Powell's link to another era lifts Team Bath

To the disappointment, no doubt, of certain sections of the media, Team Bath will not be playing in mortar boards and gowns next Saturday as they become the first student team to contest the FA Cup first round since Oxford University in 1880.

The photo opportunities involved in their home match against Second Division Mansfield Town will be of a more mundane nature, but the collegiate status of the young men from the University of Bath is real enough, albeit that many of them might have been professional footballers in less economically stressed times.

A recently created HND course in Coach Education and Sports Performance has offered a number of young players released by professional clubs the opportunity to carry on their education while training full-time with a view to finding their way back into the game.

Having disposed of Barnstaple Town, Backwell United, Bemerton Heath Harlequins, Newport County and – on penalties – Horsham, this collection of stillwannabees has an ideal opportunity to demonstrate its ability to operate at professional level in a tie that will take place in front of between six and eight thousand spectators and the cameras of Sky TV.

This is likely to be the high water mark for Team Bath in the world's oldest football tournament – but one member at least has experienced the grand old competition at a far loftier level.

At 86, Ivor Powell is a little too old to be considered for a first-team place, but he is still an integral part of their success as an assistant coach who is out on the park with the players at least three times a week. And Powell has memories of the FA Cup which stretch back more than 50 years to when he reached the sixth round in consecutive seasons – 1946-47 and 1947-48 – as a member of Queen's Park Rangers.

Then in the old Third Division, QPR eventually found themselves out of their depth, but Powell was destined for greater things. Season 1948-49 saw the Welsh international right-half signed up for Aston Villa at the age of 32 for the sum of £17,500 – then a record fee for a half-back in the English game.

As he recalled his days at the top of the game half a century later, squinting into the late autumn sunlight, Powell's craggy face shone with satisfaction.

"It was different in those days to today," he said. "It's always money, money, money today. We played for pride and prestige. We were happy to play consistently week in, week out to get signed up for the summer. That was the most important point."

Powell travelled a long and varied road before arriving at Bath 32 years ago as one of the first full-time football coaches to be employed by a university. It began when he was spotted playing football as a 20-year-old near his birthplace of Gilfach Bargoed, 14 miles from Cardiff. And there was not a millisecond's hesitation when he was offered the chance to exchange his job as a coalminer in the local pit for a position on the QPR groundstaff.

"At the time I had been working there for three years, along with my father and six brothers, and I knew how hard it was standing there in four-feet heights. I worked seven and a half hours a day, six days a week, and I got 12s 1d. When QPR offered me the place on their groundstaff it was for £3 a week. I felt like I was a millionaire. By the time I got into the first team it was £8 a week, with £2 for a win and £1 for a draw. I was three or four pounds a week better off than the average working man, and I said to myself: 'I'm going to roll my sleeves up to make sure I don't have to go back'."

When the war intervened in his career, Powell joined the RAF as a PT instructor and found himself posted to Blackpool, where he guested regularly in a team that included a decent right winger – Stanley Matthews.

"Whatever situation I was in, I could give the ball to Stanley and then he'd be dodging past players, getting to the byline and crossing it. And he'd soon be back to get the ball again. Playing behind him was exceptionally easy. He was certainly one of the finest I ever knew – I don't think we'll see his like again."

Powell also lined up against Matthews – who was best man at his wedding – in an international career which saw him win 14 Welsh caps.

When Powell joined Villa on 15 December 1948 – he remembers that date more readily than his own birthday – they were five points adrift at the bottom of the First Division. "They made me captain straight away," he recalled, "and we drew 1-1 at Liverpool and 2-2 at Wolves before I had my first home game on Boxing Day. We beat Wolves 5-2 in front of 70,000 people." By the end of the season, under Powell's driving influence, Villa had risen to eighth from the top.

That same drive was employed in a managerial and coaching capacity after Powell hung up his boots as he had spells at Port Vale and Bradford City before spending four years at Leeds United from 1952 under first Raich Carter and then Don Revie.

Among the young players he coached there were Billy Bremner, Norman Hunter and Jack Charlton, and the latter in particular required firm handling. "You had to be very on Jack's toes," Powell said with a grin. "He was a good centre-half, but you had to be a little bit down on him. We had John Charles at the club in those days, and if you gave him the ball he'd train all day. Jack, though, he needed coaxing a bit.'

The current crop of players in Powell's charge along with the chief coach, Paul Tisdale, have not required too much coaxing en route to the first round proper. Now they are there, they want to enjoy it.

Oxford University went on to reach the final in 1880, losing 1-0 to Clapham Rovers, although they had won the Cup in 1874 in its third year of existence. Bath University's chances of emulating Oxford in that respect have doubled in the course of this season's run – they have come down from 50,000-1 to 25,000-1.

"We've had some great fun in this competition already," said the team's manager, Ged Roddy, the University's director of sport. "We want to turn this into a celebration of what we are about here, win, lose or draw."

They are playing, in fact, for two notions entirely familiar to their 86-year-old assistant coach. Pride and prestige.