Pic: Jake Whiteley
THERE’S every chance that come FA Cup first round day, Jon Challinor would have finished his day job as a postman and caught up with the scores on TV.
Instead, the 35-year-old, who’s had more comebacks than Rocky Balboa, will be right in the thick of it with giant-killers Stamford.
The Evo-Stik NPL Division One South side make their make bow in the competition proper against Hartlepool United following a thrilling replay win against Wrexham last Tuesday.
Challinor played every kick of those two games after answering the call from Daniels boss Graham Drury.
“I was involved for the first three games of the season and then had a chat with the gaffer,” Challinor says.
“We decided to go our separate ways, but keep the door open. I just went away and worked. It was partly about work issues so it helped me with that, but he was honest with me that he was umming and ahhing about whether I would be involved.
“I said, ‘Look, it’s not a problem. I’m not going to play for anyone else because I only want to play for Stamford, so I’ll go and work’.
Back to Work
“He said he could get me games somewhere but I said, ‘I’m 35, I don’t want to be worrying about where I’m playing. I’ll work and then whatever happens down the line happens’. Then six weeks later I got a text to come back. I was involved for the previous round against AFC Mansfield, but didn’t get on. Then he threw Wrexham on me! It was great.”
If a little tense. The first tie was a 1-1 draw and, despite the National League’s side’s problems on the pitch, few gave Stamford hope of getting a result in Wales.
When the Step 4 side were 2-0 ahead – through Lee Beeson’s first-half penalty and Kern Miller’s 76th-minute striker – with three minutes to go, few gave Wrexham a chance.
But Shaun Harrad grabbed a lifeline before Jordan Evans forced extra-time on 92 minutes. Drury’s men regrouped and with seven minutes left, Jake Duffy fired in a sumptuous free-kick to put them back in front.
From there it was man the barricades time as they managed to hang on.
“We don’t want to make things easy,” Challinor laughs. “I can’t swear, but my initial reaction when they got one goal back was, ‘Oh my God’. The impetus was with them. They were already pumping balls into our box left, right and centre. We were doing well to combat that. When they got that one there was still eight minutes to go [including injury-time] and they had the impetus.
“The ref was playing weird games. He was going, ‘Yeah, two minutes,’ then he said four! I said, ‘You’re going the wrong way – what’s going on?’
“When the second went in it was devastating. You kind of think, ‘We’ve thrown it away’. I looked at (centre-half Chris Salt) Salty’s reaction and he was absolutely devastated. Throughout that game, and in the first one, he was immense – especially the replay.
“The amount of blocks and tackles he put in was magnificent. Anyone who watched him that night will go away thinking, ‘There’s a player there’. He’s still young. Performing like that for a team three leagues below can only be good for him.
“They got back in the game and then it was back to square one. Luckily a great free-kick from Duffs in extra-time – what more could you want?
“To hear that final whistle – I’ve never been so relieved in my life. Throughout my whole career, I’ve never felt anything like that.
“Then you can enjoy it and realise what we’ve done. Stamford have never been in the first round proper. It’s not just that, it’s great for the club as a whole. They get noticed, they get talked about. On Tuesday, Stamford was trending on twitter. It’s a great little club and everything that comes from this will help the club no end.”
Challinor began his career at Rushden & Diamonds, but it was at Stamford under Billy Jeffrey were he really began to get experience of men’s football.
Proud Day
From there he had a long Non-League career with Cambridge City, St Albans, Aldershot, Exeter City, Cambridge United, Mansfield, Brackley and Kettering. When he left Rockingham Road he was, in his own words, on the scrapheap.
But a call from York City boss Gary Mills gave him a new lease of life and aged 32 he finally won promotion into the Football League.
It’s why he was pleased to beat Wrexham, who sacked Mills in the week leading up to the first game – he sent a text message, ‘That’s for you gaffer,’ after the win – and why he’s happy to see Mills return to the Minstermen.
“I’ve said all along that he should never have left,” he says. “I didn’t agree with the sacking. It’s been a revolving door after him and that’s not what York were about.
“The fact of what he’d done and won, I just don’t think they should have sacked him. I texted him straightaway after it was announced he was going back because I was buzzing. I owe a lot to Gary Mills. He gave me that chance and I will always hold him in high regard.”
Challinor is enjoying his own return – and don’t count out another chapter being written at Hartlepool.
“At my age you think, ‘What’s next?’ but I was happy just to go and work,” he says. “When the gaffer dropped the text in I was pleased. I keep saying about my age, but you don’t expect to get a call back – especially when you haven’t played or really been doing anything. So to get involved and win that game…even to draw the first game was one of the proudest moments in my career.
“My former York team-mate Ashley Chambers tweeted me. ‘You’re a giant-killer’. We’ve been beaten by lower teams in FA Cup runs. Now to be able to put that on the CV is a great feeling. Everything you get from it, everything you feel and – again, at my age – witness, is great.”
