OOH RAH! Spurs stars
Reds fan Devine gets his own Cup crack at
TWENTY months ago, Jay Devine was in his aunt’s living room cheering on Liverpool again against Tottenham in the Cham Champions League final.
To Tomorrow, the midfielder will be part of the Marine squ squad taking on Spurs in the fou fourth round of the FA Cup. If there is any magic left in the FA Cup, then surely it is moments like this. Devine, now 21, had just b been released by Tranmere in M May 2019, with his dreams of a car career in professional sional foo football in ruins.
The fo footballer ( left) was unsu unsure of his next move, so opted against booking flights with his mates to t Madrid to watch the club he supporte supported go for their sixth Eur European Cup.
“Me and an the rest of the family w who hadn’t gone over wer were watching and it was a great g night,” said Devine. “But “it’s surreal really. I’d never have thought that a year or so later and I’d be playing against one of them teams. Not where I was then.”
Later that month he teamed up with part-timers Marine, before joining an electrical wholesalers where he is training in sales. Little did he know he would soon share the pitch with some of the players he was watching on TV that night.
The clubs are separated by 162 places in the football pyramid and only the FA Cup can conjure such a story as this: the team from the Northern Premier League Division
One North West, the eighth tier of English football, against Jose Mourinho’s Premier League superstars at the Marine Travel Arena.
“I probably can’t say in the newspaper what I’ve called Mourinho in the past,” said the Liverpool fan, aware the Spurs boss gets his fair share of stick on Merseyside. “But it is a dream for us to go up against a world-class manager.”
The Crosby club were hoping to have 500 fans at the ground but lockdown means it will be behind closed doors, although they have sold 6,000 virtual tickets to raise funds at the 3,185-capacity ground.
And there may be a few peeking through the curtains from nearby houses which overlook the tiny ground.
Marine, who are sixth in their division, have won seven games to reach a lucrative Cup match which will help keep the club afloat during
The magic of the Cup will be alive and well when Spurs visit the home of Marine these tough times football.
And they finished preparations at both Everton and Liverpool’s training grounds ounds this week after the lockdown down meant their usual leisure eisure centre facilities were shut. hut.
“A lot of clubs have been een hit hard by this pandemic mic and Marine are no different,” nt,” said Mike Howard, who scored red the winning penalty in the he first round shootout win against League Two Colchester. er. “The FA Cup run has helped ped the club to keep going.”
Marine’s first-team m include bin men, NHS workers kers and schoolteachers and they hey are a young squad, some of whom have still not given up on making a career in football. tball.
“I want to make my y way back up again,” said Howard, ward, who came through the ranks at Preston before ore a stint at Morecambe.
“I look at the Jamie mie Vardy path and feel I can an still make an impact.” for nonleague noneparan