Jamie Vardy’s ‘father’ Carl Fothergill was a thorn in the side of many Non League sides over the years.
Fothergill won a few promotions and scored goals for fun at all of his clubs, including Stocksbridge Park Steels, Frickley Athletic, North Ferriby, Glasshoughton Welfare and Pontefract Collieries. Pontefract was where it all began as a 17-year-old under the guise of Jim Kenyon. The Non League journey came to a close in February 2014 after a spell assisting Simon Houghton at Shaw Lane Aquaforce.
The debonair forward, who has a street named after him in Doncaster, still plays regularly locally in Barnsley and he had some Non League career – one so memorable that he once had an all-female fan club. In later years, it was Darren Smith who was his biggest fan as demonstrated by him pretending to be Fothergill for several months.
Fothergill was also one of Vardy’s first chauffeurs and he appears in the former England International’s book.
This is Carl Fothergill’s Non League Journey:
“I was playing local football after getting binned off from your Barnsley boys and the Huddersfield Town centre of excellence where we went to and I think it was 1997/98 as I was 16 or 17. It was Jimmy Kenyon who was the Pontefract manager and he was a bit of a character himself. Jimmy always seemed like a wheeler-dealer to me. He had a van and he used to drop gas off at pubs. You’d be on your way to a game and he’d say ‘I’ve just got to call here’ and he’d run off and drop some gas canisters in. He’s the chairman of Hemsworth Town Council now. I saw him on the TV a couple of year back and I was like ‘Jesus, its Jimmy Kenyon’.
“I don’t know where he got my number from, but he rang and asked if I would play for Ponte’? I said I didn’t drive so he said he’d come and pick me up and give me £25. I couldn’t believe it. I was only getting £30 as a YTS brickie.
“It was a team made of local lads, mainly from Hemsworth. There weren’t any players of any note. I only stopped about ten games and I think I scored in the first five or six. We were short one week and they threw my dad a pair of boots. He was 43-year-old and someone said ‘will you play full-back for us Paul’? He’d played in the Yorkshire League and NCEL before packing in to watch me.
“Darryn Stamp had just gone to Scunthorpe so I think Jimmy had some contacts. I went and played a couple of games for Scunthorpe reserves and I played up at Newcastle. That created interest so you then had your Non League clubs like Emley and Frickley ringing me all the time. I only stayed at Ponte three months and I ended up going to Frickley under Ian Thompson.”
The Ian Thompson Hair-Dryer Treatment
“When I went to Frickley in 1998 I still didn’t drive. Ian Thompson said Mark Hancock who was the captain lived up the road from me so he’d pick me up for every game. Frickley is where I fell in love with Non League Football. It wasn’t because of the football because we were a young side and very inconsistent. The away trips were brilliant. You had Daz Fields, Gary Hatto, Kev Kelly, Lee Stratford who became one of my best mates. Then you had young Dave Hilton who had been released by Man United. He was a character. I don’t know how he didn’t find out, but he ended up with Fiery Jack in his pants after every away games. Frickley didn’t have much, but because it was all local lads, the camaraderie was really good and it was a good laugh.
“After having Thommo as a manager, no-one ever scared me again. I was 17 or 18 and he used to scream his head off. After that if anyone was kicking off, it used to make me laugh. Shouting and bawling never got through to me. The language Thommo used was like ‘Fothergill, you little b*****d, if you ignore him again and don’t pass to him, I’m going to kill you’ and ‘I’ll string you up in the dressing room’. It was that sort of stuff. At first I’d think ‘Jesus Christ’, but after a time you get used to it. I was quite greedy when I was younger so I didn’t pass or lay the ball off much. I hadn’t been coached when I was younger though. The likes of Gary Hatto they taught me a lot about Non League and said I couldn’t take everybody on as I’d get the boot.
“Frickley was only a short spell as I was 18 and scoring the odd goal in the UniBond Prem. I wasn’t prolific, but at that age you tend to stand out. Clubs like Sheffield United and Rotherham who had kept an eye on me kept turning up.”
Gainsborough Trinity and Neil Lacey’s Brush with Death (1999/00)
“Steve Richards was the manager and I didn’t play for him a lot over the years, but every time he got a club, he phoned me up. At Gainsborough he built a bit of a superstar team from Non League. You had Andy Saville from Barnsley, Micky Norbury, Neil Lacey, Rory Prendergast, Troy Bennett. That was our car school and I always remember it. Every time Troy turned up when it was his turn to drive, he had a different car. I remember one car and you could see through the floor. I couldn’t believe it so we stopped him driving after that.
“Despite paying a lot of money out, it wasn’t going so great and we were sixth in the league. We played a big FA Cup against Droylsden in the third qualifying round and we lost. I was still the baby of the team and in this game I was on the bench. We had heard Droylsden had some unsavoury characters and it got a bit tasty. In the last minute, Neil Lacey got sent off and as he was walking off, one of the Droylsden subs or their assistant manager threatened to shoot him. But Neil was a CID copper so he started walking over and everything erupted. Micky Norbury came running over and there was this mass brawl. There was bodies everywhere and I think there was only me who didn’t throw a punch.
“The chairman wasn’t happy with how the team was doing because he was paying out all this money. He used the Cup defeat as an excuse to get rid of Steve Richards as he told him he wanted five or six players sacked over the brawl. Steve Richards stood behind his players so he got sacked. Ernie Moss came in then and he wanted a full clear-out so that was me on my way.”
Mick Norbury
“The first time I met Norbs was at Gainsborough. I know him quite well now and he took me to Hednesford a pre-season game later on. I always remember him going to the chairman and saying ‘you need to give this young man some money because he’s driven all the way here on his own to have a trial game’. The chairman came up to me and gave me an envelope full of money. The funny thing with Norbs was that my dad had a fight with him during a Non League game about ten years earlier. They recognised each other and started laughing and became friends.
“There is a false impression of Norbs because he has this reputation as a hard man. He was brilliant with the young lads and if you were on the same team, he’d look after you. At Gainsborough I got some right boot because I was quick. I remember Norbs threatening players, saying ‘you kick him like that again, I’m going to do you’. You could see these players panicking. He’d throw a cheeky elbow and then I had free rein because no-one would dare come near me. He was ace at protecting young lads.”
Fothergill secures his Legacy
“I had a short spell with Stocksbridge for the first time after Gainsborough. I don’t remember the exact reasons why, Dan Keeton is someone you’d have to speak to, but I had a street called Fothergill Drive named after me in Edenthorpe in Doncaster. Henry Boot Homes were building some houses and there was a connection to Stocksbridge so me and Gary Hurlstone who were the club’s top goal-scorers, got streets named after us! (To live on Fothergill Drive, the average house price is £222,614)”
Kettering and Conference Football (End of 2000/2001)
“Carl Shutt the ex Leeds United striker had just took over and it was halfway through the season. Kettering were in trouble in the Conference and he wanted some new lads. I loved it. He played me all the time on the wing and it was the first time I had played in a couple of thousand people. That was the highest level I ever played. We gave it a good go and got some good results, but unfortunately we got relegated and they went into the Southern League which involved too much travelling for me from South Yorkshire. He wanted to keep me and the money was good, but the travelling was too much.
“We won the Hillier Cup which was the Northamptonshire Senior Cup so that’s a nice memory and I used to have it on VHS. We beat Rushden & Diamonds who were the best team around at the time 3-1 and I scored the first goal. It bounced up to me on my left foot and I struck it sweet.”
Bad Luck with Leyton Orient and Exeter
“That summer (2001) I went to Leyton Orient on trial. When I went back home, they rang and asked me to go down and play half a game. I said ‘half a game, it is a lot to come down for just half a game. Can’t you give me a start and give me a chance’. It was a half a game or nothing. I didn’t go and I regretted it. I don’t know if I was too cocky and I thought I’d get another chance.
“I then went to Exeter and stayed there for three weeks and played in trial games. I played out on the wing and they had a big striker called Kevin Francis who had been at Birmingham and was coming down the leagues. He was about 7ft so I just kept putting crosses in. He was scoring so it made me look good. Noel Blake Exeter’s manager wanted to sign me, but they were one of the first clubs who went into administration. It was just my luck.
“After Leyton Orient and Exeter I thought I could do a job in the league because I’d seen and trained with them. My dad said ‘come back up, score some goals and get your name in the paper’. I had won that cup with Kettering and I had got a buzz for playing in front of bigger crowds. When I came back, nothing really worked out. I had another short spell at Frickley, a bit of a spell at Ossett Town when we finished second under Gary Brook. I know Craig Elliott mentioned that when he played for Harrogate Town when they won the league (2002), that’s when we finished second. We had a good side, but we couldn’t get promoted because the ground wasn’t good enough.
“Gary’s assistant Bri (Crowther) loved me to bits and we had some good lads like Matty Smithard, Craig Boardman the centre-half, Chris Stabb. But when we couldn’t go up, a lot of the players left and a lot went to Farsley.
“I felt I wasn’t settling down and I was drifting around going from club to club like you see players do. My wardrobe used to be full of tracksuits and I used to joke with Luke Smith about it as he was the same for a while. I later became mates with Chick (Andy Hayward) and Benno (Wayne Benn) and they used to joke that I would move anywhere for an extra fiver or a tracksuit. It wasn’t like that, I only moved if I felt the manager didn’t fancy me or I could play at an higher level. Say I was in UniBond One and a UniBond Prem team came in for me, I thought it was a no-brainer.
“I do think I came a bit deluded when I thought I could do play in the Conference. I ended up going to North Ferriby and Craig Elliott was upfront for them and that was the first time I met him. I wasn’t sure about going there, but Bri France phoned me up and made a big fuss. I scored on my debut and got settled into the team. Craig actually finished playing that season. I think he has mentioned his last game at Farsley and I remember him walking off. He said he had a bad back and he was also on the Atkins Diet so I thought he just had to eat some Carbs as he just looked drained. Craig left and I thought we might struggle.”
Brian France
“Bri was great with me. I think he was the Non League Bobby Robson when you compare the stories that ex-players tell about Bobby Robson. In some respect he was a bit of a genius. He’d fetch lads in like Joel Hartley and he’d say ‘do what you’re good at’. Paul Olsson was a good assistant and he added the tactical side.
“I always used to sit on the toilet with the door open when he was doing his team-talk. Ten minutes before kick off I always needed to go to the toilet, but he needed us all to listen. All the lads used to go ‘Fothers you dirty get’. I was like ‘I can’t help it if I need to go, Bri will get the monk on if I don’t listen to him’.
“He used to phone people and get names wrong all the time. He’d say three names before he got it right. He’d say ‘Bradders, Gows, Foths’ before you said ‘alright Bri’. He’d say ‘you know when I spoke to you in the week, we’ve got…this weekend’ and you’d say ‘Bri, you haven’t phoned me this week’.
“It was an hour’s drive for training for me from Barnsley and if we didn’t have a midweek game you’d have to train either Tuesday or Thursday. Thursday was better as we’d just play five-a-side. Bri recognised that I had to travel so he’d say on a Saturday ‘Fothers, play well today, maybe score, and I’ll tell the lads you are working and you don’t have to train this week’. He was ace, but then he’d go barmy with other lads for missing training so they’d train ‘why hasn’t he said anything to you’? Training with him was great because he’d go five-a-side, one touch finish and you loved it.
“He’d come into the dressing room and forget where he had wrote the team sheet and he’d be checking his pockets. Then he’d try and name the team without his notes and he’d go ‘you right back, you left-back’, proper old school. But he was a really nice bloke and I loved playing for him.”
Fothergill Recommends Nick Handley to Brian France
“I got a message off Nick Handley recently and I grew up with him and Daz Smith. I took him to North Ferriby the season we won the league because Bri said to me ‘do you know any centre-halfs who aren’t signed on anywhere because we’ve got an injury crisis’. I mentioned Nick. I said he’s at Uni, he’s only playing Sunday League, but he’ll do a job. He threw him straight in the team without seeing him play on my recommendation. That was Bri, he trusted what his lads said. I thought ‘Jesus, don’t let me down Nick’. Nick played the rest of the season for us and got a winners medal in his first season in Non League.
“Nick messaged me for some old programmes and I dug a few out for him as I have a load in the attic. He’s been buying them off the Internet. I have all mine in the attic as the missus won’t let me have old programmes and trophies cluttering the house up. If I want to reminisce I have to climb into the attic on my own!”
North Ferriby All Female Fan Club
“We used to go out on nights out in Hull and we had a little fan club and they used to follow us about. We had to duck and dive in different pubs to chase them off. We played for North Ferriby and we had a fan club! It was unbelievable. They were all women and they used to hammer the sun-beds so it was like ‘The Only Way is North Ferriby’. They started coming in the club bar so it became awkward so we had to start avoiding them. They’d say ‘are you going out tonight’ and we’d tell them somewhere six mile away’.”
North Ferriby Glory Days
“In the pre-season of the 2004, that’s when we signed (Gary) Bradshaw and a few other lads. We played a pre-season friendly against Hull City and this is when I realised I wasn’t going to play a top level of football. Hull had Nicky Barmby and a few others and I didn’t get a kick in the game and I watched Bradshaw and thought ‘why have Hull let him go’? I couldn’t believe how good he was for a Non League player. His touch, movement, finishing were unbelievable. Nicky Barmby was at the other end and I found myself wanting to clap him every time he had a touch. I walked off thinking ‘I’m probably at the right level’ and it was probably the best thing that happened to me because I stopped chasing the next club or move. I settled down and played my best football for the next couple of years.
“We won the (NPL Division One) league (2004/05) and I’ll always remember the Mossley game. I didn’t go back to the club as me and my dad got off at Ferrybridge. The bus was already swaying by then and plenty had been drunk so it was always going to turn ugly! Even my dad fell off the bus and started crying because he couldn’t believe we had won the league. He used to come to every game.
“I wasn’t a big drinker in those days. I made up for it years later when I played more local. I loved the away trips on the coach, but because I was an ‘out of towner’ as they’d call me, I’d have to drive to some games and for some of the coach trips, my car would be a some services somewhere.
“Me and Bradshaw hit it off upfront. I changed my game a little bit because he was the finisher and I had to learn how to hold the ball better and challenge for headers. I always worked hard, but I chased into corners more. I knew Bradshaw’s ability was better than anyone in the league and you had the stardust with him. I scored 20 odd goals the year we won the league and thought I had done well and he had scored something like 40-odd. I knew I had to change my game to stay in the team and I loved it.
“We had other great lads like Graham Botham, Rob Dewshurst, Paul Sharp, Leon Wainman. Leon became one of my best friends and we travelled together. We were like the odd couple. He was this technology teacher listening to trendy music and then you had this scruffy Barnsley kid listening to Boyzone and Take That. I used to wind him up over my music. He used to go barmy. Leon used to DJ so we’d go out in Hull and all the DJ’s would know him.
“We got into the UniBond Prem and we got to the play-off final when we lost to Farsley who had a great side. That’s when they had your Bambrook’s (Simeon Bambrook) and Iqbal’s (Amjad Iqbal). After that game Ossett wanted me to go there.”
Steve Kittrick’s Ossett Town
“I sort of knew Kitty and I knew Chick really well because he was from my area. Wayne Benn was Kitty’s assistant. It was probably the right time to stop travelling. Kitty lived half a mile away from me in Cudworth so he picked me up for every game. That’s when I started having a beer after every game. We had a good side with Wally (James Walshaw) upfront. He was scoring 20-odd goals then.
“Kitty was ace with me, but his training methods were strange because he came from a Rugby background. After games we’d sometimes watch games at Wakey Wildcats in his box which was good. But I remember this training thing where he wouldn’t say anything, but he’d point. He had six or seven signals and it was all very bizarre. You’d line up on the pitch and he’d point to you so you’d have to run backwards. It seemed very creepy because it was sort of like ‘come to me, come to me’ like a psychic. Everybody would be looking at each other thinking ‘is he taking the p*ss’? He’d point to the left and you’d have to run ten yards to the left and he’d point to the air and you’d have to jump. Ten minutes had passed and he still hadn’t said anything. I’d never seen anything like it. Me, Strats and Cotty (James Cotterill) started laughing. Kitty was scowling at us and I thought he’s going to crack a joke, but we carried on for 20 minutes. Then he said ‘some of you weren’t taking it seriously’ and I knew he meant me.
“Kitty went to Guiseley which was a big shock. I’d travelled with him and he never said anything and then before the Bradford (Park Avenue) County Cup game (December 2007) he told everyone that it was going to be his last game. I could understand why he wanted to go because Guiseley were throwing money around. I still see because he lives local and I dropped on him at Christmas time in the local club. I have a lot of time for him.”
The End at Ossett Town (2008)
“Simon Collins replaced Kitty and I knew him from Frickley. Kitty had phoned me asking me to go. But because he had took Cotty and Lee Pugh so I would have to wait six weeks. I wouldn’t say things turned sour at Ossett, but we had a big team meeting with the club over some cup run money. The money was just going to go in the kitty for a trip to Blackpool or somewhere. But the club needed the money so they said they were keeping it. I can understand why now, but me, Lee Stratford and Cotty who was still there spoke out for the younger lads. We then got squeezed out.
“I said to Simon (Collins), ‘if you’re going to drop me let me know as I’m in the Fire Service and I’m moving shifts right, left and centre to get to games and it is becoming difficult’. He said ‘no problem’ and he said he wanted me for the next game which was away at somewhere like Prescot Cables. He dropped me out of the squad totally and it coincided with the meeting where I’d stood up. I’d gone all the way there on the coach as well. I was fuming and I went straight into the bar and had a drink. Strats had been dropped as well, but to the bench. He calmed me down and just said ‘it is the end for us here’. On the way home on the coach, Strats had phoned Gary Marrow at Stocksbridge so I got a call from Gaz Ingham and they said they would sign me.”
Stocksbridge Park Steels
“It was 20 minutes down the road and Gary Marrow said I’d play every week. We had a good side with people like Brett Lovell who’s still playing at Penistone Church. You had both Richards brothers (Duncan and Ian) who are managing Penistone. Andy Ring’s still playing and Vardy came into that set up.
“I scored an FA Cup hat-trick against Brigg. One was into the top corner early doors and it hit the stanchion and bounced out. Because I screamed and said it was in, the referee gave it. I wasn’t sure it was in myself. I then scored two one-on-ones. Because it was one of the early rounds, I kept texting people saying I was the top goal-scorer in the FA Cup. I was until the next round and someone scored a hat-trick.
“In the second season we got promoted (to the NPL Premier Division) after beating Belper in the play-off final. I ended up being a sub in that game as we played three days earlier in the Sheffield Senior Cup final. There was me, Wardy (Mark Ward), Ringy, Vill Powell and Vardy on the wing. At Stocksbridge there’s a photo frame of four of us as we all got 20-plus goals that season. Before the cup final, Gary Marrow said ‘I’m going to play you and Vill in the cup final and Wardy and Ringy at Belper’. I knew I was second string because Belper was the bigger game, but I pleased to play in the cup final as it was at Hillsborough and we beat Brodsworth. I knew it was coming to an end at Stocksbridge, but winning at Belper was a good day. Ringy played really well and he’s still a top lad. I can’t believe he’s still playing. I still comment sometimes on the Penistone Twitter feed. I put ‘I can’t believe Ringy and Lovell are still playing. It is time they packed in’!”
Jamie Vardy
“I remember one away game because I’d said ‘where’s Vardy, he keeps missing away games’? One of the lads said ‘it is too far to travel’. I didn’t realise that he was playing with a tag on. Sometimes at home games I’d drop him off to him back for 6pm because I was going back that way. Everybody was his ‘child minder’. He must have only been 18 or 19 and you’d drop him off on his road and you’d see him run to his house.
“We were always watching the clock as he’d have to get home or he’d have the police knocking at his door. It used to be a high pressurised situation to get him home sometimes. Some away games, Gary Marrow would say ‘quick ten minute drink and we’re off, we have to get Vards back’. We knew we had to do that so he could play. The bus driver even knew. The situation was only for a few months, but it was bizarre.
“I think he put it in his book, but Stocksbridge was the best thing that happened to Vards because it got him away from the tearaway situation and he realised he wanted to play football more than he wanted to go out. It turned a bad situation into a good one and Gary Marrow was really good with him. Vards really knuckled down and kicked on.
“We didn’t realise he’d go onto be as good as he became and I still say Gary Bradshaw was the best Non League player I played with, even though Vardy went onto greater things. But at the time Vardy was a raw speed monster who was a bit too rash. He’d jump into tackles, but he was good and he could score any kind of goals. We knew he was going to play higher, but you didn’t think he’d play for England.
“I remember one of his early games and thinking ‘wow, he’s quick’. I always thought I was quick and I thought he’s twice as quick as me. I remember him once running down the wing and thinking he’s going to try and tackle this lad who was taking his first touch. He’d make you wince because you knew he’d nail him. He was that rash and raw as he’d not been coached. He charged 10 metres and cleaned this kid out and got sent off. That’s one of my early memories and clubs like Rotherham were watching him even then.
“In the second season he was scoring for fun. You’d be drawing one-a-piece and then in ten minutes he’d score three. He’d blow a team away. Some lads always talk about the away game at Goole on Boxing Day when Gary Marrow put him on the bench because he thought he had been out drinking. He came on and scored three. I can’t remember it, but I know the lads were like ‘this is like cheating’. I always remember that when he got that good, whilst it wasn’t a one man team, it felt like cheating’. He’d run past a full-back because he played on the left wing a lot and you felt sorry for the full-back. It was like playing a ringer. It was embarrassing sometimes.
“Vards used to call me ‘Father’. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen Austin Powers, but it was off that. I was only 30, but I was the oldest player in the team. He put me in his book and I was very proud to be in it. Lads always used to take the mickey and say ‘oh didn’t you used to play with Jamie Vardy’. I used to tell everyone, but then I played on it. I obviously bought his book so I’d take it to work and leave it on the page I was on.
“I remember watching his debut for England and I also remember watching him scoring against Wales when he came off the bench at Euro 2016. I was definitely proud of seeing him play for England. I still watch Leicester games now and I have a bit of a soft spot for them.”
Biggest Fan Daz Smith lures Fothergill to Ponte (2009)
“I had my best mate Daz Smith pestering me to go to Ponte with him and Sime (Houghton). Daz was a cracking footballer and we were together at Barnsley Boys and he was my best mate. We lived about 20 yards from each other. We went through school together. When we were 16 or 17, Daz was a better player than me. He was basically a Frank Lampard type of player, but he broke his neck in a car crash so he couldn’t play football anymore. I was gutted for him. He used to come and watch me and he then started getting into managing local football teams. When the time came to when I was 30-year-old, he said ‘come and play for Ponte for me’. I felt like I owed him something and I got a lot out of it.
“So that was another chapter in the NCEL which was five years long. Simon and Daz built a cracking side and I felt it was harsh when they got sacked. I always remember Joe Thornton, Ry Sykes and Luke Smith. There was that Americana song off the Inbetweeners and them playing it all the time after a game. Joe Thornton was a proper funny kid for stuff like that. I knew his dad as well.”
Glasshoughton Welfare
“When I went to Glasshoughton (after leaving Pontefract after Houghton was sacked), the first thing I said to Craig when he said he needed some help was ‘go phone Daz, you’ve never met him, but he lives and breathes local football’. He also said ‘do you think Simon will come’? I said yes so you then had Craig, Simon and Daz and that was a big part of Glasshoughton’s success. We had a great side with older and younger lads. You had myself, Seedy (Andy Seed), Boothy (Alex Booth), but then you had players like young Josh Corbett and to be fair the club punched above its weight because they weren’t paying much.
“We had some good games with Emley and I sort of coached our team to play against them. They passed it about at the back and they couldn’t hurt us. I kept shouting ‘let them have it, they’ll give it us’. We didn’t press them and then their centre-half would clip it forward and we’d nick the ball off them. I remember Daz Hepworth commenting on it and it sort of started a bit of friendly rivalry. They had a thing where they’d like to beat each other.
“The game I remember the most the season we got promoted is the away game at Handsworth. We had been playing with ten men for most of the game and I had come off with five minutes to go and Josh Corbett scored an absolute screamer in the last minute. We all ran on the pitch to celebrate and we’d scuppered their title party which they had planned. We then had to go to Emley and obviously we won promotion.”
Ossett Town (2012/13)
“I went to Ossett with Craig and Daz and they were going to use me as a bit-part player. I understood that because we had Shane Kelsey and Lee Bennett. He’d throw me on the last 20 minutes so I turned into a player/coach. After a few months I knew it wasn’t for me as I still wanted to play. I had a word with Daz and Craig and they were great with me.”
Shaw Lane Aquaforce (2013/14)
“Doug (O’Connor) had been my Barnsley Boys manager and he said ‘we don’t even train properly, I just need someone with an old head as I have loads of young kids’. He had your Danny Frost’s, Danny Barlow’s, Luke Danville’s and he wanted someone to take training. I said ‘I just want to play’. But he assured me that I’d play every week and although Shaw Lane were in the County Senior League, I knew they were a club going places so I knew it would be a good fit for me. We went onto win the league and we got into the NCEL.
“That’s when Simon Houghton came in and I recommended Sime for the job when Doug said he wanted to take a step back. I said that Simon knew Non League and would be an ideal fit for them. Sime made me his assistant and Andy Middleton was the goalkeeping coach and we did alright. Craig Wood was putting a lot of money in and he wanted instant success and we had some poor results after Christmas and we lost at the bottom of the league (Dinnington). I remember that game because it was banging down with rain and it was sludgy. I knew that was the end for Sime and I used it as the end for me.
“I was 35 and I’d had enough myself. I was the assistant manager to Sime and the game had changed. I had come from an era where you could tell people home truths. I come back to Ian Thompson where he’s shout ‘you lazy get’, but you couldn’t say that to these youngsters. You had to put your arm around them. Simon understood that a lot quicker than I did.”
Daz Smith’s Stint as a Carl Fothergill Impersonator
“Craig and Daz ended up getting the Shaw Lane job and I kept texting Daz and putting that he was a job-stealer. I’d put ‘you’ve stolen my job, I can’t believe it. My best mate, I went and played for you at Ponte’. I was only joking and he’d send something back and one week he was in the dugout and he sent me a picture and he had on my Shaw Lane tracksuit with my initials on. He was wearing it for months and after a game he’d send a picture and say ‘we’ve won again and I’ve got my lucky tracksuit on’!
“But it was the right decision for Shaw Lane. I had lost a bit of love for it. I still went to watch Shaw Lane after that and I’d go in the boardroom with Craig Wood and Doug. Craig (Elliott) and Daz would ask me what I thought of their team. When they went to Boston I went to North Ferriby to watch them. Craig picked up me and we went through. It is a shame what happened to Shaw Lane, but I understand why it happened. They never got their own ground.”
Over 35s
“For the last five years I have been playing in the over 35s and at this moment I’m still playing. I love playing and I think that’s why coaching never took off for me. I enjoyed taking fitness sessions rather than coaching sessions.
“I played for the Fossils at the Dorothy Hyman until they folded and my team-mates were all my old school mates. We had me, Duncan Bray, Luke Smith and we had a sprinkle of local lads. Because of my connection with Non League, I built up a good Fossils team. Troy Bennett came and played too. Andrew Joburns, the ex-Ponte goalkeeper was in nets for us. It was a really good laugh and I fell in love with football again.
“When I started playing at a good level, my dad packed in playing and he always said ‘play as long as you can’. I’ve always had that in the back of my mind. I might be that player who gets rolled out with loads of bandages on at 60-year-old. Until I fall out with football, I’ll keep playing.
“I don’t think you’ll see me in the dugout. I think that time has passed. I look now and the contacts have all gone. I went and helped Kyle Cook out at Grimethorpe a couple of months when the Fossils folded. I didn’t know if I’d be able to cut it for 90 minutes, but it turned out I was playing 90 minutes. Me and Daz (Smith) and have spoke about maybe starting with a team as we have had whispers of offers and little ‘would you be interested in this team’? It is never say never, but I’d have to do it with Daz and it would have to be somewhere local and somewhere I can enjoy it
“Non League have given me a lot like friends and contacts. You can go round Barnsley on a night out and you bump into six or seven players you had a good laugh with him when you played with them. You can be walking round Asda and you can drop on someone you can have a cal about the old times with while the missus does the shopping.”
If you have enjoyed this interview, please 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.
There is a video at the bottom of the page showing our work.
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.