Stuart Pearce pitching in to help non-league Hornchurch achieve Wembley dream
Hornchurch face Hereford in the FA Trophy final on Saturday
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Your support makes all the difference.Stuart Pearce’s West Ham United may be battling for European qualification but they are not the only club in East London punching above their weight.
Just over four miles from the Hammers training ground at Rush Green – the base for Pearce’s day job as a first-team coach – seventh-tier Hornchurch are dreaming of capping a fairy-tale FA Trophy run with silverware at Wembley.
The Urchins’ journey in the competition began on 31 October, four days before they played what would turn out to be their final league match of the Pitching In Isthmian League Premier Division campaign – which was suspended as the nation entered a second lockdown and curtailed for good in February.
But despite a lack of regular football, four-time Trophy winner Mark Stimson has guided his side past six higher-division outfits, including National League giants Notts County in the last four, to set up a clash with Hereford on 22 May.
None of the Urchins squad have played under the famous Arch but their preparations received a timely boost earlier this month when Pearce, for whom the home of English football has become a second home over the past four decades, returned to his non-league roots to offer his support at a training session.
The 59-year-old, who led his country out at Wembley and achieved 78 international caps, said: “I’ve had some wonderful memories at Wembley and from captaining England to playing in FA Cup finals, I’ve nearly done the full spectrum.
“But the one thing I haven’t done is what the Hornchurch boys have the opportunity of doing - playing in a Trophy final and actually winning the competition.
“The furthest we got in my time at Wealdstone was the quarter-final against Wycombe Wanderers. We were beaten 1-0 and I can remember how much that hurt almost like it was yesterday.
“I went into the professional game and Wealdstone went on to win the FA Trophy (in 1984/85) with a similar squad to the one I was involved in.
“I know what it meant to them and how exciting it was for the club to win the competition – it’s the Holy Grail for non-league clubs. An FA Cup run is great but realistically, you can’t win the FA Cup as a non-league side. The FA Trophy is a different matter.”
That an FA Trophy exit still smarts for a player who went on to feature in the latter stages of World Cups, European Championships and FA Cups is symptomatic of Pearce’s attitude to the non-league game, which has been hit hard by the pandemic.
Players looking to follow in the former left-back’s footsteps and make the leap into the professional set-up have been kicking their heels for the majority of the past 14 months – circumstances Pearce admits he would have struggled in during his teenage years.
“It wouldn’t have been pretty, to be honest,” he said. “I’ve got great admiration for the players at Hornchurch. Without a league campaign, keeping themselves fit and winning Trophy matches to end up at Wembley is some achievement.
“At the top level, we have been fortunate to have carried on but football, for me, is not about the top echelons of the game.
“The important places are at this level, where people like myself can come out of school at 16 and find opportunities to play.
“There is a real clamour to get outside and enjoy physical activity again and I hope people really start getting behind their local non-league clubs when they open up.”
Three thousand Hornchurch fans will seize the opportunity to walk down Wembley Way on Saturday, with Non-League Finals Day – which also includes the FA Vase final, at which Pearce was a ball boy in the 1970s – earmarked as a pilot event for the return of spectators to stadiums. And having offered the Urchins players his advice on coping with the big occasion, Pearce hopes the close-knit group have one more shock left in them against a club who are no strangers to cup giant-killings themselves.
“It’s really important they do all the things that have made them successful so far,” said the England legend, whose visit to Hornchurch was organised by Pitching In – a landmark grassroots sport investment programme set up by Ladbrokes, with the support of its owner Entain.
“From coming down here, I can sense the togetherness in the group and that they really want to go that extra mile for each other.
“They are going to need that, especially in a cup final at Wembley, and they need to enjoy it.
“How they have coped over this period has been remarkable and I’m sure it has drawn the club closer together off the back of it. I really hope they go on and win it.”
Entain, owner of Ladbrokes, has launched a multi-million pound investment programme, Pitching In, designed to support and promote grassroots sports. For more details see: https://entaingroup.com/sustainability/pitching-in/
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