HAMMER TIME: Julian Dicks in his days at West Ham. Picture: PA Images
By Hugo Varley
He may be on the cusp of a return to the promised land of the Premier League but Julian Dicks can't help but grimace when recounting his whirlwind experience of the highs and lows of Non-League football in east Essex last season.
Affectionately known as The Terminator during his playing days, hardman Dicks became a legend on the terraces at the Boleyn Ground over 10 years in the West Ham United backline, earning a fearsome reputation among opposition attackers and referees alike.
After hanging up his boots at the turn of the millennium, the former left-back, who had an infamously feisty relationship with previous managers Lou Macari and Billy Bonds, decided to briefly dip his toes into the world of lower league coaching with Wivenhoe Town and Grays Athletic, before returning to the pinnacle of the game to work under lifelong friend and former teammate Slaven Bilic with his beloved Hammers.
However, Dicks was not done with Non-League just yet.
On one cold October evening in 2018, a picture of Dicks with a black and white Heybridge Swifts scarf draped around his neck emerged on social media, accompanied with the news that the former tough-tackling defender would be stepping into the dugout at Scraley Road.
Going one better than the previous season's run to the Isthmian North play-offs was the aim. However, a formidable task stood before Dicks and his newly inherited group of players.
With just two wins to their name, Heybridge were sitting precariously above the drop zone but Dicks is not one to shirk away from a challenge and he got straight down to work, bursting any hopes among the Swifts squad that they would be treated like pampered Premier League stars.
“At the end of the day football is about hard work and from the very first training session I made sure the intensity levels were as high as they could possibly be,” the 51-year-old told The NLP.
“After Slav and I got the sack at West Ham (in November 2017), I went to watch Heybridge quite a lot because they were local to me and I got a real feel for the club. I had been out of the game for a bit but when I got the call I thought why not give it a go?
“I was honest with the players. I just wanted them to give me 100 per cent, wear their hearts on their sleeve and leave everything on the pitch.
“Everyone loses games but it is when I see heads drop that I get angry and, believe me, you don't want to see me when I'm angry!”
With the strength of a turning tide, Dicks' revolution sparked an instant rejuvenation, sending shockwaves across the division.
Week after week, the battling Swifts ground out points with a sense of ruthlessness reminiscent of their manager's fictional namesake. By mid-January the play-off positions had been breached and Dicks' resurgent side were breathing down the necks of league leaders Bowers & Pitsea and readying an assault on the table's summit.
“If I had told everyone when I came in that we would improve our position by that much in such a short period of time they would have thought I was talking complete and utter nonsense!” said Dicks, whose time as a West Ham player was intersected by a year at Graeme Souness' Liverpool, where he formed a formidable defensive partnership with another cherished hardman of English football, Neil Ruddock, pictured below.
“We had a few players decide to leave, who maybe thought the grass looked greener elsewhere, but that didn't bother me at all because if they had any doubt if they wanted to be there, I certainly didn't want them anywhere near the club.
“To me, the upturn in form wasn't so surprising because the previous manager (Jody Brown) had left some brilliant foundations to build on. It was just a matter of tweaking one or two things and enforcing my own mentality on the lads.
“To be fair to the boys, they completely bought into what I was trying to do and, bar one or two poor showings, their commitment was top drawer.”
While they were ultimately pipped to automatic promotion, Dicks achieved an ambition that many thought to be completely unrealistic back in October, as he guided Heybridge to play-off glory, albeit in dramatic circumstances.
A hard-fought win at Aveley set up a final at Maldon & Tiptree, which looked to be done and dusted as the second half entered injury time.
A handful of minutes left, two goals up, champagne at the ready, what could possibly go wrong?
“I couldn't believe it!” Dicks laughed. “The season was wrapped up and we switched off and conceded twice, remarkable.
“I wasn't fuming though. I just said to the players, you've got us into this position, it's your job to get us out of it.”
Perhaps the experience of playing under a manager who was somewhat of a penalty specialist during his heyday rubbed off as Heybridge eventually achieved glory through the lottery of spot-kicks.
However, what had been a rollercoaster of a season ended with a crushing fall just 24 hours later, as Dicks' side saw their promotion dreams dashed in the cruellest or manners.
While the fragile-feeling Heybridge players and staff, still reeling from the previous night's celebrations, shielded themselves from the beating May Bank Holiday sun, events in south Gloucestershire were not going their way.
A spirited Yate Town comeback against Cinderford Town in their own play-off final saw the Bluebells snatch the final promotion place from the Swifts' clutches, by virtue of a points-per-game ratio.
Although Dicks has spent most of the recent campaign going toe-to-toe tactically with the likes of Leeds United boss Marcelo Bielsa and Derby County chief Phillip Cocu, after linking up with Bilic again to become first-team coach at West Brom, he still speaks about last season's controversial end with an impassioned sense of frustration.
“In my eyes we got promoted, it's as simple as that,” he reflected. “The whole system was absolute b******s, we were completely robbed, of course we were.
“After the final we went back to the clubhouse and had a few drinks so we got the party in while we could but the next day certainly put a downer on things.
“It was a farce, to be honest. I know they say we were informed of the points-per-game rule in advance but that doesn't mean it was the right thing to do at all.”
Despite having relocated to the second city, Dicks has maintained a link with Heybridge, staying in close contact with a number of players and his former assistant Karl Duguid, who took over the reins at Scraley Road before leaving a fortnight ago.
“It was only a short period of time but we made a lot of memories,” Dicks added.
“The players sometimes contact me asking for advice and I speak to Karl and the chairman Gary White.
“It was great to see that they had carried on the momentum from last year and were sitting nicely in the play-offs when everything was called off. I just hope Heybridge can make it through this mad time.
“Maybe there is more that The FA can do to help Non-League teams? I really don't know but last year made me realise just how important Heybridge Swifts are to the local neighbourhoods and I am sure that is a situation which is mirrored with clubs throughout the country.”
The 2018/19 season represented a year of extraordinary contrasts for Heybridge but will forever be looked back on as the campaign where The Terminator took over, did things his way and brought the club and community on an eventful but unforgettable ride.
