He made his Premiership debut at 17, played in Europe with Leeds United, gained England youth international honours and an FA Youth Cup winner's medal and seemed on target for still greater things.

Now Rob Bowman, still just 28, is playing for Coxhoe Athletic in the Wearside League - training beneath a single floodlight, earning nothing more than a pat on the back and loving every minute.

"There's a million miles of difference between Leeds United and Coxhoe Athletic but it's still a game of football," he says.

"It wouldn't be fair to the other lads to expect any money, but unless things change dramatically I'm very happy to stay here."

Team manager Gary Forrest reckons him the best player in the league. "It gets to the stage sometimes where it isn't about money any more. For some it's about playing to enjoy it and feeling part of it."

Rob, born in Durham - his father played Northern League football for Durham City - made his full debut in the Leeds defence against Manchester United in Eric Cantona's return to Elland Road. Observers said he comfortably handled Ryan Giggs.

The man who has several times played at Liverpool was due last Saturday to play for Coxhoe at Annfield Plain, suggesting all sorts of clever captions along the lines of "This is Annfield Plain."

Gary O'Hara, another product of Howard Wilkinson's youth system and Rob's former room mate at Leeds, was also in the Coxhoe team. The match, sod's law, was postponed.

After Leeds, he made 13 League appearances for Rotherham and then moved to Carlisle United. "He was the finest full back in the squad," goalkeeper Mervyn Day once recalled. "It was a shame that Michael Knighton thought he knew better."

After a spell with Bohemians in Ireland he worked for a builders' merchant in Durham, was in the Brandon United team which won the Albany Northern League title in 2002-03 and has also played in the Unibond League for Gateshead.

"The Unibond was quite a good standard but I was working eight hours a day humping around paving stones and sand and then perhaps spending three or fours on a bus. I was absolutely knackered.

"You can't really say why things didn't work out, but there are a lot of excellent players at that level and these things happen in football.

"I got quite a few injuries, little niggly things which prevented me getting a good run going and put me at the back of the queue, but I'm not resentful at all.

"I've had some great times in football, we have some good young lads at Coxhoe, the manager is very professional for this level and it's only half a mile from my house."

The club, which moved up from the Durham Alliance in the summer, hopes eventually to gain Albany Northern League status - a stand will be named after club secretary John Purves who died last month, aged 53. £1,700 has already been collected in his memory.

New secretary Paul Charlton believes that Rob brings composure to the team. "He has no airs and graces at all, just one of the lads.

"To be honest I don't know how we keep him, because he doesn't get a penny. I'm just very glad that we do."

The August newsletter of the distinctly antediluvian Durham Buffaloes FC talked of a "late season" tour - "Holland, Ireland and Tow Law have been mentioned." In view of recent unexpected openings at the Ironworks Ground, it looks like it'll be Holland or Ireland.

Former top flight referee George Tyson is back home and on the mend after an incident akin to bats in the belfry. "I want locking up," he says.

George, 65, spent 40 minutes in the attic of his new bungalow in Sunderland while checking out a problem with the little flying fellers. He didn't wear a face mask.

Soon afterwards he was admitted to the Royal Hospital where a serious heart problem was discovered.

George is a former technical services director with Sedgefield Borough Council. "I've spent 20 years preaching health and safety to a workforce of 500 and then I spend 40 minutes among all the fibre glass without a face mask.

"No one quite knows what happened, but it seems that the fibre glass and stuff could be a contributory factor. Five weeks ago I felt as fit as a fiddle."

Allowed home last week, he was referee assessor at Sunderland's match with Millwall on Saturday and hopes to be back on the golf course today. The bats, says George, can take a different course entirely.

Our faithfully under-achieving friends in the Durham diocesan clergy cricket team have been summoned to a face-to-face with the boss tomorrow night. The intention, apparently, is to inspire rather than to impale.

Bishop Tom, who lists cricket among his hobbies in Who's Who, was not thought to follow the game as religiously as Michael Turnbull, his episcopal predecessor at Auckland Castle.

It transpires, however, that he was a wicket keeper/batsman both for the school team and when a college chaplain at Cambridge. "I wasn't particularly good, but I have never said to myself that I have played my last game of cricket, that's it," he admits. Though tomorrow's gathering is strictly social, will he be offering his services? "If they happened to have a game on an afternoon when I was doing nothing - and they are pretty big ifs - I would be happy to attempt a few catches at square leg or to put the pads on again so long as the bowlers remembered they were facing an old man," he says.

The Bishop of Durham will be 56 in December.

The estimable Brian Honour's decision to return as manager of Bishop Auckland FC may not go down as well in his native Blackhall as the premium lager at the workmen's club. "Sales of Budweiser will definitely increase," forecast the programme for Horden's FA Cup tie with Gateshead on Saturday before the about turn was announced. Horrible day, wonderful match, Horden - alas - are left only to drown their sorrows.

North Leigh v Newport County, the other FA Cup third qualifying round tie in which Friday's column declared an interest, ended 0-0 before a record home crowd of 426.

Steve Smith, our man in the North Leigh way, managed just a swift word with Newport's recently installed manager John Cornforth - the Whitley Bay born Welsh international and former Sunderland full back - before County sped back straight after the match to whatever awaited them in the Valleys.

The Stokesley Stockbroker, meanwhile, draws pithy attention to a third qualifying round postponement: Leek Town v Stalybridge (waterlogged pitch). "No flood of goals there, then."

And finally...

THE club which until the start of this season had conceded the most Premiership goals (Backtrack, October 15) was Southampton with 672 in the net.

Brian Shaw in Shildon today seeks the identity of the only manager to have led three different clubs to victory in major cup finals at Wembley.

Final straw, the column returns on Friday.

Published: 19/10/2004