‘I can’t make the game – I’m on a secret mission’
Dan Mcnamara combines his RAF career with coaching Wolves but will miss the final against Southampton today
Dan Mcnamara is not allowed to say where he is. For a brief, disconcerting moment, the line crackles and the voice of the Wolves Women manager down the phone distorts slightly. Thankfully, it is just a momentary blip in the signal, but it accentuates the fact that he is somewhere far overseas, rather than in the press room at Wolves ahead of today’s crucial play-off decider.
That’s because Mcnamara – or rather, Corporal Mcnamara – is on a four-month overseas mission as part of his role as an aircraft technician with the Royal Air Force.
The timing means he cannot be present at Stockport County’s Edgeley Park to see whether his Wolves side can win promotion to the Championship.
Wolves and Southampton, the winners of the respective Northern and Southern Premier divisions of the Women’s National League, will go head-to-head to decide which of them will be promoted, and the 35-year-old will have to settle for watching the game remotely.
The National League’s part-time status means Mcnamara juggles his coaching time with a role as an instructor at nearby RAF Cosford, having initially joined the RAF after an injury ended his own playing ambitions.
Speaking from a “top-secret” location, he says: “Anyone that knows me knows it’s hurting me, these last two weeks, missing the County Cup final [which Wolves won 4-1 against West Bromwich Albion last week] hurts, and Saturday will be no different.
“But the players are ready, the staff are ready. They’ve proved already that they don’t need me – the culture runs itself, the environment we have. As much as it hurts me, it’s not about me anymore. I’m not Wolves Women. It’s those 23 girls.”
Mcnamara found out about his mandatory overseas posting in January but, at that stage, felt promotion was still a dream and did not tell the team he would miss the play-off final until later in the season.
“We’re very robust and resilient, as servicemen, and so I parked it to one side,” he says. “Back in January, everyone still thought this was a dream, for us to be preparing for the play-off on May 21. As it got closer, as we tightened that grip on our title, I became more emotive and the girls started to notice and I had to share it with them.
“The RAF has given me so much
over the years, I’m a proud serviceman, and that will always be the case for the rest of my time in the military. [The timing] is devastating, that’s the word that sums it up, but it’s my role at the minute and I do it proudly until I’m back in the country.
Mcnamara says he is “counting the days” until he returns during pre-season. But will he arrive to train a side preparing for the Championship, or another go at tier three?
As far as he is concerned, the latter should not be one of the options, as he is “baffled” that only one team are promoted to tier two under the current pyramid structure. It means one of Wolves and Southampton – despite both being league champions this term – cannot go up.
“It’s the game that shouldn’t exist, that’s what I keep referring to it as,” he says. “It’s disgraceful and it needs looking at immediately.”
Wolves and Southampton have each suffered only one league defeat this season, with Southampton – coached by legendary former England forward Marieanne Spacey-cale – finishing nine points clear of Oxford United in the Southern Premier, while Wolves were eight points clear of Derby County in the Northern Premier, winning 18 of their 24 games
In his absence, Mcnamara’s colleague Karl Milgate, manager of the Armed Forces women’s team, will be in charge of Wolves, but the corporal will still have a phone line to the bench, to influence proceedings in any way he can. If they win, expect quite the reunion in 80 days’ time.