When the manager of a team currently 20th in the National League says they are hoping to reach the Premier League, the automatic response is to dismiss the idea out of hand.
But then Dorking Wanderers are not your average football club – and Marc White is no ordinary manager.
Dorking are only in their first season in the fifth tier of English football, yet they have big aspirations. They are aspirations built on a great deal of wishful thinking, but also on an astounding history of winning.
Founded in 1999 by a group of friends, Dorking have grown from a park side with zero supporters to a fully-fledged success story who are regularly watched by a few thousand people.
At the forefront of it all has been White, who has overseen a remarkable 12 promotions in 24 years as manager, owner and chairman of the club. It truly is the stuff of dreams – but those dreams have crystallised into reality for the team’s fans, who will pack into the Meadowbank Stadium on Saturday afternoon to watch them play Maidenhead on Non-League Day.
“Initially it was just a social thing and the aspirations went no further than a bunch of friends who had an opportunity to spend time together really,” White tells Mirror Football .
“We were bored of Premier League football so we started playing. Then we got the bug for winning. And only about midway through the journey did we start to see the impact we were having on the community and it has grown arms and legs from there.”
Dorking have gone from playing in the Crawley and District Football League to the National League in just 24 years. Having started in a park, playing local sides in Surrey and Sussex, they are now facing fallen giants like Notts County – a club founded 137 years earlier.
“Going to grounds like Notts County, it’s been phenomenal,” White says. “We genuinely were, with no more than a fairytale, a park side. It’s hard to not pinch yourself. It’s such an exponential rise.”
Dorking are one of only two part-time sides in the highly-competitive division. They have postmen, plasterers and fitness instructors amongst their squad, yet are making a good fist at the highest level they’ve ever played at, with a three-point gap to the relegation places at present.
White runs the club alongside having a full-time job at a marketing company he owns. Having never been relegated before, he is confident they can avoid the drop this season before pushing for the play-offs next season. That jump will be made by taking the squad full-time.
“If we do that and make a success of that model then we can get to the Premier League that way, it’s fine!” he says. “What we’ve done so far has been very difficult, so I wouldn’t write us off doing a few more promotions yet.”
Dorking’s rise is made all the more impressive by White’s own story. A promising youth player at Fulham, he worked in the city in London before starting his marketing company. He has no formal coaching qualifications, but has picked up a wealth of knowledge and experience throughout the club’s relentless climb through the divisions.
“To the outside looking in, it looks like I’m some sort of control freak,” he jokes. “When we started it from scratch, we had no one to pay for it, no one to organise it, no one to play and manage it, so I did all four things to start with. The legs went, so the playing stopped but the rest just stayed there.”
Dorking’s success has meant that, so far, White has not had to consider sacking himself as manager. White likes to wear a baseball cap and jeans on the touchline, where he can often be heard barking orders at his players. He has not changed his approach over the years, but one thing has changed of late.
“We have so many fans now – it’s unbelievable – I get stopped everywhere all over the country,” he says. That is down to their success – but also to an innovative step the club has taken to promote itself worldwide.
HAVE YOUR SAY! What do you make of Dorking's story and the Non-League Day initiative? Comment below.
Dorking are the subject of an access-all-areas documentary series from YouTube channel A Bunch of Amateurs. The camera goes everywhere with the team, capturing a unique insight into what life is really like in the National League. Now in its third series, Dorking Uncovered has turned White and some of his long-serving players into minor celebrities.
“People go to our games just because they follow it, because they love it,” he explains. “People love the authenticity – it shows the real world of a football team. All the highly edited Netflix versions, they’re great and they’re an insight, but not quite sure they’re as big an insight as ours.”
White does not impose any restrictions on what can and can’t be filmed. The result is a compelling, no-frills look behind the scenes of a football club. You see White’s tactical meetings and expletive-filled team talks. You join the team in their celebrations and commiserate in their losses. “I feel like we’re quite daring in what we’ll show people,” he says. “I’d love to see other people have the balls to copy it.”
White estimates that Dorking have only paid three or four transfer fees in their history. This season they have brought in some experienced players to complement their existing squad, which is refreshed every time they achieve promotion.
Some of the players are in their seventh season with the club, having continually managed to adjust to the step-up in quality. White has managed to retain the ethos of the club’s roots while keeping the hard edge that is needed to compete in a furiously competitive league.
Asked what the secret to his success is, he replies: “It’s hard work, keeping players together and, linked to that, it’s meticulous team building. The model is you keep the team together and every year three to four of the guys who struggle to make the jump up go and you bring in three or four that are from that level, or bigger than that. You continue to team build. You end up with a core. We have players now who’ve been here six or seven seasons, over three or four promotions. That’s not easy to achieve.”
Dorking have not forgotten where they came from. As the posterboys of non-league football, they are fully embracing Non-League Day – an initiative that aims to get fans down to their local clubs during the international break. Dorking are incentivising season ticket holders from Premier League and Championship sides by offering reduced ticket prices for Saturday’s home match against Maidenhead.
White believes that football at the very top has lost touch with its fans. He wants Dorking to provide a dose of realism for supporters who might only engage with the sport by watching on television.
“Non-league day is so successful because we all underestimate how much football has become a TV sport,” he says. “Once people go to their local club and they smell the leather and the burgers and a player falls over the barrier onto them, they really love it. I feel like it keeps supporters in touch with accessible football.”
Dorking hope to still be providing such thrills when they reach the Premier League.
