My Time At Town - Mark Bower: “We were streets ahead of anyone else in the league”

From the heart of defence, Bower got a pretty good view of just how good FC Halifax Town were during his sole campaign at The Shay.

The former Bradford City defender captained Neil Aspin’s side to the Northern Premier League title in 2010-11 as they finished an astonishing 19 points clear of nearest challengers Colwyn Bay.

It proved a fairytale finale, aside from a final stint at Guiseley, to a playing career that had come to a juddering halt the year before at Football League side Darlington.

”I’d had an ankle injury during that season and I’d not played much,” he recalls.

”I’d just started my estate agency business and I had a call from David Bosomworth to see what my situation was and see if I was thinking about going down a part-time route.

”I spoke to Neil Aspin and Trevor Storton on a few occasions and they came to see me.

”It still felt like a Football League club in terms of the stadium and the level of support, and with it being part-time it fitted in with the way my life was going.”

Bower was made captain for the season, but initially struggled to adapt to life outside of the professional game.

”I found it really hard training in the evenings,” he says. “It took me a bit of time to get used to that, and doing the extra bits yourself to stay as fit as you could.

”I was really impressed with the fitness levels of the players. I remember thinking at the time that a fair few of them were fitter than some of the pros I’d trained with, the likes of Tom Baker, Danny Lowe and Nicky Gray were really good athletes.

”As the games started, you started to see the quality we had.

”I remember Trevor Storton being particularly pleased with getting Vardy on board. Right from the start he was saying how good he was and that he’d go a long way in the game.”

The future England international would prove to be the jewel in the crown for Halifax that season, but Bower insists there was more to the side.

”To be fair, there were a few I was impressed with,” he says. “Obviously Vardy stood out with the pace he had and the impact he had on games.

”I wouldn’t say it was an explosion straight away, he took a little bit of time to find his feet.

”I think it was Mickleover away where he played really well, and I thought ‘yeah, he’s got something about him this lad’.

”He had a bit of everything, he could win headers, worked so hard and had that quality to go past people and finish.

”A good lad in the dressing room as well, pretty sharp and played up to his bad boy image because we’d heard a few stories about him before.

”But I don’t think Neil had a problem with him, he was top drawer.”

Aspin’s side won 30 of their 42 league games that season, scoring a remarkable 108 goals.

But Bower recalls it wasn’t all plain sailing.

”I remember we took a little bit of time to get going,” he says. “I was playing at left-back, out of position, the first few games and I felt a bit uncomfortable.

”It probably took me a bit of time to get going and get used to the level.

”I found later on that when you’re part-time, you need to be playing regularly, and once I got a few games under my belt, I felt a lot stronger.

”But once we got through that first month into September, you could really see the quality of the players and that we were streets ahead of anyone else in the league.

”Danny Holland and James Dean were really impressive up-front. I enjoyed playing with Liam Hogan at centre-half, but all the way through the team we had quality.

”Pretty much everyone in that team went on to play at a much higher level.”

For Bower, most weeks went by without coming under serious strain.

”Because the side was so good, you weren’t really tested. you rarely came under pressure for spells in games where you needed to defend well for a period of time,” he recalls.

”There were a couple of games like Mansfield in the FA Cup, proper tough game, and at Bradford Park Avenue, really windy conditions, came under a lot of pressure second-half. I enjoyed that, some proper defending to do, and we came out with a good 3-1 win.

”But it was a fantastic team, a pleasure to play with those lads.”

Bower remembers a strong team-spirit that season, a bond which was only strengthened by the passing of assistant manager Trevor Storton.

”If you’re winning regularly there’s very few problems anyway, but winning most weeks and things that were going on off the pitch with Trevor, it brought everyone together and there was a real togetherness among that group,” he says.

”Neil insisted on socialising a lot, there were a fair few nights out, and everyone was expected to go on those.

”My biggest responsibility as captain off the pitch was driving a mini bus to a Trophy game in Durham so we could go out in Newcastle afterwards, and I drove back the morning after.

”It was a good dressing room, really easy to look after. A few big characters in there but everyone looked after each other and made sure we did the job on a Saturday.

”So many players captained other teams after that season. If anyone stepped out of line, which never really happened, there were plenty of people there to knock them down a peg or two.”

Bower says Aspin and his assistant Storton were determined to keep the highest possible standards, and neither were shy in letting the players know if expectations were not met.

“They both could have a pop if they weren’t happy!” Bower says.

”I remember having a bit of a barney with Trevor on a couple of occasions when we’d conceded goals.

”And Neil certainly let you know his feelings if he wasn’t happy.

”There were a few dressing downs for us as a team that season, even when you consider we barely lost a game.

”They knew the quality they had and they wanted the standards to be where they should be, which was winning most weeks.

”Neil’s strength has always been recruitment, bringing in good players, and I think in pretty much every position that season we had the best player in that league.

”He just had to make sure we kept our standards up and worked hard, and the rest took care of itself.

”As the season went on, Trevor became more and more ill, and we didn’t see as much of him. Obviously it was sad when he passed away and I think that made the lads more determined to get the job done and do it in style as a tribute to Trevor.”

Bower has fond memories of the Town fans that season, and especially the level of support at away games, where they would often outnumber the home faithful.

“It was good at home,” he says. “With winning most weeks it became not quite what it could have been because it was expected because we were so much better than the teams we were playing.

”Away from it was really good. When we won at FC United, who were playing at Bury, we had a really good following that day.

”I remember when we won the league at Retford. We played there in a swamp because someone else ground-shared with them, and then we went back about four weeks later and it was like a cobbled street.

”Celebrating with the fans on the pitch was great.

”Most away games you went to, you had more fans than the opposition, which made it easier to raise your game and play well for them.”

At the end of the season, Bower left the club to join Guiseley.

”I wanted to stay but Neil felt he was going to go down a different avenue,” Bower says.

”In fairness to him, I came up against him a month or so the following season with Guiseley and he said to me, maybe he should have kept me.

”I was disappointed to leave because I felt I had a bit more to offer and I wanted to be part of that journey, but that’s football.

”But I really enjoyed it, I’ve got a lot of time for Neil. I’ve spoken to him regularly over the past few years and I’ve learned a lot from him that I’ve taken into my management.

”He was the first part-time manager I played under so getting that balance right between the lads working and training, his knowledge of the players, his work ethic, he was always out watching games and making sure he knew who everyone was.

”His man management of players, people might say that’s not his strength, but he knew when it was right to leave people be and when they needed a rocket.

”I’ve got a lot of respect for him - even though he released me!”It’s great to see so many lads go on and do so well higher up the league like Vardy, Lee Gregory, Liam hogan and Scott Hogan.

”As captain, to go up and lift that trophy at The Shay in-front of a fair few thousand people was fantastic for me.

”I’d had quite a bad year the year before so it got me back enjoying football again.”


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