KIND NATURE OF THE BEAST BOOSTED AINSWORTH

THE longest-serving manager in the EFL says he owes his success to the world’s strongest footballer.

Cameras followed Adebayo Akinfenwa during his final season for the Amazon Prime documentary, Beast Mode On.

Akinfenwa, in the record books as Wycombe’s highest scorer and No.12 in Northampton’s all-time list, made his farewell after the League One Play-off Final defeat against Sunderland at Wembley in May.

Wycombe boss Gareth Ainsworth was filmed with Akinfenwa (right) in the changing room after the match with Doncaster earlier that season.

It was called ‘Bayo Day’ in celebration of a striker known as “the world’s strongest footballer” after it was revealed he can bench press 400lb. Ainsworth, who took over at Adams Park in September 2012, told Akinfenwa: “I couldn’t have done what I have done without you.

“As a manager, no one ever says, ‘Well done, you’re doing a good thing’ or tells you the right way and when I had doubts, you have pulled me and told me, ‘Gaffer, do it your way. Believe’. You don’t know how important that is. You have said, ‘Gaffer, believe in you’.“

Akinfenwa says scoring a penalty against Liverpool in the FA Cup in 2015 was when his career took off.

The boyhood Reds fan said: “That was the first time people connected.

“It trended on social media and people connected with my story.”