The FA Trophy
Third Round Qualifying
Saturday 26 November 2005 - 3.00pm









Neil Aspin made more than 600 professional appearances for Leeds United, Port Vale, Darlington and Hartlepool. Now aged 40, he has been in charge of Nationwide North club Harrogate Town since April and is looking for success this Saturday in The FA Trophy.

Harrogate are having a very good season. What is your assessment?

I'm very pleased. We changed a number of the players from last season and then got off to a difficult start. But things have gone better than expected since then.

You are in the top four in the Nationwide North. How do you feel on your league position?

The team finished sixth last year so we would like to improve on that and get into the play-offs. That's got to be the aim. But there is a long way to go and it will be very hard to end up in the top five.

How competitive is the Nationwide North this year?

It is a very good league and the standard is quite high. Even the teams at the bottom of the table are decent outfits. There is nobody we can play and think that it is going to be an easy three points.

You have also had a great FA Cup run in reaching the First Round and taking Torquay to a replay where you lost on penalties. That was very exciting wasn't it?

The Cup run gave the team a lot of publicity. It was great for everyone concerned and really pushed the club forward. And the crowd of more than 3,000 against Torquay proves that the people of Harrogate really want a successful football side. It has put us on the map and the local public want more big matches to look forward to.

You had a very good playing career. What were the personal highlights?

Making my league debut at 16 for Leeds United in the top flight, which was the First Division at the time. Also reaching the Semi-Final of the FA Cup with Leeds in 1987. Then I played a lot of years for Port Vale where I was captain. We had a number of Cup ties against most of the top teams - Arsenal, Everton and Liverpool. So there were plenty of games that stick in my memory. It was also memorable for me to play at Wembley four times in my career.

Do you take inspiration from some of the managers you played under?

Yes. I think you try to take all the good points from people. I had managers at Leeds who had been heroes to me when they were playing and so it was nice to work under them - Allan Clarke, Billy Bremner and Eddie Gray. My fourth manager at Leeds was Howard Wilkinson. He was very good and I learned a lot from him. Then at Port Vale, I had John Rudge for 10 years and I saw how a boss could run a club on a small budget. So that was a good grounding to go into Non-League football.

Do you enjoy management now then?

Yes I do. You need to work for good people and I have that at Harrogate. The directors and the staff are excellent. It is also important to have a good playing staff and a buoyant team spirit, which we are helping to generate. I've also got a fine player/assistant manager in Lee Philpott. Not only is he a decent player, but he is a big help off the pitch as well.

What are your future hopes at Harrogate?

The potential of the club is all linked with the hope of moving to a new stadium. If we could do that, then the size of the town indicates that we could push forward and get into the Conference. And given the right finances and the correct backing, we could eventually get into the Football League. But that won't happen unless we can develop a new ground with the facilities and infrastructure to push the club onwards and upwards.