Desperate times – Dorchester’s 60 year-old manager forced to name himself on the bench

They say you can’t beat experience, but this might be stretching that just a little.

Dorchester Town are a Conference club swimming up shi* creek without a boat, never mind a paddle. The semi-professional outfit are in debt to the tune of £150,000 and have placed the entire squad on the transfer list, which means manager Phil Simkin has no idea what squad he will have to pick from this weekend. It is such a perilous situation that he has even named himself on the bench for Saturday’s game with Dover. “I will be registering as a player so that we have a full bench. Quite frankly I don’t know what players will still be here on Thursday for selection against Dover,” he told the BBC. Simkin may be even more glum on Saturday afternoon “All the professionals are on the transfer list and it’s a very sad time for everyone involved at the football club and we need to work through it. It was very sad telling the players, I’ve watched a team I worked very hard to put together disintegrate in front of my very eyes and for me it’s personally very sad,” he added. It is a far cry from their recent money-spinning journey to the second round of the FA Cup and must be a bitter pill for Simkin to swallow, a man who has spent more than 30 years involved with the club in some capacity or another. Hat-tip to Who Ate All The Pies BullorBear Leagues is a completely new online football betting game, which allows players to set up and run their own personal football predictions league. You go up against your mates to take down the pot and all the bragging rights that go with it! Your friends, your game, your league!