Newport Pagnall Town success is a community affair!

By Matt Badcock

WE’RE IN IT TOGETHER: Newport Pagnell players celebrate

NEWPORT PAGNELL Town chairman Steve Handley says their FA Vase semi-final with Hamworthy United is their biggest game ever – ever, ever!

The United Counties League Premier South club have been busy getting plans in place for Saturday’s big game.

As well as erecting marquees, barbecues and an outside bar, the volunteers have been organising extra toilets and arranging tickets. And Handley, who has been involved with the Swans for 25 years, says the whole town is in dreamland with their Vase run.

“The whole town is so excited,” Handley told The NLP. “We sold 900 tickets in the first hour. On paper I should image we’re not favourites but it means so much to the town now…if the club was got get to Wembley.

“The semi-final is our most historic game ever – ever, ever, ever! We were formed in 1963 and, certainly in my time, there’s never been this excitement.

“You can feel it just bubbling at the minute. Everybody is looking forward to next week.”

Handley says manager Gary Flinn and his assistant Gary Chance have assembled a squad to be truly proud of – at a club where the loyalties run deep.

“In our club we’ve got grandfathers, fathers and children who have all played at the club,” Handley said. “It means so much. A lot of the senior people at the club were all at the same school together in the late 50s, early 60s. The community has stayed the same.

“The squad we’ve got this year has got to be one of the nicest bunch of people I’ve been involved with in football.

“You can deal with a lot of false egos at our level. But they’re a nice bunch of lads, they try to play the right football.

“The two managers have only been with us three years but they’ve worked wonders with the budget. The players they’ve brought in have been a credit to the club. It’s just one more game.”