Antony Leech’s family has Non League blood running right through them as dad Alan played for several clubs and granddad Sid Sykes is engrained in Ashton United’s history.
The Shelley captain and former long-serving Emley utility player has carried on his family’s tradition and he’s seen a lot during his 14 years playing Non League Football.
He witnessed first hand the Friday crucification of Darren Hepworth and subsequent Sunday resurrection as well the Wigan Robin Park FA Cup miracle.
Mick Clark taking his ball home and the 2008 Siege of Scarborough are on Leech’s memories list too.
After setting the world alight with a hat-trick on his Shelley debut, he’s now leading their rise up the pyramid as captain, whilst surviving a Ash Berry half-time team-talk.
This is Antony Leech’s Non League Journey:
Curzon Ashton (2006-07)
“The reason I joined Curzon when I was 18 was because my dad Alan played over that way for teams like Hyde, Ashton United and Curzon and he knew the Curzon chairman.
“The Non League scene in the North West was better at the time. Emley had either just reformed or were on the verge of and Shelley weren’t Non League then. Neither were Golcar. I was in Holmfirth so the Ossett’s were nearest Non League clubs in Yorkshire. Because of that it was easiest to go over the Pennines. My family is all from over there so I knew the area. My Granddad even has the main stand at Ashton United named after him, ‘The Sid Sykes Stand’. He was the chairman and president way back.
“It was a big step up for me to play in the North West Counties for Curzon. I remember the first training session and Gary Lowe the manager called me a ‘lazy’ something. I couldn’t believe what I had come to. He was a tough nut manager and he basically said I had to lose two stone. I used to training at Curzon and then go running round Dovestones to lose weight because I was so desperate to play for them. The season I joined was the season before the Tameside Stadium opened and I was desperate to play for them in it as it is one of the best Non League grounds around.
“I started off playing in the reserves and did really well. I won the player of the year award and manager’s player of the year. We had a really good reserve team and few lads have had decent Non League careers like Mark Lees and Richard Tate.
“I got my chance in the first team and I scored on my debut with a 25-yard strike against Congleton in the first 20 minutes. That’s probably one of the best moments of my career. I scored a few more goals from midfield and everything was good. The problem was that every-time we lost a game, there’d be three new players in the changing room. Sometimes you went in and didn’t know if you had gone into the right changing room. The turnover of players was ridiculous.
“One of my most vivid memories was getting paid for playing football for the first time. I’ve still got the wage packet now. It was only takeaway money, but at the time I was only 18 and I couldn’t believe I was being paid for playing football.
“I was in and around the first team from then. It was hard because we were going for promotion. That season we are also got to the FA Vase semi-finals and we played Eastbourne Town in the fourth round. It took six hours to get there and we stayed overnight. I was in the squad, but I didn’t get on. My dad watches every game and I went home with him because I was devastated about not getting on. We got Truro in the two legged semi-finals, the biggest games of the season and the biggest games in the club’s history, but I was left completely out of the squad as the manager brought in two new players. I thought then that Curzon was not going to be the club for me. It was a tough time and I left. We actually got promoted behind FC United and the club were good as they paid me a bonus for the FA Vase run. They had a good team and to be honest I was only 18 and I probably wasn’t good enough or experienced enough to play for them. I needed game-time rather in-and-out.”
Emley (2007-2015)
“Because I’m from Holmfirth I knew Emley’s history really well and from the moment I spoke to them I wanted to sign for them. They offered me a good deal and I snapped their hand off. They signed a few other very good Non League players like Sean Hazelden, Steve Kenworthy, Marc Townsend so we had a good side. I felt at home straightaway. My first game was against Huddersfield Town in a friendly, there must have been 2000 people. We played against people like Danny Cadamarteri and Frank Sinclair.
“Two Emley legends Nicky Bramald and Ray Dennis were the managers and I scored on my debut again for them. It was against Borrowash Victoria and we started the season really well.”
The Scarborough Siege (January 2008)
“Scarborough had just reformed so the games against them were big ones. Scarborough were a big club and Emley had a good history and for the away game there five or six hundred people there at Brid.
“It was a feisty game and it is on YouTube. In the first three seconds Scarborough’s midfielder makes the worst tackle I have ever seen and somehow he got a yellow card for it (the video of the tackle is worth a watch). If it was any other minute he would have been sent off. It was ridiculous and you knew then that it was going to be one of those games. The home fans were kicking off all the time as well.
“Scarborough led twice, but we equalised twice and they got reduced to nine men. Jamie Green, who was in our net, sarcastically clapped in one of the sent off players’ face. There was a scuffle, but it calmed down. Later on the game was stopped and the liner called the ref over. Basically Jamie had showed his back end to the Scarborough fans so he got sent off. The game has restarted and everyone can hear a big kerfuffle in the tunnel so the referee blew for full-time. Everyone ran into the tunnel and Jamie’s there holding his mouth with blood pouring out shouting ‘I’ve lost my tooth’ as the centre-half had been to see him. We all then had to look for his tooth.
“We thought it was all over, but when we started to walk out of Bridlington’s ground to go home there was a load of commotion behind the gates. Someone popped their head round the gate and there was 40 or 50 Scarborough fans waiting for us to stop us getting out. It was quite intimidating because my mum and dad were there and there were a few Emley fans. We had to ring the police so they could escort us out. It was like playing in Eastern Europe or at Galatasaray. It is quite funny looking back, but at the time it was scary.”
Ian Banks
“Nicky Bramald and Ray Dennis did a good job getting Emley back up and running and they left at the end of the season and Ian Banks took over. Ash Berry was his assistant.
“I thought Ian Banks was brilliant. Tactically he’s the best manager I’ve had. Tactically he knew everything about football. I thought him and Ash would be a great combination as Ash knows loads about Non League football. It didn’t work out as within a couple of months Ash had left, but that’s my first encounter with Ash.
“Ian was manager for two seasons, but his problem was that he didn’t know enough Non League players. A lot of his signings were from Chesterfield and Rotherham academies. There were a lot of 18-year-old lads who weren’t ready for Non League football at the time. They were good technically, but not physically ready.
“In his second season we went on a decent unbeaten run around Christmas time and we were near the top, but we fell by the wayside. Brighouse and Tadcaster won promotion.”
Darren Bland
“Banger left and Blandy replaced him, but it wasn’t the best period. Blandy was a nice guy, but I’ve never seen a dressing room so divided. You had the Emley from Huddersfield on one side and then all the Sheffield lads he brought in on the other. You could have drawn a line through the middle of the dressing room. We never integrated and Blandy left after a few months. We didn’t do well in the league, but we did well in the cups.”
Morpeth Away in the FA Cup
“It was in August, but Morpeth’s pitch failed a pitch inspection on the Saturday so we had to go to Morpeth on a Tuesday night. It is almost a three hundred mile round trip and everybody had to get off work early. All was going well until the coach broke down! I drove up with my dad so we got to Morpeth and realised the coach had broken down. We started driving back down the A1 to pick some of the lads up so we could start the game. My dad went up and down the A1 a few times before the coach got going again.
“We didn’t kick off until 8.30pm and I think we may have started with ten players to get the game going. We went 1-0 down, but we won 2-1 despite all the problems. That was probably the highlight of Blandy’s time at Emley.”
Darren Hepworth
“When Daz came in, he was brilliant. His man-management skills were superb and he got everyone enjoying playing again and he brought a new lease of life to the club. The first six months were just about getting through to the end of the season before he could put his own stamp on it.
“Daz is the most passionate manager I’ve had. He wears his heart on his sleeve and he was always running off down the touchline to celebrate with the team. That happened numerous times, especially when we went on that run in the FA Vase (in 2012). We beat Barnoldswick in round three and they were North West Counties Prem so we weren’t expected to win. Ash Flynn scored in the second half to make it 2-1 and there was a pile-on and Daz was on top of it in the corner. There was still 20 minutes to go and we hadn’t won the game yet!
“Daz was calm in the changing room. His team-talks probably went on a bit too long! They could last 30 minutes. That’s maybe why Aaron Joseph used to fall asleep! But if it was a big game and we won, Daz certainly could let his hair down.”
Mick Clark takes the ball home
“We played away at Eccleshill and because Banger (Ian Banks) was manager of Eccleshill it was a bit of grudge match. Banga didn’t leave Emley nicely as there were disagreements. Anyway it was 2-1 to us with two minutes to go. I nodded the ball back to Mick Clark in goal and he was wasting time. An Eccleshill player punched the ball out of his hands and into the net. Everyone turned around waiting for the free kick and booking. But the referee and liner spoke to each other and gave the goal to make it 2-2. It was clear as day that he’d punched the ball out of Clarky’s hands.
“Clarky went and picked the ball up and refused to give the ball back to the referee to start the game again. The referee sent him off, but because Clarky wouldn’t lead the pitch, the referee abandoned the game. There was then a 22-man brawl before fans got involved. So then there was 40 or 50 people on the pitch. We got fined and deducted points for it.
“Daz was going to let Clarky off, but in the end he sacked him as he had a past. He’d squirted water at the referee at Pontefract with his water bottle in the tunnel. He had to come into the dressing room to explain that he had been sent off for that. When he came back from his suspension, he kind of karate-kicked one of the Worsbrough Bridge players who had been wasting time with the ball. He literally ran out of his goal and kung-fu kicked him.
“These things weren’t like him really and he was an absolute brilliant goalkeeper.”
The Unforgettable Wigan Robin Park FA Cup Miracle (August 2013)
“We were 2-1 down in the 92nd minute until Anthony Haigh scored to make it 2-2. Daz was on the pitch celebrating and that was just for the draw. He was saying ‘let’s take the draw and go back to Wigan’. We then got a penalty in the 97th minute and Paul Sykes stepped up and scored to win it with effectively the last kick of the game.
“Sykesy was brilliant for us because of his mentality and experience. I wasn’t even nervous for it, I knew he would score. He was the best skipper I played under and he was a great organiser and he was something what was missing from the previous seasons. I’m surprised he’s never gone into management.
“If Daz was excited about equalising, you should have seen him when we won it. Everyone was on the pitch and it was like we had won the FA Cup with how we celebrated. There’s loads of photos and one of the best moments I’ve had in my career is definitely that game. When you’re 2-1 down on 92 minutes you think you’re out. To actually win it 3-2 is unbelievable.”
The crucification and resurrection of Darren Hepworth (September 2013)
“We were doing in the league and the club was thriving because we were getting decent crowds. There had been progression on and off-the-field and you could see a clear plan going forward.
“I had a good relationship with Daz and he rang me on the way to work. He said:
‘I’ve been sacked’.
‘What do you mean’?
“The lads were gutted we couldn’t understand what had gone on. I think I spoke to the chairman (John Whitehead) because I had a good relationship with him, but he said he would speak to lads the next day at the Appleby Frodingham away game.
“I think deep down it was a fight for power. I think some thought Daz was getting too big for his boots and one of the things that tipped it was on the Thursday night. Daz had put the floodlights on so we could train and some weren’t happy that he had done that. It wasn’t just because of the lights though.
“It was a crazy 48 hours. Pat (Piercey), Daz’s assistant was at Appleby and he was crying in the changing room when he was telling us that he thought he would be leaving. All the lads were welling up as well and this is before we had a game to play. We didn’t go as far as wearing black armbands for Daz, but it was the bizarre team-talk I have ever seen. First we had the chairman come in and then we had Pat in tears. Joe Howson who was the reserve team manager did brilliantly because he got us focused and we went out to win 4-0.
“The following night Daz rang me to say ‘I’m back’ as the club had reinstated him. From a player’s point of view you’re thinking ‘what is going on’?
“John had made his own mind up about sacking Daz rather going through the committee. The committee overruled John which meant John went which was a shame as he was Mr Emley. He knew everything about the club.”
The End at Emley (2015-16 Season)
“I was there eight-and-a-half years and at one point I had the most appearances for the club since they reformed. I loved playing for the club and I didn’t want to leave. Emley will always have a place in my heart.
“I got a bad injury at Handswoth and I ruptured my knee ligament and I got told I had to retire. But I came back and Daz and the club were brilliant with me. Daz even offered to pay for me to go privately.
“But the side changed a great deal and it was a struggle to get in the side so I knew it was time to move on. It also coincided with me expecting my first child and I was travelling all the place with Emley which didn’t really fit.
“I went up to training at Emley to tell Daz face-to-face that I would be leaving. We shook hands and left on good terms.
“I can’t believe the club hasn’t got promoted in the last ten years. When I was there, there was one season where we had Ash Flynn, Paul Sykes, Aaron Joseph, Michael Tunnacliffe, a really good squad and I don’t know why it didn’t happen.”
Shelley (2015-)
“I could have signed for Glasshoughton, they offered me a good deal. But I spoke to Ash Berry at Shelley and he was trying to build something. My daughter was due to be born and because Shelley were in the West Yorkshire League at the time, there was less travelling so it fitted well.
“I get on really well with Ash and he made me captain of Shelley after just five games as Andy Farrell had left. I’ve been captain ever since. Ash is a Yorkshire man through and through and his team-talks are always about get-at-them. He’s the nicest guy off-the-field, but when it comes to football, he’s one of the most passionate men around.”
‘Hat-Trick’ during Shelley Debut
“I scored a hat-trick on my debut for Shelley. We lost 7-2. I scored two and scored an own goal – all three were good goals. I actually scored the own goal from outside the box and it went in the top corner. It was ridiculous. We were bottom of the league at the time. That’s why Ash had rung. At the same time he outlined the ambition of the club to get into Step 6.”
Into the North West Counties (2018)
“We managed to get into the North West Counties which I was pleased about. I had been playing in it having been in it with Curzon. The first season went well and one of the highlights was playing Penistone Church in the FA Vase. It put Shelley on the map. People had never really heard of us and Penistone were top of the NCEL Premier Division. We beat them in front of a massive crowd.”
On Course for Promotion until the Season was Halted (2019-20)
“We did really well. We had signed some really good players like Alex O’Keefe, Matty Waller. The main highlight of this season was going back up to Emley on Boxing Day beating 3-1. I captained the team and it was nice to go back and see some friendly faces. That win actually started a run as I think we won 12 games out of 16. We were joint third and in a League Cup semi-final against Northwich when the season ended. The season getting expunged is gutting because four teams would have been promoted and we would have been one of them.”
Epilogue
“There’s no real regrets. I maybe stayed at Curzon Ashton too long, but I have always been loyal and I’ve always turned down other teams.
“One other regret is when I broke my foot in my second season with Shelley. I came back too early and I broke it again. I got told to retire again. But I came back because I wanted to get the club into the Counties and walking the team out in the first game in the NCW was a bit of achievement because I’d come back from two serious injuries. I’ve still got to play under painkillers and do my physio two or three times a week, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to play.
“I’m 34 now and I’d love to finish with a promotion. If we had won promotion this season I’d have probably carried on. I got promoted with Curzon, but I didn’t really feel part of it. A trophy at Emley would have been nice, but hopefully we can win something with Shelley when things start back up again.”
If you have enjoyed this interview and the Non League Journey interview series, please watch the video at the bottom of the page and consider making a donation to the not-for-profit organisation NLY Community Sport which provides sport for children and adults with disabilities and learning difficulties. CLICK HERE to visit the JustGiving page.
NLY Community Sport, run by James Grayson and Connor Rollinson, has always had combatting social isolation at the top of our objectives when running our Disability Football teams so when the green light to return is given, our work will play an important role in reintroducing our players, who have disabilities and learning difficulties, back into society.
We have six teams, a mixture of Junior and Adult teams – Nostell MW DFC, Pontefract Pirates, Selby Disability Football Club and the South Yorkshire Superheroes (Barnsley) – across Yorkshire.
Like most organisations, we have been affected financially by the Coronavirus and we have incurred losses which we cannot recover. We have not been hit as badly as other organisations, but we do need raise £2000 to put us back at the level we were at in mid-March and enable us to make a difference once again to our players’ lives in the future, without having financial worries. As each day goes on, a substantial number of our players become further isolated so we need to be ‘ready for action’ when restrictions are lifted.
Any amount raised above £2000 will be put towards new projects (when the world returns to normal) designed to further benefit people with disabilities and learning difficulties. You can learn more about the organisation HERE and on our Facebook page.
Watch the video below to see highlights from our three years as an organisation. The video was produced for our players at the end of March to remind them of good memories from the last three years.