Comyn on trail of silver suedehead

The last thing Andy Comyn wants to see during Hednesford Town's FA Cup tie at Middlesbrough on Saturday is a silver suedehead disappearing beneath a red shirt. If that happens, it will probably mean Fabrizio Ravanelli has scored.

The moment the fourth-round match is over it will be a different matter. Comyn, the Staffordshire club's 28-year-old central defender, hopes to have the shirt off Ravanelli's back. There is going to be "an almighty scramble", he predicts, to swap synthetic fibres with the troubled White Feather and Boro's Brazilians, Juninho and Emerson.

Perhaps uniquely for a Vauxhall Conference part-timer, Comyn could afford to let his colleagues have first go at the post-match ritual. Just over six years ago, after helping Aston Villa to defeat Internazionale in the first leg of a Uefa Cup tie, he traded tops with Ravanelli's fellow Italian international Aldo Serena.

Until Hednesford knocked Blackpool and York off the Wembley trail, victory over an Inter side which also included Jurgen Klinsmann was the high point in Comyn's roller-coaster career. It began with Manchester United, late in Ron Atkinson's reign. A back injury and a physics degree forced him to forgo the possibility of becoming one of Alex Ferguson's fledglings, just as well since he supports City.

He was with the now- defunct Alvechurch when Graham Taylor took him to Villa. Four days later, Comyn was told Chris Price was unfit. He would be at right-back the next night. Against Liverpool. Marking John Barnes. "My first thought was 'Oh no'," he admitted, "followed by 'Oh great'.

"Barnes turned me inside out to score after 20 minutes, but he was doing that to the best players at that time. I expected them to keep giving him the ball, but they didn't. I did all right in the last 70 minutes and we got a draw."

Injury to Paul McGrath prompted Taylor's successor, Jo Venglos, to bring Comyn in against Inter. "We won 2-0 and I had a five-game run when we didn't concede a goal, but afterwards I was out," he recalled. "In other circumstances I'd have been knocking on the manager's door, but Paul was a legend at Villa."

Comyn was a substitute when Villa succumbed 3-0 in Milan. "I remember playing five-a-side on the San Siro pitch the night before and looking up at these stands which seemed to go on forever. It was a bit different to Hednesford! An hour before kick-off we were warming up and there were already 40,000 there. The atmosphere was intimidating, but brilliant."

After two pounds 200,000 moves, to Derby and Plymouth respectively, came an offer from West Bromwich Albion last summer. Comyn impressed in three First Division games on trial, only to opt for non-League football.

The attraction was the opportunity to combine a secure career in accountancy - he is learning the trade in the practice run by Hednesford's manager, John Baldwin - with playing at what Comyn calls "a good standard". He explained: "My family thought I was crazy and so did my new team-mates, but the chance may not have been there when I was 32.

"I'm enjoying my football more now. Because it's not my full-time job it's not on my mind constantly. As a professional, if you make a mistake it preys on your mind until the next game. The manager usually says something to you and it'll be pored over in the media, which can get you down.

"There are times when you could do with a break for a few days, but you hardly ever get one. Now I might be stuck behind a desk for a week and the football is a fantastic release, something to look forward to like I did as a kid.

"Who's to say I'd have been in the Albion team anyway? When they played Wolves the other week I thought: 'I'd like to have been involved in that'. Then again they'd love to be playing in the fourth round."

The Cup, in which the Pitmen have progressed from the first qualifying round in September, was the last thing on Comyn's mind when he arrived at Keys Park. And if anyone had told him he would face another Italian international forward before the season was out, he might have been inclined to call the men in white coats.

"Ravanelli's ideal for British football - big, powerful, scores goals, holds the ball up well - but I've been up against the likes of Ian Wright, so I won't be overawed. I'm sure that'll be true of all the lads.

"With Boro being bottom of the Premiership we don't know how many people are going to be there. Their fans might think: 'We'll save our money for a later round', which could work in our favour. For us, it'll be a great atmosphere come what may.

"Bryan Robson saw us beat York and knows we're no mugs, but they beat Chester 6-0 in the last round, so with luck they'll be over-confident. When you start a match like that, it can be hard to change."

Comyn dismisses the idea that Hednesford are in danger of regarding the trip to the Riverside Stadium as simply a lucrative day out. "We had York watched three times. The reports were spot-on and so were our tactics. We've done the same with Boro. Our chances of winning may be remote but we'll try to make it hard for them."

As if the occasion were not special enough, the competition's endless capacity for unexpected reunions means that Comyn will be at the heart of Hednesford's efforts to frustrate the Boro manager, who was the ultimate role model during his time at Old Trafford.

He recounts how Robson, then captain of club and country, once brought a box full of T-shirts from a kit manufacturer into the dressing-room and invited the starstruck apprentices to help themselves. The rush to Ravanelli could be rather more competitive, but Comyn, who may spend the afternoon up close and personal, should have a head start.