FORMER Hyde United and Farsley Celtic winger Paddy Lane says Non-League football has been the making of him as he makes an impact with League One title contenders Portsmouth.
The 22-year-old made the switch to Pompey in January from divisional rivals Fleetwood Town and has really started to make his mark this term.
A double in last week’s 3-0 victory at Northampton helped John Mousinho’s League One side reclaim top spot.
Portsmouth and Northern Ireland’s Lane has certainly come a long way since the disappointment of being released by Blackburn.
And it was in the muck and nettles of NonLeague that he was really able to find his feet and launch a return to the professional ranks.
“It was difficult at the time,” the Halifax-born wideman told The FLP, sister title of The NLP. “I was at school and I was known as the boy who played for Blackburn. It became part of me and when I got released it was a bit of a shock.
“I wasn’t the boy who played football any more. It’s difficult at 15 to be told you’re not going to make it, but I had good people around me and they kept me on the right track. If anything, it proved to me what I wanted to do.”
While the danger is that young players will give up the game after a setback like that, Lane showed his character by dropping into NonLeague with Hyde – and he advanced through the ranks to play senior football as a 17-year-old in the hurly burly of the Northern Premier League.
“Being exposed to men’s football at such a young age helped me on and off the pitch,” he explained. “It helped me to deal with setbacks, because they are going to happen in football. It instilled a winning mentality from an early age and I can’t thank enough the people in Non-League.
“I wouldn’t change it for the world – it’s made me the person I am.”
Those experiences made Lane grow up quicker than he would have done if he had stayed in the academy environment.
“It was a big change,” he admitted. “I’d been playing for the enjoyment and fun, and suddenly it was all about the three points on a Saturday. There are big characters in open age football and I realised soon enough when I was 17 what football was like.
“The manager (David McGurk) spoke to me one day and told me he was letting one of the lads who played in my position go. He was putting trust in me and I needed to repay that faith.
“Seeing people move on showed me that not everything is sunshine and rainbows. It’s dog eat dog at times.”
In his third season with the Tigers, Lane also had a stint on loan with Farsley Celtic. It gave him the chance to pit his wits a rung higher in National League North in Covid-affected times.
“I was doing well at Hyde and my old manager at Blackburn – Adam Lakeland – was at Farsley,” explained Lane. “He took a gamble on me and I proved I could play a division higher. It instilled further belief in me.
“Fortunately, he knew someone at Fleetwood and got me a trial there. I had been going to different places for trials, but it was Fleetwood who said they would take a punt on me.
“It was a dream come true to get a professional contract – everyone wants to achieve it. I’ll be forever indebted to them.”
