We plot the career of former Liverpool and Kidderminster favourite Mike Marsh
AS the nights drew in during the autumn of 1999, Jan Molby was 36, overweight and hadn’t played for two years. But with Kidderminster Harriers faltering in their pursuit of the Conference title, the legendary Liverpool midfielder was seriously considering a return to action.
“We were a good team,” says the Dane, who had taken charge at Aggborough in the summer of 1999 after a brief stint in charge at Swansea City.
“But we needed someone to glue it all together. I couldn’t think of anyone, and I even started to try and get myself fit. Then it came to me – Mike Marsh!
“I’d played with Mike at Liverpool, but he’d retired at 29 and taken an insurance pay out, so couldn’t play in the pro game.
“I called him and said ‘Marshy, you are the only player I need.’ And wasn’t he just. We lost one game out of 23 from the day he signed and ended up winning the league.”
Marsh played Non-League football for only five years, but is still regarded by many as the best player ever to kick a ball in the Conference.
A midfielder of grace, finesse and considerable intelligence, Marsh was plucked from a Kirkby pub team in 1987 by Liverpool’s assistant manager Phil Thompson. Within two years he was playing alongside his boyhood heroes.
Overawed and underused in a team replete with talent, Marsh nevertheless featured in 101 games for the Reds. He also scored six goals, most memorably against Auxerre in a UEFA Cup tie at Anfield.
Marsh later plied his trade at West Ham United (“a delight to watch” said manager Harry Redknapp), Coventry City and Galatasaray before establishing himself as a regular at Southend United, where in 1997 he suffered the knee injury that terminated his professional career.
Physically, Marsh was shot. Mentally and technically, however, his talent was undimmed. And at Non-League level, that was evident.
After a stint at Barrow, Kiddy were propelled to the Football League for the first time in their history. So, too, Boston United. In between, Southport notched their highest finish of the last 25 years.
“Marshy is by far the best player I’ve played with – and by far the best player I’ve ever played against,” said Carl Macauley, who played alongside Marsh at Haig Avenue.
“His knees were knackered. But his football brain was so sharp. Upstairs, he was sometimes two or
three steps ahead of you. On the ball, he was a supreme technician. Short passing, long passing, combination play around the box. There wasn’t much he couldn’t do with the ball.
Flowing
“Off the ball, he could lose you, move you round at will. He’d drag you into areas that would create space for everyone else. He was just an outstanding footballer.”
Craig Hinton, a team-mate at Kiddy, adds: “Marshy used to play at a
stroll. Meg people just for the craic. He was at half pace, and opponents still couldn’t get near him.
“You’d give him the ball and be one hundred percent confident he’d look after it, even if there were two or three players around him. He kept everything flowing.
“A lot of people tried to kick him. But Mike had such a knack for finding space, and moved the ball so quickly, that they never got close enough. He saw everything coming. And, to be fair, he could look after himself. If you went after him, he’d be sure to come after you.” Under the terms of his insurance pay-out, Marsh couldn’t follow any of his teams into the Football League. “And to tell the truth,” says Molby, “I don’t think his knee could have stood up to it anyway.”
Blueprint
Yet by the time he joined John Coleman’s Accrington Stanley – then of the Northern Premier League – in 2002, his name had become a byword for promotion.
“Me and Coley signed Mike in our local pub one drunken Saturday night,” said Jimmy Bell, Stanley’s assistant manager. “I remember Mike telling me to tell our chairman to ‘Get the ground ready cos we’re going to the Conference.’ We walked the league and Mike was at the heart of everything.”
“Marshy galvanised the entire club,” adds Coleman, now in charge of an Accrington team that finished last season 17th in League One.
“And it wasn’t just on the pitch.
He made everyone – the players, the supporters – believe we could succeed. He was the foundation of everything the club became.”
Marsh, now assistant manager to Steve Cooper at Swansea after several years in Liverpool’s academy, retired for good in 2003, his success in the Non-League game a blueprint for any elite player forced into a life outside the professional ranks.
“I’ve seen a number of players who come from higher up and think ‘This will be a walk in the park for me’,” adds Macauley, now manager of NPL Premier side Witton Albion. “Most of them get found out, but Marshy wasn’t like that. He respected the level, and he was very down to earth as well.
“He mixed with the lads, had a drink with us at the back of the coach after a game. And when he got on the pitch, he didn’t preach or moan. He let everyone have their say, and he let his feet do the talking. To this day, he has a massive influence on the way I see the game.”