How Rossington Main are turning to youth and thinking outside the box in their quest for improvement

After struggling to keep their heads above water in the Northern Counties East League Premier Division for several seasons, Armthorpe Welfare were relegated in 2017 and have subsequently finished 16th, 17th and 12th in Division One.

Rossington Main, their rivals across town, have never played in the Premier Division.

In 2012 they recorded a seventh place finish in Division One but have not managed a top half finish since then.

However, Rossington manager Ben Hunter – a man with solid coaching credentials, several useful contacts and an interesting back story – believes he has a plan to change that.

Hunter is the founder of nationwide children’s football academy Kixx and now heads up the Doncaster Rovers Training Centre which was launched earlier this year to support and nurture the development of young players across Doncaster.

The 35-year-old knows the non-league circuit well after a spell playing for North Ferriby in Conference North and Matlock Town.

Prior to that he spent nine years in the United States where, after initially arriving on a scholarship, the talented forward took college soccer by storm, earning him a two-year stint with Major League Soccer side Columbus Crew.

Hunter ticks another big box for the Rossington job too – having grown up in the village.

His formula to get Main challenging at the right end of Division One is to identify and blood the best young players available to him in Doncaster – handing them an opportunity to find their feet in men’s football and actively encouraging them to move onto greater things.

The signs are positive so far. With Hunter now in his second season at the helm, Rossington currently sit fifth in the table having won their last four games on the bounce – scoring 17 goals in the process.

“I’m really happy with how it’s going, especially given that we’re the so-called ‘little guys’ in this league in terms of budgets,” Hunter told the Free Press.

“Our budget is next to nothing but we’re bringing in some really good young players who are hungry to succeed.

“We want to move them on. We understand where we are as a club so the sale for us, when we’re speaking to players about potentially joining, is that last season three of our players went up three leagues.

“They stayed with us until the end of the season, though, and that’s what I’m asking these lads to do.

“With my background I’ve got contacts that can get players higher up, so we’re not trying to hold onto players.

“We want them to move on but not to a team that’s just throwing silly money around at our level.

“The message to the lads is ‘stick with us, enjoy your football, and then hopefully go up two or three leagues next season’.

“That’s how I’m trying to recruit players – so we’re able to bring in a high level of young players.

“They’re mainly Doncaster lads and I think it’s good to give them that opportunity to get themselves playing and enjoying football again.

“We’ve got a couple of lads who were released from Doncaster Rovers – Jack Watson and Elliott Walker – so we’ve got that connection with Rovers.

“Both of those were probably Covid casualties because it was looking like they were going to get signed up as professionals but they’ve come here, they’re enjoying their football and hopefully it’ll be a case of onwards and upwards for both of them.

“We try to play an attractive style of football. We’re brave on the ball and mistakes will happen but we think that if we stick to our philosophy we’ll score more than we’ll concede.”

So what can Rossington achieve this season? Hunter says a top ten finish is a realistic target.

“I think before the season if you looked at what everyone was saying about us they expected us to be towards the bottom of the league,” said Hunter.

“Rossington haven’t been in the top ten for the last decade and there’s teams in this league who have budgets that shouldn’t be in our league.

“But it’s not all about budget, it’s also about team spirit and togetherness.

“So for me it’s can we finish in the top ten and get some FA Cup football?

“That would be a massive win given the budgetary restrictions we’ve got.

“With the group that we’ve got we are capable. We’ve just got to take it game by game really.”

Hunter’s contacts book is coming in handy too.

Former Doncaster Rovers midfielder Josh Meade has turned out for Rossington this season.

And former Premier League striker Gary McSheffrey – who works alongside Hunter at Doncaster Rovers – made an appearance from the bench in Rossington’s recent win over Hallam.

“It’s brilliant to be able to call upon people like that,” said Hunter.

“Gary’s said he might try and get back into it – so that’d be amazing for ‘little, old Rossington’ if we could get him playing more regularly.

“He’d certainly add some experience. I totted up the average age of the team and and we’re at 18 and a half!

“We’ve got 16 and 17-year-olds playing so we’re doing really well. We’ll throw them in and give them a chance.

“I played for Rossington first team myself when I was about 16 or 17 so it was really nice when the club asked me to come back last year.

“I’m absolutely loving it – hopefully we can keep this run going.”