Teacher Taylor aiming for Moors glory at Wembley
Spennymoor Town are used to punching above their weight in non-league football. But on Sunday, they aim to land the biggest punch in their history.The National League North side are heading to Wembley for the FA Trophy final to take on Aldershot Town from the league above.The County Durham club have already knocked out three National League sides to get here and have a fourth one in their sights.And if Spennymoor can be victorious at the national stadium, they will become only the second club to have won both the FA Trophy and the FA Vase.Ahead of their big day in London, BBC Sport has spoken to two people entwined in the club's fabric.
Schooling pupils, and defenders
By day, he is 'Sir'. But on a Saturday afternoon and Tuesday evenings, Glen Taylor turns into one of the most prolific strikers in non-league football.Taylor has been with Spennymoor since 2017, which he has combined with family life and teaching at a school in Houghton-le-Spring.He has plundered 210 goals in 394 appearances, during which time they have been ever present in the sixth tier league against teams with bigger attendances and greater resources.There were chances to join the paid ranks, but the striker, who turns 35 on Sunday, explains why he has stayed loyal to the Moors."I could have left when I was 27, 28," he said. "But we had just had our first child and I had a good career."It could have meant leaving my job and leaving the area on a one or two-year deal for less money. That never made any sense."People say, 'you've got no ambition', but it's about making sensible decisions. If you asked someone to go and work for a better company but on significantly less money, they wouldn't do it."I couldn't be happier. I have a really good job and I'm at the best non-league club in the north east."
'Good goal, sir'
Taylor works at World Alternative Education, a school for boys who have been excluded from mainstream education.He believes that his footballing exploits have allowed him to establish a positive rapport with his pupils."All the boys are into football and it helps that one of the other teachers is an EFL assistant referee," he added. "I think I've gained a bit of respect from them because of it."The usual questions I get asked are 'how much do you get paid?' or 'how did you get on?' "Occasionally I'll come in on a Monday and they'll say 'That was a good goal,' as they will have found it on YouTube."But it helps the relationship. We play football on Wednesday so they've seen me play. "I try to stay at the back and keep clear of trouble. You won't catch me trying to take the ball on the half-turn on the halfway line against them!"
Spennymoor are aiming to become only the second club after AFC Fylde to win both the Vase and the Trophy.They finished ninth in the National League North this season competing against fully professional sides while still operating on a part-time basis, with the squad training on Tuesday and Thursday nights.Their run to Wembley has seen them knock out National League sides Boston United, Sutton United and Rochdale in the semi-final.And it has created lots of special memories for head of football Jason Ainsley.He is 'Mr Spennymoor', having first signed for them as a player and then worked as assistant manager, coach, 13 years as manager and now his current role.While he was in charge in May 2013 when they defeated Tunbridge Wells to lift the FA Vase."We get crowds of 1200-1300 from a population of 22,000 so the football team is a big part of what the community is all about," Ainsley said. "For a club the size of ours to get to Wembley twice in 12 years, it's phenomenal really."In the Vase, we were the big pull at that time because we had a really strong team, the elite of north east players. North east clubs had a monopoly on the Vase and Spennymoor were expected to do really well."Now, it was important to have a good run but we've beaten some really strong sides."At Rochdale, I got a car park space at the ground and we had flyers on our car doors about transport to Wembley! "I think they just expected to turn up and win but we equalised with the last kick of the game and then stood up under pressure and scored all five penalties."That game just summed up Spennymoor."
The Moors have become used to battling against the odds, operating as a part-time club against former EFL regulars like Scunthorpe United and Chester City.In the last few years, they have had to compete against Stockport County, Salford City and Harrogate Town, who have gone on to survive and thrive at higher levels.But Spennymoor have found a way of succeeding by drawing on their unique spirit and togetherness."There are probably a lot of teams punching far less above their weight than we are," Ainsley added."Teams don't like coming to play us. Our pitch has a little bit of a slope on it and we have players who never give up and have that north east fighting spirit. "They don't want to come here on a Tuesday night."
'Didn't even enjoy celebrations'
Ainsley will take his seat in the royal box at Wembley, confident that his day will BE less nerve-wracking than in 2013.However, he will understand the emotions that manager Graeme Lee will be enduring on the touchline down below."Last time, I didn't even enjoy the night," he recalled. "I had a few pints and went to bed, I was just shattered. "Now, it's a great occasion and I can take my seat and see the different level we're at from when I was manager. It will fill me with immense pride."
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10 minutes ago
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The National
12 minutes ago
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'Snobbery' over Scottish talent has left national game at crisis point
'Part of my day job is system development,' said Ferguson, the former East Stirlingshire, Alloa Athletic, Hamilton Academical, Partick Thistle and Stenhousemuir defensive midfielder who is now assistant to Gary Naysmith at the third tier Ochilview Park part-timers. 'We're always looking ahead. We're involved in Olympic sports and we look four years, eight years, even 12 years down the line. We look at pathways and what we've got coming through.' Does Ferguson think that this country's leading football clubs have the same forward-thinking attitude? Does he believe their chairmen, managers, owners, chief executives and sporting directors are safeguarding the future of our national game? Is he hopeful that Scotland will flourish as a result of the farsighted groundwork they are laying now? The posts about the number of homegrown and under-21 players who were involved in the Premiership last season which he fired up on the X (formerly Twitter) social media platform last week suggested that he very much does not. Read more: The statistics which he personally collated were highly concerning. But here are two of the most startling. He showed that the overall percentage of Scots to start top flight games during the 2024/25 campaign was just 31.46 per cent. That was down from 45 per cent three years ago. In addition, he highlighted that, on average, just four out of the 132 players who kicked games off in the elite division every weekend were under the age of 21 and originally hailed from these shores. He can foresee major issues arising in the future as a consequence. 'I started doing this back in around 2018 or 2019,' said Ferguson. 'I went back to the 1980s and 1990s and looked at the trend of more non-Scots coming into the Scottish game. I tracked the summer and winter signings and looked at the team sheets every week. It worried me back then, but it's getting worse every year. 'When I started doing this, the number of Scots who were starting every week on average was at about 48 to 49 per cent. Now it is down in the low 30s. I think it is a major problem already. And it is only going to get worse and worse. There needs to be an intervention before it becomes an even bigger problem. 'It's not just the Premiership where it's a problem now, it's feeding down into the lower divisions as well. When you look at a line-up of a Championship team, there are often a lot of non-Scots in there. We are reaching a crisis point. We can be producing far more players than we are.' (Image: SNS Group) So what, if anything, does Ferguson feel can be done to turn things around? The man who has just helped Stenhousemuir to secure a play-off place in their first season up in League One admits that he is puzzled by the Premiership clubs' reliance on overseas players. He has long been convinced they would be better off shopping local. 'I have always felt, going right back to my own playing days, that Scottish players and probably Scottish staff don't get the recognition that they were due when they were playing at a lower level,' he said. 'They were never picked up. 'There have been so many examples of that over the years. But Lawrence Shankland is the one really jumped out to me. I can remember watching him when I was the manager at Stenhousemuir and we played Ayr United. He was the difference in the game. 'I went and spoke to Hearts about him. I got told, 'Yeah, we've had him watched, but we don't think he's quick enough, we don't think he's strong enough'. They had so many reasons for not signing him. 'But they went straight out and signed David Vanecek from a club in the second tier in the Czech Republic. He lasted five or six months and then he was gone. I looked at that and thought, 'Why not look at the best players in the leagues below here?'. Hearts eventually signed Lawrence, but they could have had him years earlier if they had just taken a chance.' Read more: Ferguson is optimistic that Scottish clubs will look at the success which Falkirk have enjoyed under John McGlynn in the past couple of years – they have won League One and the Championship in successive seasons – and realise that promoting promising talent from the lower leagues can yield impressive results. 'Falkirk have been a breath of fresh air for me,' he said. 'They've taken players up from the Lowland League, they've even looked at the East of Scotland League. Those players have made big jumps up. 'Not all of them will be able to step up. But a lot of them have and are progressing. They have had an unbelievable couple of seasons. For me, John should be getting far more recognition for what he has done.' Ferguson continued, 'I just think there's snobbery across the Scottish game. There are a lot of good players in Scotland, but the pathway is not there for them. The opportunities for them to play at the top are so limited it's incredible. 'There has been talk about a Scottish goalkeeping crisis recently. For me, there is a bit of snobbery there too. Nicky Hogarth at Falkirk is a far better goalkeeper than the lad Cieran Slicker at Ipswich Town. Now, that might not be the case in the future. But at this moment in time Hogarth has won back-to-back league titles and is a better player. (Image: Craig Williamson - SNS Group) 'Hogarth has been at Rangers and Nottingham Forest as a young player, Slicker has been at Manchester City and Ipswich Town. So they both have a good grounding. But Slicker, a player who has never played a league game, gets selected for the national squad. For me, that kind of belittles playing for your country. Why not give Hogarth a chance? 'I think there are players there now who could easily make the step up to the Premiership. Not every player is going to make the grade, that's just never going to happen. But there are a lot of players who will get recruited from other countries who will come and go in the blink of an eye. Fans will forget about them in a couple of weeks. 'But I don't think the fanbase helps things ether if I am being honest. People don't get as excited about signing a player or a manager from the Championship as they do about bringing in a foreign player or manager. The media is exactly the same.' Ferguson has also witnessed first hand a reluctance to field the best kids who are coming through the youth ranks at Premiership clubs despite the obvious ability they possess and the success which those who have, often because his manager has had no other choice, been promoted have enjoyed. 'There are also young players within academies who are good enough,' he said. 'I have worked at Rangers and seen players who could step up and play first team football far sooner. There are kids out there who aren't getting anywhere close first team football at the age of 19, 20, 21. I don't understand that. 'If Callum McGregor was a youth coming through at Celtic now I don't think he would be given an opportunity. When he broke through Rangers were in the lower reaches of Scottish football and they could maybe afford to take a risk with him. Would they play him now? 'Scott Brown, who is Celtic's second most successful captain, only got his chance at Hibs when his manager Bobby Williamson was told that he needed to play youngsters. All of a sudden, they brought through a handful and they all went on to have really, really good careers. Would they have flourished if there wasn't a crisis? 'There are lots of those kind of examples. Adam Forrester got thrown in at Hearts when they had a right-back crisis and he has now played 30 odd games. He's not a youngster either, he is 20. James Wilson only got his chance because Lawrence Shankland was injured. They had to throw him in. They had no option. 'Do I think he would be in that team if Hearts had four strikers? No, I don't. Do I think he would be in the Scotland squad? No, I don't. I am delighted he is now in the national set-up. But there are not enough of these kind of players.' Read more: Ferguson continued, 'Another issue is that there are so many players on the bench now. What used to happen when three substitutes were allowed was there would be 14 players stripped, two in the stand and the rest would be playing somewhere else, in a reserve match or whatever. 'Now you've got 19 to 20 players stripped and another three sitting in the stands. Those players are nowhere near playing in a football match because they've got so many players in front of them. Squads are so swollen now. Even if you are a really good young player you need to get in front of four or five senior players to get in. 'It's difficult for any manager to say. 'I really like this 17-year-old, he's going straight in the team'. He needs to put that kid above three, four, five different senior players. Why would you want to have such a big squad and have a youth academy as well? That doesn't allow kids to progress. There are so many things that happen at the top level that don't make sense to me.' The Cooperation System which the SFA rolled out last week – which will see up to three Scotland qualified players at Premiership and Championship clubs move to lower league outfits freely on loan going forward – makes perfect sense to him. 'I love it,' said Ferguson. 'I love the concept of it. I also love that there is a plan there. I've always felt that the loan system, and I understand why this is, is very reactive. What generally happens is a club puts together a squad and then they need to get players in to cover for injuries. 'The Cooperation System is a bit more of a planned approach. It sounds as if loan players will be identified throughout the course of the close season, going into pre-season, when a manager or a recruitment team are building their squad. (Image: SNS Group Alan Harvey) 'I think it's a very, very good piece of work. I don't think managers will build their team around the loan player, it won't be as extreme as that. But I think a player will fit in straight away, They won't be trying to force their way into the team. It is a refreshing concept.' He continued, 'Will a young player who is number 21, 22 or 23 in a first team squad be considered for it? Or will they be kept at their parent club to make up numbers? That would be my concern. Will the guy who is 22 or 23 be allowed to go out and play? If he isn't, he could spend another season not playing. 'Is it best for the club in the long-term to get a player out, to get them experience of playing football, to get their name known, to hopefully have an impact? Massively. It should have a positive impact on the player and of course on the club. 'But a manager might want to hold onto him, just in case. He might have injuries and need to play a kid. That is how Forrester came through and established himself as a Premiership player. But, at the same time, six months could pass and a kid won't play. We will see how it works in practice. 'But we are very much on board with it at Stenhousemuir. We feel as though it's something that could be of value to us. Martin Christie, our head of recruitment, is speaking to clubs at the moment. There are ongoing conversations.' Ferguson is eager to see more Scottish players in the lower leagues getting the chance to show what they can do in the Premiership and more academy kids getting promoted into first teams than is currently the case. He fears the national team will ultimately suffer unless there is a long overdue change in attitudes and the trend he has identified is allowed to continue. 'Generally speaking, the first team manager at a club looks after the first team and that is it,' he said. 'That is the way it should be. But why is he not involved in looking at what the pathway into the first team looks like? 'There is an obvious issue. A coach knows he may not be in a job in four weeks' time if he doesn't get results. So why look four years down the line? The dynamics around football are different to any other sport. That is good and bad at the same time. 'The culture of football, the tribal nature of the sport, the supporters' demand for success in the here and now makes people focus on that. Understandably so. But I do think it is unusual compared to other sports, that failure to develop a strategy which can enable a club to be successful long-term. Don't get me wrong, many clubs will try to do it, but there is a massive disconnect between what they want to achieve and what they actually do.' Ferguson continued, 'We're already seeing a lack of depth when we've got injuries. We have quality players, John McGinn, Scott McTominay, Craig Gordon, Andy Robertson, Kieran Tierney. But quite a few of these players are getting towards the end of their careers, they're in their late 20s or early 30s. 'Could getting five per cent of the Scottish players who are in the Premiership to follow Lewis Ferguson, Billy Gilmour and Scott McTominay and move on to a bigger league in Europe be a target? If it can be then surely five per cent of 100 is better than five per cent of 30. 'My real worry is the talent pool is getting diluted. That is definitely the trend. It is on a decline, a continuous decline. Unless something changes, Scottish players will be making up just 20 per cent of the teams in a few years.'
Telegraph
13 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Freddie Burns interview: Bath fans remember me as a t--- so I'm supporting Leicester
He has just returned to his hometown of Bath, having swept the board at the Japanese League One awards, but Freddie Burns insists he has no mixed loyalties ahead of the Premiership final on Saturday. The former England fly-half had once grown up dreaming of playing at the Rec, and managed that feat for three seasons, having signed for Bath in 2017. Yet it was his heroics in the 2022 final, when he dropped the match-winning goal for Leicester Tigers in their 15-12 victory against Saracens that copper-fastened his sense of loyalty. 'I just feel more connected to Leicester,' says the 35-year-old. 'There is something special about Leicester, something different. I had great support from the Bath fans as well, but once you help a team win the Premiership that changes things. 'Bath fans probably remember me as the t--- who dropped the ball over the line, whereas the Leicester fans see me as the guy who kicked the drop-goal for them. That probably sums it up, mate.' The costly blunder he refers to came in a Champions Cup match for Bath against Toulouse in 2018, when he started celebrating a 'try' before touching the ball down. Humiliation followed seconds later as Maxime Médard took full advantage of Burns's showboating by knocking the ball out of his hands. Five minutes to go... Chance to win the game... "Oh he's dropped it!" A brutal moment for Bath star Freddie Burns 😣 — Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) October 13, 2018 They were underwhelming times for Bath – and for Burns, too. But at Leicester he found himself again when he returned for a second spell at the club in 2021 with Steve Borthwick as director of rugby. He recalls the time when his match-winning cameo for England against the All Blacks at Twickenham in 2012 suggested a dazzling Test career lay ahead of him. After a decade of frustration, when he found himself thrust into centre stage in the final against Saracens after just 24 minutes when George Ford was forced off with an Achilles injury, he was determined to seize the moment. 'I still remember the look on Steve Borthwick's face when George went down,' Burns says with a chuckle. 'He ran from the top of the stands down to try to get a message on. I think everyone was thinking, 'Oh f---, Fred's going on, what is going to happen?' But I always felt through my career, I always thrived in those bigger games. I remember seeing a few things in the first 20 minutes when I thought if we were a little bit braver, there would be a few opportunities for us.' The magnitude of the dropped-goal only hit him for the first time on the train up to Leicester with his parents to watch the semi-final victory over Sale Sharks last Saturday. 'I have always hated sitting in the pocket,' he says. 'I never liked those 10s who were happy to drop back deep for a few phases. Any drop-goals I have hit in my career, I have always hit them last-minute. 'We had a few phases, and I felt like we had Sarries on the ropes for a bit. All I remember is seeing Jasper Wiese running over Jamie George and Maro Itoje and as soon as I saw that and it gave us a little nudge forward, I knew I had to hit it. 'I didn't want to wait too long in case we got turned over. I am not religious or spiritual in any way, but it was the only time in my career that I felt there was something else at play. It felt like it was meant to be. I didn't feel stressed or nervous. It was like something else took over. 'I was completely taken aback by the reception I got last Saturday when I went back. I cop a lot of flak from the boys, but I don't think it is a moment that will ever quite sink in.' THE GREATEST MOMENT IN FREDDIE BURNS' LIFE! 🤩 Comes on to replace an injured George Ford, picks up an injury himself, soldiers on, and kicks the drop-goal to win the match 🤯 Simply incredible! #GallagherPremFinal — Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) June 18, 2022 He showed his colours while standing on a bridge to watch the 'Tigers' prowl' as the players walked to the stadium and was handed a green flare to let off by the club's chief executive, Andrea Pinchen. 'I just hoped Dan Cole would see me because I knew he would have muttered something like what I nutter I was,' he adds. 'I might have to sneak another flare in this Saturday.' On Saturday Burns is working for Talksport as a pundit and, having returned from Japan, where he won all the second division awards – most valuable player, player's player of the season, top try-scorer and top points-scorer for Toyota Shokki Shuttles – he hopes to keep playing on next season. He could even end up in the Premiership again at some stage. Does he think Leicester can upset the odds once more? Under the stewardship of Johann van Graan, Bath have been transformed into an English powerhouse again and Burns finds himself supporting the underdogs in Saturday's final, but he is adamant that Michael Cheika's side can repeat the 2022 triumph. 'Look in some ways I am in a win-win situation,' he says. 'If Bath win, I would be really pleased for guys like Tom Dunn and Charlie Ewels, who I played with. But on the flip side, there are guys like Ben Youngs, Dan Cole and Julian Montoya who are finishing up with the Tigers and I would love to see them have a great send-off. 'I think it is Bath's final to lose. But look at last year. I thought Northampton were the best team in the league last year, and they probably should have lost to Bath, who were the better team on the day. 'I think the defensive side of Leicester has improved massively in the latter part of the season and they can definitely cause an upset.'
