Rocky ready to knock FA Cup opponents out for the County

After all, every time he looked out of the window from the flat he grew up in the Twin Towers were in front of him, something to aim at for a football-mad kid growing up in North West London.

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Baptiste no longer lives on the tough Chalkhill Estate within a mile of the great stadium, but this weekend the dream is conjured up again as he lines up for Havant and Waterlooville at Notts County in the second round of the FA Cup.

The competition has already given him a taste of glory.

He scored Farnborough's only goal in their 5-1 defeat at Highbury against Arsenal in a fourth-round tie in 2003.

That it was such a rare glimpse of the big time for Baptiste is surprising because, despite being among the most consistent goal scorers in non-league football over recent years, he has never started a game at a higher level.

His record suggests that somewhere on the journey between being an apprentice at Chelsea in the late 1980s, and a 34 year-old phenomenon on the South Coast, a considerable talent got mislaid.

There was even a hint of the direction he might be expected to take when his Jamaican-born parents named him after the great Brazilian.

"They had won the World Cup in 1970. I think he was one of my Dad's favourite players and he just loved the name," says Baptiste, who quickly became known as the easier-to-pronounce Rocky.

With names like his, and being a goal-scoring forward and one-time car dealer, you might expect a more flashy character.

In fact, he is softly-spoken, self-effacing and easygoing, with spindly legs that have seen him cast as the non-league Kanu rather than a boxer.

And he drives a VW Polo.

While combative enough on the pitch, his laid-back persona may not have helped in his abortive attempts to make it in the professional game.

But he has always scored goals.

Never more so than under the sympathetic management at Havant, first of Ian Baird and now Shaun Gale, for whom he has scored an extraordinary 65 goals in 90 games in the last two seasons.

This season he has scored six despite missing games through a back injury and broken toe, which should have improved enough to allow him to play today.

"People say I am pretty laid back and I don't know if that has had anything to do with it," he says.

"I'd have liked to have played more league football but nobody gave me the chance. I can't remember all the clubs I had trials at."

He once played at Wembley, for his local team Willesden Constantine.

"My friend Junior Agogo (now at Nottingham Forest) also played and got signed straight after that by Sheffield Wednesday and off he went.

"I do sometimes think what might have happened. I'm hoping Junior will be there for this cup tie."

After drifting in and out of the game with injuries, his possible break did not come until 2000 when Ricky Hill signed him for Luton from Hayes, only to be sacked the following week to be replaced by Joe Kinnear, who gave him just three appearances as substitute.

Baptiste was picked up by Farnborough and made his contribution to their Cup run.

"That was a fantastic day. I will always remember spinning past Pascal Cygan and scoring and looking up at all the Farnborough supporters.

"The Arsenal supporters were fantastic to us as well. It's amazing how many people know about that goal.

"It just shows you what the FA Cup means to people."

While often scoring at virtually a goal every other game for his other clubs, Baptiste puts his remarkable record at Blue Square South Havant down to learning his game.

"I now know how to hold the ball up. I used to just get the ball and turn and run every time.

"It's experience and I still think I've got about another four years left in me, so there's still time for me to get up into the Conference and the league here."

First of all it is County, fifth from bottom of Coca-Cola League Two.

He says: "We're all on show and want to do well, we reckon it's a good time to be playing them."