Tim Flowers and Julian Dicks eye up Market Drayton role
Former England keeper Tim Flowers and West Ham defender Julian Dicks are shock contenders to become the new Market Drayton Town boss.
Club officials were this week considering their names, together with seven others, for a shortlist to replace Lee Ebden, who left the Evo-Stik First Division South Club at the start of last month.
Flowers, who played 11 times for England, was born in Kenilworth and began a distinguished career with Wolves, going on to Southampton to understudy Peter Shilton.
After nearly 200 games with the south coast club, he joined Blackburn Rovers for a then UK record fee for a keeper of £2.4m, helping them win the Premiership in 1994-5.
He ventured briefly into management two years ago at Stafford Rangers, but resigned after only one win in 11 games.
Dicks, one of the game's most colourful characters in his day, made 90 appearances for Birmingham before going on to don a West Ham shirt in 260 games, punctuated by a brief 24-match spell at Liverpool.
Forced to give up playing by a series of knee injuries, he turned profesional golfer, then kennel owner and later publican before returning to football to manage Wivenhoe Town, Grays Athletic and, during last summer, the Principality of Sealand side in a spectacularly unsuccessful tilt at the Tynwald Hill Tournament held on the Isle of Man.
The duo have expressed their interest through agents and there have been discussions on what players they would like to bring to the club.
But it remains to be seen whether the Greenfields outfit plump for a big name.
Ironically, caretaker boss Simon Line could go some way towards boosting the club's finances tomorrow when Town visit Evesham in the potentially money-spinning FA Trophy.
Town will be without key defender and skipper Paul McMullen, who is suspended and it's almost certain top scorer Yannick Makota will again be sidelined with a knee injury.
