Kirkham realise their Wembley dream

Mick Fuller, the Kirkham & Wesham manager, looked ready for a lie down after his team had reached the FA Vase final at Needham Market on Saturday.

“I can sleep now, hopefully for the next six weeks - I’ve had enough of this over the past 14 days,” he said. He admitted he had been up at 6am pacing the car park at the team’s hotel pondering a tricky team selection that came down to leaving Dougie Shaw, his captain, on the bench.

Not that there was any chance of slumbering until the Wembley date with Lowestoft Town on May 11. Far from it. For a start, there was work: Fuller is a member of the in-service support team working on Typhoon, the new Euro fighter, at the BA systems plant in Warton.

And then there was football. There was another match on Monday night, away to Chadderton Town in the Vodkat North West Counties League second division. That did not go to plan with Kirkham losing 2-1 to a goal in the 89th minute before a crowd of 82 - a far cry from the 1,275 that watched the Vase tie on Saturday. The result left Kirkham 13 points behind New Mills, the division leaders, although they have five matches in hand; they also have four matches in hand over Oldham Town with whom they are level on points.

The defeat gave added point to good-humoured joshing in the dressing-room corridor at Bloomfields about Fuller leading the club to Wembley but possibly losing his job if he fails to lead Kirkham to promotion.

Fuller himself revealed the threat hanging over his head. Dai Davis, the chairman did not address the issue directly, but he did make the point: “Mick’s been with me since 1994. He’s still in a job. Stability is the most important thing whatever level you’re playing in.”

Yet Davis made no secret of Kirkham being a club in a hurry, particularly since David Haythornthwaite joined as president just under two years ago. “I think one of my shrewdest things was to ask David to come on board to give us that extra push,” he said. “He’s an ideas man, a very successful businessman and he puts his hand in his pocket, which at this sort of level, you need.

“We’re not here for the short haul, we’re here for the long haul. The other thing we’ve done is bought a 26-acre piece of real estate, which hopefully we can develop into a fantastic sports facility that people in the town and area can use in perpetuity.

“David’s idea was to put 2022 on the shirt sleeves - 2022 is the date by which he aims to the get the club into the Football League.”

The club hope to broaden their appeal by adopting the name AFC Fylde next season. In fact, the players emerged wearing tracksuits with AFC Fylde logos. The kit had already been ordered before the North West Counties League ruled that the club had been accepted as Kirkham & Wesham - and would remain so until next season.

Fuller said: “The name change is really to attract a wider fanbase. A lot of people involved were opposed to it at the start but they can now see the logic behind it.” Davis said: “We’re local to Lytham St Annes. It is quite a big town but there isn’t a football team. We hope to be able to pull in supporters from a bigger area.”

The appeal of Wembley is bound to help on that score, but Davis was not thinking so much of new recruits after Saturday’s Vase tie but the club’s loyal servants. “It’s all the guys in the background,” he said. “The guys that mark the pitch out, the guys that sweep the dressing-rooms out etc, etc. I feel really happy that we have brought these guys this success. This was our eleventh game in the Vase - it was a long, hard haul. I’ve said all the way through that we’ve punched above our weight because only one team we’ve played has been from the same level as us (step six), every other team has been above us.”

Fuller mixed understandable euphoria with a sense of caution. “You couldn’t get Enid Blyton to write this,” he said. “It’s a fairytale - I’m just waiting for Peter Pan to arrive now. It may be desolate in Kirkham on May 11 - everybody will be at Wembley. Let’s hope it’s like the Sahara Desert.”

The manager was making no predictions, however. He said: “I’m not going to say we’re going to win the Vase but what I will say is that if this team performs, we have as much chance as Lowestoft.”

WALTER GAMMIE