Colin Daniel on his long career and being back with whom it all began

It’s now over 17 years since Colin Daniel was part of an Eastwood Town side that was promoted to the Northern Premier League Premier Division after a play-off final win at Cammell Laird.

Daniel was just a teenager at the time, and among his team-mates that day were fellow teenagers Lindon Meikle and Ian Deakin and also midfielder Craig Swinscoe who all played their part in the historic win.

So it’s perhaps a surprise to some that the very same quartet – along with Ben Hutchinson who was also in the Eastwood youth setup around the same time – are still all part of the same team.

Not only that, but it’s just five miles down the road at Ilkeston Town, where Deakin is manager, Swinscoe is first-team coach and Meikle and Daniel are still both playing at the age of 36.

The intervening years have seen all take different career paths in the semi-professional and professional games, not least Daniel whose adventure into the world of football began on that very day at Cammell Laird.

“We were all celebrating in the dressing room and manager Paul Cox was saying his piece, congratulating us, then just said ‘by the way, Junior [as Daniel was known then] is going to Crewe,” he said.

"It was the first I knew about it. I got quite emotional at the time but I didn’t want to cry!”

And so began not only a career in professional football but also a steep learning curve in adult life that came with suddenly having to move from his Basford home to the depths of Cheshire.

Daniel said: “It felt like a dream. I was 17 when I went there and was ringing my parents for money straight away as I’d spent it all in the first week.

"Dishes were piling up, I couldn’t cook, and it was harder when I wasn’t playing.”

Enter Izzy, who was Daniel’s girlfriend at the time and now, many years later, is his wife and mother of their two boys.

"She came to live with me in Crewe when she was 16 to keep me company and then got a job there,” he said.

"We quickly had to become adults, but it worked. We’ve been married a few years now and Izzy has had to sacrifice so much in travelling around the country with me. Whilst football has been rewarding financially, you still miss out on a lot of things and I can’t thank her enough for how supportive she’s been.”

On the pitch, it was a learning curve too. Crewe were struggling in League One and as a teenager, Daniel was still learning the game. The manager was Steve Holland, who was most recently assistant to former England manager Gareth Southgate.

Daniel said: “There was lots of pressure on Steve but I got some games before having some spells back in non-league on loan with Leek, Halifax and Grays, whose manager at the time was Justin Edinburgh and he was amazing. He came to pick me up from the station, took me to his house and made me feel really welcome.

"It was good there too because they had Aaron O’Connor up front, who I knew from around Eastwood, so that helped.”

Eventually, Daniel’s contract at Crewe expired and, having also had a loan spell at Macclesfield Town, that then became his next destination and one where Daniel would fully make his name.

"It was my breakthrough move,” he said.

"At first I didn’t know whether to go because they were the league below and it was for less money, but that was less of an issue for me at that age and it was more about getting a place in the team and building up appearances.

"I enjoyed it and they were one of my favourite clubs because we were the underdogs in every game – the players were all in a similar position and not on great money but we stuck together and all had a common goal we wanted to get to.

"I loved it and still get Macc fans talking to me about my time there even now.”

Three years at Moss Rose resulted in 125 appearances in all competitions as Daniel became a regular in League Two and established himself fully as a left-winger that weighed in with a few goals too.

But all good things come to an end and it was then a very familiar face who came calling.

"Paul Cox was now at Mansfield Town and I knew he’d wanted to sign me for a little while,” he said.

"It was attractive to me because Mansfield were trying to win the league and get back in the Football League, and it would mean a move back home too.

"It ended up taking a while to sort – about three or four weeks went by and I was panicking a bit and ringing Coxy every day but thankfully we got there in the end.

"Moving to a team like that saw the onus change personally, in that I was in a team full of good players who were expected to win, and we knew we would win and knew what we had to do.

"Lindon was there too, as were Deaks and Ben Hutchinson while I was there, so that was our first reunion!

"It was a relief to get promoted as it was a big club with good people and good fans that had been out of the Football League for too long.”

See part two of the interview with Daniel next week, where he talks about why things ended at Mansfield, where football took him after that, and being back in the non-league game once again.