Millionaire Martin cooks up Darlington surprise

AFC Sudbury's wealthy manager is hoping his striker chef will deliver an FA Cup upset

Andrew Claydon, the chef at the King's Head in Dullingham, near Newmarket, has been having some trouble concentrating on his nouvelle cuisine this week.

Andrew Claydon, the chef at the King's Head in Dullingham, near Newmarket, has been having some trouble concentrating on his nouvelle cuisine this week.

It's not that he has been put off his stroke by watching the abrasive techniques employed by Gordon Ramsay, the restaurateur, in his recently repeated television series - "he's not a very nice person," Claydon observes - it is just that the chef has football on his mind. More specifically, this Saturday's FA Cup first round proper, when AFC Sudbury, the side he plays for, travel to Darlington. The side from the North-East may not be everyone's idea of big boys but, compared to their opponents from the Jewson League, three levels down the non-League pyramid, they are veritable giants.

It is the biggest game in the little club's history - although strictly speaking that only stretches back 17 months to the time when they were formed from an amalgamation of Sudbury Town, who knocked Brighton out of the FA Cup in 1996, and their up-and-coming neighbours Sudbury Wanderers.

However you look at the historical angle, the magic of the Cup is alive and well in this Suffolk market town. "My friends and family are all very excited for me," says Claydon, a 22-year-old striker who has already shown himself to be an effective foil to the prolific marksman Brian Devereux since he arrived at the club earlier this year. "It feels very good to think that a little club like we are can generate such interest."

Television camera crews and national newspaper reporters have been making their way down to the club's ground, Kingsmarsh stadium, and almost one in two of their average home crowd will be making their way up north this weekend. A fine proportion, even if the average gate is only 200.

Much has been made of Darlington's self-made millionaire chairman, George Reynolds. But Sudbury have a millionaire of their own in their manager, Keith Martin. The most surprising thing about this 59-year-old miner's son is how he manages to find the time to run a football team while supervising his own property development company, plant hire company, builders' merchants and printing press.

"I don't want to be a kill-joy but my job is to keep their feet on the ground," says Martin, whose professed priority of winning the League has intensified following his side's unbeaten run this season ended with a 3-2 FA Vase defeat at Raunds last Saturday. "I don't go as far as some managers do in my position, though, and ban the players talking about the game. I don't think that's fair, because they have earned the right to do that."

Martin has made a habit of winning trophies in the last 20 years, as he has steered several local teams including Cornard, Halstead, Braintree and, before the amalgamation, Sudbury Wanderers to success. But this is the furthest he has ever been in this competition in his managerial career - Stevenage Borough kept Braintree out of the first round proper when he was guiding their fortunes - and he is determined to enjoy as much of it as possible. "We just want to go up there with an open mind and enjoy the day," he says.

Sudbury's supporters are already used to travelling in this year's FA Cup, where they have had a majority of away draws, most recently at the Derbyshire side Belper Town, of the UniBond League, whom they beat 3-2 in a thrilling game which saw Devereux - a painter and decorator who is aiming to score 40 goals for a record fourth consecutive season - score the winning the goal.

Devereux is, in his own words, "one of Keith's boys", having played for five of the manager's teams. Of the current squad of 20 now earning £50-per-week wages at AFC Sudbury, all but four live in or around the town. "I've always believed in trying to play as many local lads together as possible," says Martin. "The team I have now are the best of the local lads, and many of them have been playing for me for years. They all socialise together, and that's what creates a special team spirit."

Amalgamating twin factions within the town was probably one of the hardest tasks Martin has faced in his managerial career - "there was no animosity between the players but I got a lot of comments from supporters of the two sides who liked to see their own players in the team," he recalls.

Among the "outsiders" are two players with Football League experience: Michael Cheetham, a parcel delivery worker who has turned out for Ipswich Town, Cambridge United and Colchester United, and Lee Norfolk, who has appeared in Ipswich's first team and is now training to be a policeman. Another former Colchester player is the midfielder Robbie Devereux.

Can their experience and the goalscoring instincts of Brian Devereux create an upset? Perhaps. Maybe Claydon could create a new dish in its honour - Cup Surprise?