During Stoke City’s rise from the Championship to the Premier League in the late 2000s, Carl Dickinson, Danny Pugh and Ryan Shotton were all part of a notoriously resolute Tony Pulis defence.
Now, over a decade later, they are sharing a dressing room once again at Hanley Town, a ninth tier club preparing for the biggest game in its history.
On Saturday, Hanley face Brackley Town – second in the National League North and the joint-second-highest ranked team currently in the FA Cup – live on the BBC.
Hanley are the lowest-ranked team left in the competition and the only club remaining who entered in the extra-preliminary round, winning five games on the bounce to get to the third qualifying round.
“It’s a massive achievement for the club and for local non-league football for us to get this far,” player-manager Dickinson tells i. “Then to be facing a team three leagues above is exactly what you want in an FA Cup tie. That’s why we love it so much.”
Under ambitious chairman Ron McIlreavy, Hanley have signed a string of ex-professionals, including Chris Dagnall, a seasoned Football League hitman, Louis Dodds, who made almost 300 appearances for Port Vale between 2008 and 2016, and the aforementioned Pugh, who also played for Manchester United and Leeds.
McIlreavy and Dickinson’s aim is to be at step two or three of the non-league pyramid – the sixth and seventh tiers of English football – within five years, and both are working full-time for the club.
The calibre of their players has paid dividends so far this season, with the club unbeaten in their opening 12 matches and one point off top in the Midland Football League Premier Division with a game in hand.
“To be undefeated at any level of football is fantastic,” McIlreavy says. “People can say, ‘our budget is quite high’ but we have to bring in the right people and the right mindsets.
“I took a chance on Carl: he had no managerial experience but I knew he would deliver exactly what I wanted. In fairness, he’s exceeding everything I thought he would bring.”
For Dickinson, this success has been built upon man management, something especially important at a level where his players have full-time jobs – from teaching PE and delivering parcels to quantity surveying and engineering.
“The biggest thing is not only treating players as players, but treating them as human beings as well,” Dickinson explains.
“Lads work their backsides off all day and then they come to us at night to train and not be with their families for a little bit longer, so it’s just about making sure they’re looked after as people and can come and enjoy themselves.”
As his players sit in the dressing room ahead of kick-off on Saturday, it is enjoyment and commitment which Dickinson will emphasise.
“Enjoy it. But don’t forget the reasons which got us to this position in the first place. We know our game plan, we know what we’re about, we know what we stand for.
“We have to make sure that when we leave that pitch – win, lose or draw – we know that we’ve had each other’s backs and we’ve left everything out there.”
Hanley Town vs Brackley Town is live on the BBC’s red button and iPlayer at 12:30pm on 2 Oct
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3B7VaY4
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