JORDAN WILLIAMS says any young player trying to reach the Football League should be instilled with some of Non-League's true grit.
The 24-year-old has sealed a reported £100,000 move from National League side Barrow to Rochdale.
It's a remarkable rise for the winger, who was still playing Sunday League football with his mates two years ago alongside spells at Clitheroe and Burscough before he joined Northwich Victoria.
He played a starring role as the Vics reached the FA Cup second round and was soon snapped up by Barrow. Now, 18 months later, Keith Hill's Rochdale have handed him a ticket to League One.
“I was just knocking around with my mates playing Sunday League football – that's what we did,” Williams, who scored 15 goals and got 14 assists in all competitions last season, told The NLP.
“Paying subs and doing it to enjoy it. I've always wanted to go for a career but back then I was just enjoying playing with my mates.
“I carried on doing that when I was at Clitheroe and Burscough because I still wanted to play with my mates, but I stopped when I got to Northwich and kicked on from there.
Trajectory
“I knew the manager at Clitheroe – Paul Moore, who is at Northwich now – so I got in there for a few months and then I went to Burscough for a couple of years. Then to Northwich for six months and then Barrow for 18; I've done it the hard way!
“There are lots of players now who haven't been in academies and are working their way up. I think working your way up through Non-League is the way forward. You're obviously going to have a few gems in academies, but I don't think they get the real grit of it unless they play Non-League football.”
Williams says quitting his day job in a supermarket to make the move to Barrow's full-time set-up is a big factor in his upward trajectory – but it was when he moved to Northwich that he really felt he could achieve his dream.
Williams said: “When Northwich rang me, I went there and I thought, ‘We've got a good team here, we could win the league'. Once we started playing in the FA Cup and had a good run I felt that if I got my head down I could do well.
“I got my move to Barrow and I've concentrated solely on football ever since then. I was working at Morrison's but when I got to Barrow it was full-time so I got my head down.
“Full-time suited me massively; it's made me fitter and a better player. I think now I've got a move to Rochdale I'll improve even more.
“The manager has explained the way he wants to use me and he's going to demand a lot from me, which is what I want; someone on my back, keeping me going.”
