Dover And Out As Birchall Is Linked To Swindon

Swindon's latest transfer
target; Adam Birchall

Adam Birchall today became the latest forward to make Paolo Di Canio's shortlist of targets, with supporters immediately casting similarities between him and Swindon's last striking acquisition from Non-League - Charlie Austin.

Having fallen out of love with the game, after 10 years at Arsenal as a trainee and disappointing spells at Mansfield Town and Barnet, Birchall was at his lowest point when the then Dover manager Andy Hessenthaler approached him. Austin similarly found himself in the lower leagues having been released by Reading as a youngster and likewise professed his lack of love for football at the time.

You've probably heard a few stories like Birchall's before. A talented young player fails to make the grade at a Premier League club then drifts around the lower leagues for a few seasons showing sporadic glimpses of his potential as his reputation slowly fades, before his professional career peters out - usually long before a footballer's usual retirement age.

The early part of the striker's story certainly followed that script. Birchall began his footballing life as an Arsenal apprentice, playing in the same youth sides as Cesc Fabregas, David Bentley and Gael Clichy, but has since seen his career head south - and not just in the geographical sense.

During his ten seasons at Arsenal, Birchall represented England at youth and Wales at Under-21 levels. As he made the transition to men's football and the reserves, though, a broken foot cost him six months and his place in the pecking order.

After leaving the Gunners in 2005 without making a senior appearance, Birchall performed far more fitfully during two seasons apiece at Mansfield Town and Barnet. He left the Bees, his last full-time club, in 2009 admitting he was "fed up with football".

What is different, not to mention inspiring, about Birchall is what happened next. He thought about walking away from the game altogether that summer but, on the advice of Hessenthaler, decided to sign for Dover Athletic and turn semi-pro instead.

Moving to a club close to his hometown of Maidstone and dropping two levels down the football pyramid seemed a sensible way to rediscover his love for football and life in general, but a much less obvious way of reviving his career too. A two-season return of 64 goals in 78 games shows that the gamble well and truly paid off.



Birchall celebrates
scoring against Town

Whilst Swindon fans will remember him for his giant-killing exploits with Barnet - in which his goal dumped the Robins out of the third round of the FA Cup in 2008 - Birchall's FA Cup heroics continued in Non-League football. The striker made the Cup competition his own last season, scoring an impressive eleven-goal haul, inlcuding a stunner against Hessenthaler's current team Gillingham and a double strike against Aldershot in rounds one and two - a vital contribution towards Dover's best ever FA Cup run.

Having identified Town's strikeforce as a major weakness within the Swindon squad ahead of the upcoming League Two Campaign, Di Canio's move for Birchall is likely to appease supporters frustrated by a lack of transfer activity - not least because the signing and indeed Birchall's own career strike so many similarities with those of one-time Non-League hotshot, Charlie Austin.

Austin's own career began with Reading who, like Arsenal, have a renowned youth academy. However, progression from youth team product to first team player was cut short after five years as the Royals released him, with Austin being labelled as "too short". He subsequently played for local teams Thatcham Town, Kintbury Rangers and his hometown side of Hungerford Town.

Moving with his family to Bournemouth, he then switched to nearby semi-professional Wessex League Premier Division team Poole Town while also working as a bricklayer. In the season of 2008–09, Austin scored 46 goals in 48 appearances for Poole in all competitions - a record even Birchall would be envious of.

Having missed out on signing for Bournemouth because of their infamous transfer embargo, Austin transferred to Swindon on the basis of a long-standing friendship with then Town chairman Andrew Fitton. Despite initially struggling to make the first team, the striker scored on his debut and continued his goal-scoring exploits, racking up 31 goals in 54 games during his sixteenth month stay in Town.

Birchall's previous struggles in the Football League and Austin's story are likely to serve him as a reminder of the rewards of perserverance, self-belief and determination. And with his own career sharing so many similarities with Charlie Austin's, Swindon fans will be hoping the impact he has, his transition to League football and indeed his goal-scoring form bares a smiliar, if not better, resemblance should a move come into fruition.