Danny McLaughlin’s Non League Journey

DANNY MCLAUGHLIN will not be a name familiar to Non League fans who have only followed the game in the last ten years.

During the late 1990s and 2000s, versatile McLaughlin came through the youth system at Halifax Town and went onto be a semi-regular for Ossett Town, Liversedge and Bradford (Park Avenue). He also had a brief stint as manager of Avenue’s reserve team whilst in his mid-20s and he was part of one of the most successful West Riding County FA under 18s representative sides there has ever been.

He’s been constantly reading Non League Yorkshire over the last few weeks and he’s offered to give James a break from his keyboard!

In an article written for his 12-year-old son, McLaughlin talks about turning a chance to become a YTS player in the Football League and having to settle for playing in Non League football.

This is his story: 

“I have read some excellent stories from former players describing their greatest games and journeys. I suppose I have a little bit of a different tale to tell, but one that many countless others can relate to. I have not played in the Premier league or scored in the FA Cup or represented my country, well not at football.

So mine is a different tale, i grew up in a working class family a town which is Rugby League territory and the vast majority of my pals played and with many playing professionally. Whilst i enjoyed Rugby League and played myself, the football was my game. A path now into football is very structured, mine wasn’t, although that structure was very evident with schools football and junior football. 

So school wasn’t my thing either, I hated it. I was subject to bullying in my early high school years and football was my relief. I failed all my exams, but I was still dreaming of football. This may be a common thread throughout, but i didn’t particularly get on with my coaches. My PE Teacher was a prime example, we just disliked one another.

So at the time I had no YTS contract and no route into football, i think my mother cried more about my lack of qualifications, which came back to roost in a different way. So i met one of the truly most inspirational blokes i have ever met, a chap called Malcolm Cook who grew up with Sir Alex Ferguson and his brother Martin in Govan. This guy was something else as a coach and as a person. He was so forward thinking than someone I had ever met before and someone who commanded respect yet could still play and he loved his 1v1 game that he created. He was a coach probably more relevant today than ever. He believed in me and took me to Halifax Town to work with another guy who i had the utmost respect for, the late George Mullhall. George was different to Malcolm he could be quite fiery, no nonsense, but i liked him a lot although I did feel the wrath of him. 

I had not signed a contract at Halifax and there was an opportunity to go to Bradford City and whilst i was a Huddersfield Town fan, any opportunity to sign for a bigger club is one that you would jump at. I played in a bit of a trial game and did quite well. Chris Kamara was the manager at the time, but in the end Bradford weren’t prepared to offer me much. I returned to Halifax and needless to say George wasn’t too impressed I had gone to Bradford. He pulled me into his office it was a Portakabin at the Shay and he told me in no uncertain terms that i could train today and then leave. I was devastated, but I went out and trained well and I came back into his office and he promptly offered a 2 year apprenticeship. 

By this time i was really pleased with myself, whilst the spell at City didn’t work I really enjoyed Halifax, there was a good feel at the club. I liked George and there was some good characters and young lads who many had a point to prove. I got in touch with Malcolm who was pleased for me and he had the discussion with my parents. My mum wasn’t too sure of the offer, I was at College now and had retaken my exams and passed and I was thinking of further education. Halifax were in and out of the league. Probably for the 1st time ever I followed my head and turned this down, I agreed to play for the reserves with Dave Worthington (Frank’s brother) and train when college allowed, but it wasn’t the same, it just fizzled out, i fizzled out, met another good coach in Bernard Ellison who told me he wanted to sign me when he was at Hull when I was playing at Ossett who were my local team. I think I actually rang up the club (Halifax) to find that all the contracts had been handed out and they asked me if I wanted the club could fax my details out to other clubs.   

So Ossett Town was next. A local club, good honest club and I think I played for the first Team early on. It was a very different style of football and they had a new manager in Gary Brook who I briefly knew from my time at Halifax when I used to train with the 1st team. Although I still think to this day Gary never remembered me or just didn’t like me. By this time I was a little older, maybe not wiser (am not sure) the dream of playing full time slowly reducing. Gary was a very good footballer, especially at that level he was very strong and could score and in good nick. One of the things which I didn’t particularly like and this was pretty consistent in Non league football is the conveyor belt of “lads who the gaffer knows” because we slowly became a little bit like a shadow Halifax Team and we stayed together for a few years.

“I hardly played at all until the end of his reign but I dared to challenge the manager following a defeat which signalled the end. One of my main problems was pre season was like being on trial which for many it is, I always looked forward to pre season another opportunity to start well. I felt I always trained well (at the start anyway) did well in games. I even got suspended following an altercation at a game even though I got attacked, there was always something. I think I disliked Gary because I didn’t feel he ever gave me a proper run. I could’ve been braver and asked him out on stuff, I never did. I remember on our end of season doo to Blackpool where Gary played. We had a discussion and he reassured me about next season, but it didn’t work, it didn’t happen. 

I signed for another club and was immediately taken in by this guy’s infectious and meticulous approach to the game. He loved it, he was very professional and set very high standards. He believed in me and probably for about 8 months which went into the next season and with a new club it was some of the best football I had played for a long time. Eric Gilchrist had taken over Liversedge and introduced a way of football probably not seen at that level and if memory tells me we came close to the winning the league playing a brand of football that started from the keeper. Whilst we weren’t City, although I remember a few of the supporters who sometimes grew frustrated by a methodical approach. We played through teams from the goalkeeper and kept it on the floor with a good mixture of young lads and experience. Eric took over at nearby Ossett Albion and I signed for them and commenced pre season I think we beat everyone apart from the last pre season game where we just didn’t turn up. 

Season started with optimism, bench……..what……. after all the 6 weeks flying in pre season, getting plaudits all over. I don’t know to this day what I did wrong, true i didn’t like his assistant I am not going to say I didn’t, but I spoke to Eric and asked to leave. It wasn’t a hard decision. I became disillusioned and maybe not training as well as hard as i could/did. He could’ve told me this and I probably would have reacted positively. In football you are probably in or out and i was going out. Eric was a really popular guy and I suppose I never forgave him for how this ended, despite playing against and seeing him for a few seasons after. 

So i returned to Liversedge who was rock bottom of the league and drifting. I signed and got back playing played with a few lads I had played at Halifax with. I think we went on a run where we didn’t lose a game for 15 matches. We were hard to beat didn’t lose many and got to a cup semi final. I even ended up going to Doncaster and spending some time there and about to play Notts County until the game got called off and then that finished and drifted off. 

I returned to Oseett and started pre season. The club had changed approach with a guy no one had ever heard of and attempted to bring lots of new faces lots of these were from Africa, where the manager had previously coached. It was a shambles and by this time I was relatively experienced in comparison to who was left. Pre-season was strange ,although I remember my last game at the club, I think we were playing Chesterfield and doing okay and I demanded more from one of our players. I was captain and the guy who had played Premier League and scored plenty of goals, he wasn’t doing enough and I told him to that. 

Half time arrived, I got dragged, got a phone call from a coach and I think the chairman and that was that, out the door. The season was starting Saturday. Time to get a new club? I thought am going to play Rugby with my pals, the craic was always better I could never understand why. These were my best mates we were playing at a similar level to what I was playing at football and these lads I grew up with and whilst I could play and had a cameo with London Broncos at 15, football was my game and I had fallen out of love with it. I don’t take any pleasure from seeing the guy who took over the club losing seven nil in the 1st game and promptly getting the boot not too far after.

So I had a spell out of the game lost the buzz, but then I had a chat with Steve Oleksewycz who i knew from Ossett and Halifax who was firing on all cylinders at Bradford (Park Avenue), Carl Shutt was the manager and I commenced training. I knew I wasn’t going to play middle of the park so reinvented myself as a full back or centre half, primarily left back. I wasn’t naturally left footed but a leg break when I was 15 actually made me more left sided and became my strongest side. I liked BPA, there was a professional feel to the place, the thing that I felt was missing was a lack of experience. There was enough talent there. Unfortunately when i was due to make my debut in what was the Conference North red tape got in the way and I hadn’t signed the right papers which was a little disappointing. But having got the buzz back despite BPA being relegated, I was looking forward to the next season. Unfortunately i got a call on my holidays to say I was going to be reunited with a former coach Gary Brook and his assistants Bri Crowther and Steve Newton, all guys who I knew very well. Probably not the news I really wanted to hear. I had a decent pre season, but bench and then reserves were a common thing. The team were doing well but got to Christmas and couldn’t buy a win.

Gary and Brian were no longer and a new manager came in – Phil Sharpe and Clive Freeman who both knew the club quite well. I think we signed shed loads of players I got a start and a little game time, but by this time I was struggling fitness wise and played with injuries, doing myself no justice whatsoever. I was involved throughout the rest of the campaign (but started to get involved in coaching, Clive asked me to take some notes and it kicked on from there). Steve Newton who was a really good bloke (his son Brook and I played back at Ossett and was a very good player) was taking the reserves and we played on a Friday night against some decent teams. I enjoyed playing against Morecombe, Altrincham, Southport etc… and saw this as a challenge. Steve left and I agreed to try and combine a little bit of playing and coaching. As for the 1st team, we got to the presidents cup final and won the cup. As for the reserves I found this a difficult experience as I had little support and I always wanted to play in the first team. That’s what we all aspire to do. It was pretty tough on the club we had some good players, many came in but unfortunately it wasn’t to be. I will always remember the game we had to win at Radcliffe to have any chance of staying up. I don’t think we had a striker and we lost two of our best players in the cup final and we also had over 500 BPA supporters following us that day. 

So another relegation. Pre season came, Neil Redfearn joined us, who was a very good bloke. I think we started well (I got injured in the final pre season game) I was in and out playing cup games. I was injured a lot but continued to ply and an opportunity to go on loan at Glasshoughton came. If I was to say it was a culture shock, I wasn’t wrong. I didn’t particularly like it there and was probably bang average I scored four in seven and the season ended. I went back to BPA for pre season and immediately felt this wasn’t right. I met the manager Benny Phillips who was very honest which I admired, but I felt it was time to finish, my body was packing in.

I couldn’t resist one last go at Ossett, Steve Kittrick was the manager, a guy who I admired. I didn’t go to play I wanted to help the young lads come through, many of them I last coached at u11’s by this time they were 17-18 I was astounded the quality and football they played. I thought this was it. How it should be many of the lads played at u11’s and this should be the 1st team for many of years to come. A friend of mine Phil ‘Thommo’ Thompson a friend of mine who I played with had the boys since u7’s and the technical ability was something else I had not seen anywhere else. Unfortunately the first team was flying under Steve and not a great deal of progression for these boys, yet they were playing at a good level against more experienced players. I was the old man at 27 and I was struggling, my legs probably had gone. I was a father who had bought a big house and had a very good job, the bug was not there, I didn’t feel I could get back playing to anywhere i would like to. 

So that was it my greatest game never happened. I met some excellent footballers and too many to mention and it would be wrong of me to single anyone out. I enjoyed representing my county getting my cap and playing in a FA County Youth Cup final. Whilst i had quite a few run in’s with the county from a disciplinary perspective, the County set up was second to none, very professional from the guys like the late David Camm and Reg Allwood, Bob Secker. I am still in touch with Reg, a great character.

I wrote this to my Son who like his Dad and thousands and millions of others wants to be a footballer. If i was to go round again would I do anything different, maybe, I am not sure? I think I would’ve followed my heart and took the contract and see how it went. I probably played too much reserve team football and should’ve moved on earlier. I didn’t really want him to get involved in football, it’s dog eat dog and even worse now than what it was 30 years ago. My only regret is that my children didn’t get the chance to see me play, not that I was all that. I played in a vets game and the glass was broken again and I just couldn’t play and despite being a strength and conditioning coach who competed at iron Man, Toughest Mudder and being a Para with the Army reserves, football finds the weakest parts of my body.

But football is a drug and he will make his own choices. I think/I hope coaching has changed to what I remember. There is more attention to the individual and understanding the individual and what makes them tick – do they need that discussion or let’s say encouragement. This may also be evident at the elite level. So my advice to him is enjoy it, when you no longer enjoy it, it’s time to stop and create your own greatest game outside of the beautiful game.”