By David Richardson

EVERY now and then, Jason Ainsley is reminded he isn’t manager of Spennymoor Town anymore.
“I had to phone a parent about a kid who was naughty the other day and the first thing he said was, ‘How’s retirement?’,” laughs Ainsley, head of Key Stage Four at Mortimer Community College. “It had been all over the news in the north-east, you tend to forget you’re not there anymore, that’s when it’s hard.”

It was departure that shocked Non-League football when chief executive Brad Groves and Ainsley agreed to part company in December after 14 years together.

The pair had taken...