Stewart Airdrie’s Non League Journey

Stewart Airdrie has done nearly it all in Non League Football.

He’s now back in the game at Steeton, the club long associated with his family, as first team coach under Roy Mason.

His career contains many entertaining moments. He’s played in every position, he’s been a successful manager, kit collector and he’s even served as a chairman. That was all during his 14-year association with Barnoldswick Town.

Airdrie started his career as a wing wizard for Guiseley and Hednesford Town (during their Conference days). Those days were quiet (just slightly) as the move to Barnoldswick “took him off the rails” in a jovial sense and that’s where the really memorable stories start.

Although he certainly knew where the bar was at Hednesford, nights out were a common feature at Barnoldswick where he managed a nationally-acclaimed sheep rustler whilst jointly overseeing their rise into Non League Football. 

This is Stewart Airdrie’s Non League Journey: 

“I signed schoolboy forms at Bradford City when I was 15 or 16. I went on to do a YTS when Chris Kamara was the first team manager. Paul Jewell then took over and I did two years, but it didn’t work out and I wasn’t offered a contract. I got a phone from Bobby Davison who was Guiseley manager and they were in the UniBond Premier and I went there to work under Bobby and (assistant) Neil Parsley.

“I think I only did one season with them and we were pushing for promotion and we ended up finishing third. Altrincham went up as champions. We had a really good side. Bobby stayed in charge for another 18 months after I left, but he lost some good players. Steve Dickinson and Lee Elam went to Southport. Me and Colin Hunter went to Hednesford. 

“Des Hazel stands out because he was never happy and loves telling me off. That’s because he was so passionate about the club and he just wanted to win. We had players like Simon Parke, Matt Daly, Peter Atkinson who was at the end of his career, James Nettleton. I’m good friends with Nettie as I grew up with him. Me and him went to Guiseley together and it was our first taste of adult football. We’d done the YTS at Bradford City where it was all nicey nicey and then you went into the dressing room at half-time at Guiseley and Bobby is quite placid as he’s still playing, but you have Neil Parsley barking orders. You’re like ‘whoah, hang on, what’s all this about’. It was a bit of a shock. At first you think ‘I can’t be doing with this’. But when I look back, that’s probably how I do it.” 

First Schoolboy Error 

“I remember one of my first away trips with Guiseley and I was absolutely leathered coming back. I was at the back with Simon Parke and Andy Atkinson and it was like ‘I’m fitting in here, I’m one of lads’. But I’d forgotten I’d got to drive home. We used to always get a crate of beer for the bus and I had to get my parents to come and pick me up. I literally staggered off the bus and my car was at the ground and I couldn’t drive it. I remember going back to the Station pub and getting my dad to pick me up. He was fuming because we lived in Steeton. I think I lost my car keys as well. It was a nightmare day.”

Move to Conference side Hednesford Town (1999)

“I was working for Next the clothing company and I got a phone call at work, just somebody asking for Stewart. The guy said ‘it is Steve Griffiths, I’m the chief scout for Hednesford Town’. It caught me off guard. He said ‘I wonder if we can meet up and have a chat because we’ve been watching you at Guiseley’. The first thing I did when I got home was find out where Hednesford was? I didn’t have a clue. I went with my parents and met with the manager and the coach at Charnock Richard service station. The following week we went down to Keys Park and had a look around. There was a meal laid on and it was lovely. It didn’t take me that long to decide to sign for them. They did look after you down there and it is a good club with lovely people.”

John Baldwin 

“John Baldwin was the manager and the part owner of the club with Steve Price. John was a character. You’re talking cups of coffee and medical beds flying everywhere if it wasn’t going well. He’d have the captains at the time like Chris Brindley pinned up against the wall. He had really high blood pressure so he’d have to calm down sometimes and I think that’s when he stepped down. I think we’d wound him up that much that we nearly killed him off.”

Hednesford Highlight 

“The FA Cup game (in 2000) against Oldham was probably one of the highlights. I think they scored after 30 seconds. We’d gone down there and said ‘keep it tight’ and we conceded straight from kick off. I think I had a good game. I was friends with Lee Duxbury who I knew from Bradford City and at that stage played for Oldham and they identified me as a one to watch, a key player, which was another feather in my cap. I got an injury the following year, I tore my hamstring and never really got going again.”

Managers 

“We had a few managers. Originally it was John. Paul Raynor (Steve Evans’ future assistant) did it for a bit and it didn’t really work out for him. It didn’t work out for Neil Pointon either. Kenny Hibbert who used to play for Wolves came in one season (2001/02) when we were struggling in the league. Working under him was brilliant. That was probably the happiest time of me playing down there. I felt my football was good and he offered me a new contract after the last game of the season. I was going down in pre-season to sign it and he got sacked.” 

Memorable Moments 

“We played Aldershot away in the FA Cup and I remember coming away from the ground. Their fans were animals. They were throwing stones at the bus and it was quite mad. We had to duck below the windows. 

“Towards the end of Kenny Hibbert’s reign I remember scoring a couple of goals and I ended up in the ground after one of them. I jumped into the crowd and nearly crowd-surfed. I think I got carried away doing that.”

Dover 

“Some of the away trips were brilliant, but I think I’ve been to Dover four times and never played. I think we went down twice and it got called off. I think there was twice when I was injured but they made me travel. I’m sure it was once got abandoned and the replay was called off just as we got there. Dover isn’t a happy ground for me.”

Hednesford Players 

“Mick Norbury was an absolute brilliant bloke. He was a massive powerful unit and you didn’t mess with him. I think he got a hat trick in one of his first games. You put him on the football field and he just terrorised people. He was big and strong and he made life easier for me as I knew if I got the ball in the ball it was going to stick to him. We had Kevin Francis for year – the big striker who used to be at Birmingham. Adi Mike was there and probably the best out of the lot was Neil Davies who played upfront and he was a talisman for Hednesford as he was there for years.”

“Gary Twynham is the one that sticks if we talk characters. He used to be at Man United and if I remember rightly Alex Ferguson referred to him in one of his books. He had all the ability in the world. I lived down there in the house the club had so me and Colin (Hunter) would travel down every Tuesday and stay until Saturday night or Sunday morning and we shared it with Gary. He was bored, lonely and he had split up with his girlfriend and there were people coming in and out of the house you didn’t know because he had had a party. He was so nice and down to earth as well, but then Jekyll and Hyde. There’d be times you would come in and the living room cabinet was smashed to pieces because he had had a row with someone and was sulking. He was once got summoned to the manager’s office and I think it was when John was in charge and I think he got escorted out of the club by the police. I think he said some threatening things and they started running round the desk after each other. It was like a scene from Tom and Jerry.”

Living in Hednesford 

“Going down there was the first time I lived away from home. We were fending for ourselves and at times we didn’t do it quite well. We had a free rein. We were well known in the pubs and at one point we had a bad reputation for always going out. We were 18 or 19 and we had nothing to do. We’d go to the gym in the morning and then go play pool. People thought we weren’t taking things seriously.

“The captain and future manager Chris Brindley used to look after us. We had a house for two years and then after we got relegated finances tightened up and he owned the pub where the old ground used to be. The pub had rooms so we used to crash there when we couldn’t get home.” 

Love at First Sight 

“I met my wife Anita at Hednesford. She used to work behind the bar. There was a strict policy of no staff going out with the players so it was very hush hush. I lived up here and she lived down there at the time so the club put me up in a hotel at either Brindley’s or somewhere else. The hotel staff snitched me up one night when I took her back. There was a problem with the room and the woman speaking to the club said ‘he’s not alone’. So I’m at the reception desk with the manager phoning me up saying ‘it better not be that blonde bird behind the bar, if I find out it is…’. I said it wasn’t. All the players found out and if there were meetings and she was there I’d get a right load of stick. I was going bright red and the manager would walk in and look at me and then at her.”

Guiseley Second Spell Doesn’t Work Out (circa 2004)

“I needed a hernia operation so when I went back to Guiseley it didn’t last long. I had lost my love for football. The last year at Hednesford had finished me off. I didn’t play a lot and the enjoyment side went out. When I first went there, there had been a bit of a buzz because they’d also had to pay a bit of money for me. Unfortunately it finished a bit sour.”

Road to Barnoldswick (2005)

“I’d had to wait nine months for my hernia operation as it was on the NHS and I couldn’t run around because it was agony. My mum and dad (Archie) have always been connected with Steeton and my mum (Janet) still is as she’s the tea lady down at Summerhill Lane. I knew Paul Ettenfield (then-Steeton manager) who asked me to go training. I played a few games and then after my operation he was straight into me. I got back fit and started enjoying it again. I was actually living in Colne and one of my neighbours suggested I went to play Futsal. So I did and there was a couple of lads who played for Barnoldswick and we got chatting. They said ‘why don’t you come and play here’. I was torn between Steeton and Barnoldswick. But I had a couple of games with Barnoldswick, really enjoyed and ended up turning myself into a centre-back from right-winger. I just stuck with it.”

Barnoldswick Town joint manager (circa 2009)

“I think we did a few years in the West Lancs League and then the club applied to go into the North West Counties. The season before we went into the North West Counties, Mick Holt and Andy Geary the managers quit. We had just been thumped 6-0 by Burnley United. Mick was actually on holiday and he’d got a big ban so Andy had ended up in sole charge. Andy wasn’t enjoying it and he’d had enough. He’d obviously had great success with Silsden and he wanted to leave. The chairman collared me and Kev Richardson after the game as the most experienced players. He asked us to take over until the end of the season even though we didn’t know anything about management. We said yes spoke to Ben Hall who was the Queens manager on a Sunday. He joined us as joint manager and what we did was create a side out of the Queens Sunday side and the Station Sunday side the team I played for. It was based around 16 lads who wanted to have fun and we did quite well.

“We were plodding by in the West Lancs, but when we went into the North West Counties we got promoted in our first season. We finished second and got promoted (into the Premier Division). They were some of my best years in football, purely for the enjoyment. It was such a laugh. You looked forward to games, training, there was an absolute buzz. People said ‘three joint managers, it’s never been done in the Counties and it won’t work’. So we were slagged off initially because people thought we were taking the mick, but we proved everyone wrong.”

West Riding County Cup Semi-Final win at Guiseley (2010)

“We beat Guiseley on penalties and obviously Guiseley were a team three leagues higher. We knew we would be up against it. They didn’t hold back, they put a decent side out. Our captain Russell Clarke, the best player Barlick have probably ever had, got sent off after about 34 minutes. They then went 1-0 up. I was playing out wide, but then I went centre-half and Stuart Rudd twisted and turned me that many times that my back went in the second half. I couldn’t move so I came off and we nicked a goal late on (from Craig Bradshaw) and then beat them on penalties. 

“We went in the Guiseley club and I couldn’t move, but we had a few drinks and we went back to Barnoldswick club. We had a few more drinks and then realised we hadn’t brought the kit back with us. I wasn’t working the next day because I literally couldn’t move so I had to clamber into my car and drive to Guiseley. I had to get an old guy to open up and get all the kit and the water bottles. I then had to make the old bloke to put it all in my car because I couldn’t lift anything. The poor bloke had seen his team lose and there I am the following day saying ‘can you load my car up’! There were kits, warm-up tops, water bottles, bibs, cones, balls and he’s looking at me as he’s loading the car and I’m like ‘I’m really sorry mate, I can’t move’.”

West Riding County Cup Final defeat to Garforth Town (2010)

“There’s stories from that night. We did really well to get there and we felt a bit aggrieved. We lost 5-4 after Garforth scored in the last minute of extra-time. We weren’t expected to win it, but we fancied it. It just wasn’t to be. We had no well known players and it was a group of mates and we got to the final. On another day we could have won the trophy. The team spirit was outstanding. 

“After the game we all went back to the Barlick club and then to Colne and I think the place was called Zebras. It wasn’t the best place. Our old chairman Alverley Ashworth came with us and we were all on shots. The chairman was 60 and he got thrown out. Nobody ever got thrown out of Zebras! But the chairman of Barnoldswick Town got thrown out. We had to put him in a taxi and he’d run out of money so we had to pay for the taxi fare and send him home. He never lived it down. It was brilliant.”

Eventful Away Game

“Ben Hall was like a hand grenade. He was a lad lad and his man-management was unbelievable. He made you feel a million dollars. We went down Stoke-way and we had just signed Liam Garbutt from Colne. He was a massive marquee signing. We stopped off on the way and he’s only a little lad and Ben bought him a kids scuba diving outfit from the service station. He marched him to the toilet and he made him put it on all the rest of the way. I think it was Norton we were playing and they were near the top of the league. We got off the bus and young Liam got off with a scuba diving outfit on and walked into the changing room and got changed. Everyone was looking us.

“On the way home we called in at a supermarket and the chairman used to drive the bus. Obviously the supermarket has height restrictions on the way in.

‘Are we clear, are we clear’?

‘Yes, we’re clear’.

“So we go under the barrier, but he didn’t know the skylight was open so he carried on going and took half of the roof of the bus off. Glass was everywhere and he’d borrowed the bus off his work. The chairman was in tears and he turned his phone off to avoid his boss. One of the lads bought a bottle of champagne and popped the cork and it went straight out of the sunroof. We got to Padiham on the way home and all the lads were climbing out of the roof and sliding down the back of the bus rather than go out the normal way. I think the chairman phoned in sick four days running to avoid his boss.”

Stewart Airdrie – Goalkeeper (March 2014)

“We were playing Stockport Sports at home and the pitch was a bog. We tried to get the game on and we were forking it, everything and it was a mess. We were putting sand down and the referee came and said ‘you’ve done a lot of work so we’ll get the game on’. Literally ten minutes later I got a phone call to say our goalkeeper had been arrested for drunk and disorderly from the night before. His mate said ‘he’s in a cell and he won’t be able to play’. So then we’re telling the ref that it was too boggy and to call it off. Anyway I had to go in goal. I’ve done it a couple of times. I love going in goal. If we’re training and we’re a ‘keeper short I’ll always go in. The other game was against Silsden and Zack Dale ruined me because he got a hat-trick. I think I’ve played everywhere for Barlick, goalkeeper, full-back, centre-back, wing, midfield, upfront, manager and chairman – I’ve covered all bases.”

Jamie Longley 

“We signed Longers on and when they sign they sing a song as their initiation just before a game in the dressing room. He said ‘right lads, I’m not that good with songs and I hope you don’t mind that I’ve brought a prop and I’d like to play an instrument’. He stripped naked and used a part of his body as a guitar to a Guns and Roses song, possibly Sweet Child of Mine. He did that for three minutes and then ran to the centre-circle stark naked and then ran back in.”

Barlick ‘Away Trips’ 

“The end of season do’s were always eventful. We always went away with the Barlick lot. We went to Amsterdam and it was one of the lads’ stag do. You know what you get with Amsterdam. The lad in question actually got done for rustling sheep. It made national news. We didn’t know about his activities! It broke while we were out there. The lad was upset because the police had found out about what he had been doing. His dad phoned him and said ‘when you come home there may be police waiting for you at the airport’. We all bought about 30 blow-up sheep and we went round Amsterdam with them. When he came back he had to go straight to the police station and hand himself in because his dad assured them that he would.

“On another trip one of the lads who wasn’t a player but was someone connected with the football club went missing after the first night out. We couldn’t get hold of him and we went out looking for him. It was blistering hot so eventually we went to a bar. In the end we got a phone call and he’d run out of phone charge and he was in a Chinese charging it up. We went and met him and we went out all day and got sozzled. James Gill gave me 30 euros to get a bucket of beer. I went to the bar and the next thing I remember is waking up six or seven hours later in my hotel room covered in sand. I’d lost my phone, but I still had the 30 euros. I have no idea to this day what happened? The lads thought I’d just gone back to the hotel p***ed up.

“The missus is not a big fan of me going away. The amount of times I’ve been in trouble because I’ve been out with the Barlick lot and not come in for hours is quite a lot. After the last game of the season one year we were going to Florida for our first family holiday there. We were flying on the Sunday morning. I went out with the Barlick lads and I got the phone call and I said ‘I’ll be home in a minute’. Well I wasn’t. We were up early in the morning and I was rough. It was when it was the ash cloud and the plane was delayed nine hours. I think my lad was three or four and I was running round Manchester Airport looking after him and very rough. It finished me off. Barlick took me off the rails!”

Barnoldswick exit, return from sabbatical and chairmanship

“I did about two more years after the County Cup final and then had a year or more off. I then went back as the club were struggling financially (January 2015). They didn’t think they’d make the season money-wise. A few sponsors had pulled out and there were no fundraisers. Results were poor and they wanted a change of management so they asked me if I would go in towards the end of the season to try and keep them up and afloat. I got involved on the committee side too and we stayed up as Silsden did us a favour on the last day of the season. We were going down and I think Silsden scored a 95th minute equaliser or winner away at Ashton or somewhere and that kept us in the Premier Division.

“The club was on about folding, but we carried on and got some more sponsors in. I did a two more years as manager before I stepped aside to become chairman (2017). I enjoyed doing that at first. I knew the chairman was stepping down and we talked about me taking over. His wife Lynn James was the secretary and she did everything and was brilliant. I knew them really well and she quit one week really suddenly. It was a massive shock and we had to start again. We needed a new secretary and we had an ageing committee and we’d sadly lost a couple of people who had passed away. We had to get youth on board and I’ve loved it at first. Towards the end of it I absolutely hated it. I learnt a lot and met some really great people, but towards the end it was too much. I was doing too much and it was eating into family time and it was time to step down (summer 2019).”

Steeton Return (2020)

“I’d had a year out before Steeton rang me. It was brilliant because I had my weekends to myself and me and the wife would go out, call at a pub and have something to eat and it is something I haven’t done since I was young. It was nice to have a break. 

“Then lockdown came and I’ve known Roy for a lot of years. He phoned me out of the blue and said ‘do you fancy coming to a training session to have a look’? I went down and we had a chat and I said ‘I’m not committing myself full-time, I’ll do what I can and what I’m comfortable with’. He said ‘that’s fine, if you do 50% that’s fine’. I don’t think I’ve missed a session yet! 

“My dad (Archie) played for Steeton and he was also manager. He then went onto the committee. Maybe when Roy was playing he was asked to play when he was in 50s because they were short. They stuck him upfront and I think he scored the winner and pulled his hamstring in the same move so he never played again! My mum (Janet) is still there so it was an easy decision. The people are still there behind the scenes so it is nice to go back, albeit it not at Summerhill Lane, but at Marley.”

If you have enjoyed reading Non League Yorkshire over the past few months, please consider making a donation to the not-for-profit organisation NLY Community Sport which provides sport for children and adults with disabilities and learning difficulties. CLICK HERE to visit the JustGiving page. There is a video at the bottom of the page showing our work.

NLY Community Sport, run by James Grayson and Connor Rollinson, has always had combatting social isolation at the top of our objectives when running our Disability Football teams. When we properly return to ‘action’, our work will play an important role in reintroducing our players, who have disabilities and learning difficulties, back into society.

We have six teams, a mixture of Junior and Adult teams – Nostell MW DFC, Pontefract Pirates, Selby Disability Football Club and the South Yorkshire Superheroes (Barnsley) – across Yorkshire.

We have enjoyed great success over the past three years. Several of our players have represented Mencap GB in Geneva, including Billy Hobson from Selby and Greg Smith, whose story is quite inspiring.

You can learn more about the organisation HERE and on our Facebook page.

Watch the video below to see highlights from our three years as an organisation. The video was produced for our players at the end of March to remind them of good memories from the last three years.