In recent years, Wrexham’s rise from the National League to the EFL has been hailed as a fairytale.
The press surrounding the Welsh club, due to its owners being famous actors, and a Disney documentary about the club, has undoubtedly raised the club’s profile. In truth, the club has risen due to investment in the team and club.
A far bigger fairytale in Surrey
While Wrexham has a long-storied history, in Surrey, there is a club that is just a quarter of a century old that deserves to be celebrated. That club is Dorking Wanderers, who strangely enough have their own YouTube documentary series entitled ‘A Bunch of Amateurs’.
The club was founded in 1999 in Surrey initially as a Sunday league team created by Marc White and his friends Peter Buckland, Mark Lewington, Ian Davidson, Lee Spickett, and Penny Gregg.
White and his friends were once season ticket holders at Wimbledon (Now MK Dons) towards the end of their time in the Premier League.
They became unhappy with how the club was run and decided to find an alternative use for their weekends, leading to the creation of Dorking Wanderers.
It’s a story that began in the most humble of settings. When Marc White and his teammates were playing on Sunday league pitches, often dodging dog faeces and dogs taking their owners for a walk, the idea of reaching the National League must have seemed like a distant dream.
It’s the kind of thing that children dream about. ‘Yeah, I am going to build a football club when I am grown up’ It is almost Football Manager-esque in its imagination. It’s akin to my son’s fantasy of building a theme park because we visited Florida and the big theme parks there.
However, against all odds, White and his club made dreams come true, playing against clubs that have, in the past, rubbed shoulders with the elite of the English game.
The character that is Marc White?
Marc White is the charismatic creator, owner and manager of Dorking Wanderers. From being passionate about a pint off the pitch, White seems to have an insatiable love of the beautiful game.
Off the pitch, White is a former banker who now runs a successful marketing business.
From interviews, he seems like the sort of guy who would do anything for what is essentially his football club. He is a character that seems to divide opinion amongst fans and clubs in non-League football.
Although his no-BS approach to life and football seems to have won him many admirers.
White is not universally popular, though. He has admitted to having spats with non-league managerial royalty John Still and former England under-21 boss Peter Taylor.
However, he also comes across as intelligent and has admitted that he loves to learn about coaching from the coaches who have been there and wore the T-shirt at higher levels of the game.
White himself has no coaching badges and insists he will never get any coaches’ badges. His lack of desire for the required badges is just laziness, though.
He is willing to fight to change the EFL rules about coaches needing badges in their divisions, which shows that he is deeply concerned about the matter.
White obviously has the managerial acumen to achieve big things in the game. He has helped his club win promotion on 12 occasions, which is an impressive feat by anybody’s standards. He took Wanderers from the 17th tier of the English game to the fifth in 25 years.
The pinnacle of his time with Dorking was the team’s promotion to the National League in season 2021/22 after they finished second place in the National League South.
A 16th-place finish in their debut National League campaign was not a terrible result. However, their second season in the fifth tier of the English game ended in a 23rd-place finish, which meant the clubs first ever relegation in its short history.
The National League was maybe a step too far for Dorking
Marc White and everybody connected with the Surrey club are ambitious and wish to move the Wanderers forward. However, perhaps a promotion to the National League was a step too far in the club and team’s current state.
Maybe it was too much too soon for the club. As White has admitted himself, it’s hard to keep up with what needs improving as a club moves up the football pyramid, as the club has had ground issues in the past as they moved up divisions.
Every step up the ladder means more red tape and complications that didn’t exist in the leagues below. White seems to have handled everything that has been thrown at him so far, though.
It seems unlikely that relegation back to the National League South will be the end of the Dorking Wanderers story. It appears that the club’s charismatic owner is unlikely to let the club go quietly into the night.
If they do not return to the fifth tier in the near future, it will be a shame, as the English game lacks characters, and Marc White is undoubtedly one of them.
Is there a more impressive rise up the English football pyramid in the recent history of the game?