.

“The big thing for me is that the boys deserve this game against West Ham after the way they defeated Oxford,” said Johnson. “They’ve earned the right to be there and it’s great for the club to be playing a Premier League side.”

Now that they’ve reached the second round the club want to go further of course.

“There will be a great atmosphere in the ground and the key for us is to try to play our own game,” said Johnson. “Let’s see if we can affect their game. Let’s see if we can get shots on goal and get in crosses and headers.

“We want to try to stay in the game for as long as possible and see what happens.”

Johnson, closing in on 1,000 games as a manager, is no stranger to these sort of high-profile winner-takes-all games.

He went toe to toe with Liverpool and Manchester United in the FA Cup during his two spells as manager of Yeovil and last season he took Cheltenham to Newcastle where they lost 2-0 in the second round of what was then the EFL Cup.

“I’ve been involved in play-off semi-finals, finals and won promotions but tomorrow night’s game is certainly one of the biggest since I’ve been at Cheltenham,” added Johnson.

That will be the view of many of the 6,000-plus fans expected at Whaddon Road – West Ham’s share is a little over 1,000 – with the home support desperate for their team to provide them with a night that they’ll remember for the rest of their lives.

Johnson would love nothing more than to send them home with smiles as wide as the impressive new scoreboard at the ground but given the choice, would he rather beat West Ham in the cup or Exeter in a League Two clash, also at Whaddon Road, on Saturday?

“I’d love to win both,” he said, “but you’ve put me on the spot so I’d have to say beating Exeter. The league is our bread and butter and the three points at stake are massive. I want us to push up the table and push for promotion.”

Whatever happens there will be a result tomorrow night. Extra time will be played if the teams are all square after 90 minutes, and a penalty shootout will determine the winners if the teams are still level after the additional 30 minutes.