Toolstation NCEL Premier Division
Jason Dodsworth is like an excited kid at Christmas this morning as he prepares to return to Athersley Rec this evening as a member of an opposition management team.
The Handsworth assistant manager, who is in temporary charge with Aiden Spowage whilst Russ Eagle recovers from an operation, has never entered the visitors dugout since leaving Sheerian Park in 2016.
“It will be strange (going back) but I can’t wait,” Dodsworth told Non League Yorkshire.
“It is where I started and where I learnt everything.
“I spent a lot of great years there and we won a lot of trophies on Saturdays and Sundays.
“We had great success so it is a club close to my heart.
“The team we had was unbelievable to say we had no money.
“We got promotion in our first year in NCEL Division One when the lads were paying £5 a week subs to play.
“You don’t hear of anything like that these days.
“It doesn’t happen.
“To win the Sheffield Senior Cup against Frickley in the final at Hillsborough…the memories are there forever and there’ll never go.
“You never have plans to leave a club like that.
“It is not a club where someone is throwing money at it and you have to get results otherwise you get the sack.
“It is an honest club that Porkie (Pete Goodlad) has built up over 40 years.
“It was brilliant to be part of it.
“It is difficult to describe because it is totally different to other clubs I have been part of.”
Since departing, Dodsworth was joint manager at Nostell Miners Welfare with former Pontefract Collieries and Shaw Lane Aquaforce head honcho Simon Houghton.
The pair left Nostell in April last year and Dodsworth had a year out before becoming Eagle’s assistant at Handsworth.
What he won’t have tonight is Eagle to be there as a human shield to protect him from the Rec In Crew and his ex-Athersley players.
“I might get a bit of stick,” he quipped.
“I think a few of the lads who played for me down there will be giving me a bit of grief from behind the dugout.
“It is expected but I’m sure I’ll give as good as I get.”