By Andrew Tidswell (Spalding United player and Elite Sports Academy MD)
The lower regions of the Football League and the entirety of non-league football are on my agenda this week.
Many of you on the outside and looking in on the day-to-day running of a non-league club can easily be misled.
The ‘many’ I speak about are often the fans and the locals of the community of whichever team it is that represents their town or city.
However, the truth of non-league is that the players have a completely different view of the situation.
A typical day for a non-league player could mean they are up for 18-19 hours before the day is out.
For instance, for an away game midweek you could find yourself travelling two or three hours across, up or down the country.
I have played non-league football now for the past six years and have shared dressing rooms with some great people who, like me, all have day jobs.
I’ve met players who are builders, electricians and engineers – and that’s to name but a few.
I find these people incredible. They get up for work at 6am, sometimes earlier, and complete a full day of manual work before travelling and playing – and that’s before the journey home and walking through their door at what could be the early hours of the next morning.
What isn’t taken into account playing for non-league clubs is the possibility of injury affecting both a person’s ability to play football and work, or the choices of having to take half days off work to be able to get to an away game in time.
Over recent seasons there has been several success stories of players making the breakthrough to the higher regions of the football ladder and being able to have football as the main provider to earn a comfortable living.
Such players as Dwight Gayle, who played for Stansted FC just three years ago and is now mixing it in the Premier League with Crystal Palace.
Another success story is Charlie Austin, of Queens Park Rangers. He is also playing Premier League football now – but back in 2009 he was playing for Poole Town FC.
There are more success stories. Chris Smalling now plays for Manchester United and England – but again he was found playing for Maidstone. Going back even further, there’s Kevin Phillips.
He had a glittering career and represented England too, but he was found late and was picked up at non-league Baldock Town.
The players mentioned above come from a small percentage of players who are fortunate enough to make the breakthrough. Maybe it was meant to be, but maybe it was a ‘right place, right time’ kind of thing.
There are other good players littering the non-league scene and many of these players have been brought up through academies or centres of excellence throughout England.
I myself came through the Peterborough United and Cambridge United academies, but as you get older you start to realise different things.
When you’re young, you just love football and football is all you know.
But again, what people outside of football won’t know is that politics play a massive part as you get older.
I have been at clubs where good players have been misused because of a factor that has nothing to do with football – and that is what’s wrong. I have seen this side of football and I imagine others have too. It leaves a bitter taste in your mouth.
Add that to the false promises and pay disputes and, at times, football at non-league level is really not that glamorous.
