"We could have got promotion as a part-time team" - Neil Aspin on just missing out on the Football League, some of his favourite players at FC Halifax Town and his departure

But that's only part of the story of his six-and-a-bit years in charge of The Shaymen.

In the second of a special two-part feature, Aspin tells the Courier's FC Halifax Town writer Tom Scargill about almost taking the club back into the Football League, some of his favourite players at The Shay and his departure.

Neil Aspin had guided FC Halifax Town to three promotions in four years, yet his greatest achievement at The Shay was arguably still to come.

It didn't end with silverware, but the team he built, the football they played and how close they came to the Football League in the 2013-14 season was nothing short of remarkable.

"It gets overlooked now because we were part-time in a mostly full-time league and we played some great football," Aspin says.

"The amount of goals we scored at home and some of the play at home was brilliant.

"We had great lads, and lads who've gone on to play professional football.

"It was a special time, I loved that season."

This was the apotheosis of the Aspin era.

Recruitment had never been better, with gems like Marc Roberts, Lois Maynard and Matty Pearson developing into Football League players in waiting.

There was a fearlessness about Aspin as a manager that was infused into his team.

And the star of the side was Lee Gregory, who became a talismanic figure, leading from the front.

"I've always called a spade a spade, I knew my limitations when I was a player and a manager, but I know there is nobody in non-league football that had as good a record as me at signing players that have gone on to play in the Football League," says Aspin.

"We signed Lee Gregory on the cheap, he played first for Staveley Miners Welfare, that's when I first heard about him.

"We couldn't get him then, he went to Mansfield, but he wasn't playing for Mansfield.

"I was desperate to sign him and we ended up getting him from Mansfield for next to nothing.

"The difference was, Lee Gregory, a bit like Vardy, he was a bit of a Jack The Lad off-the-pitch, but he knuckled down that season, got himself fit, got himself focused and became the player he was and that was down to himself realising that he could have a career.

"And what a career he's had, he's still playing now.

"I still keep in touch with him, with Marc Roberts and Matty Pearson - all top lads.

"Matty was a big player that year, and so was Lois Maynard, who was such a powerful player.

"He was playing as a centre-half but I thought he was tailor-made for going into midfield because had that long stride, he was tall, powerful.

"We needed legs in midfield and he did really well, he was a big player for us.

"So was Adam Smith, who set-up a lot of goals for us that season.

"But Lee Gregory was the key to everything because he could hold the ball up, he could run in the channels, he could score goals, different types of goals.

"What a player. But you know if you're going to get good players, they're going to leave, that's the trouble."

Some things never change.

After an intoxicating campaign, Town found themselves 90 minutes from Wembley as they beat Cambridge 1-0 in the first-leg of their play-off semi-final thanks, of course, to a Gregory goal.

"I knew it would be a difficult tie. I loved the first game, it was a great atmosphere," Aspin says.

"You'd have to say, the second game, Cambridge did a good job on us.

"They were a very big team, very good on set-pieces, very strong.

"We never really played in that game, I don't know if we were a little bit overawed but we never got going.

"They scored early, the momentum was with them, but everybody feared us going into that tie because we'd had the game at Barnet, where we smashed them.

"I think that was one of the best games we ever played, could have beaten them by six or seven.

"I remember Martin Allen (Barnet manager), after the game in his office, he couldn't believe the players we'd signed.

"We had good players, good lads, good team spirit, it was just a really good time.

"The Cambridge tie could have gone either way but it just didn't go for us on the day."

Just as with Vardy, 29-goal Gregory's departure was inevitable, and after losing their star striker, The Shaymen's progress was halted the following season.

Some things never change.

"If you do well in anything, you've then got the expectation, which is hard to follow up," Aspin says.

"We started off that season winning five games and I think the supporters thought we were going to get promotion but we didn't have the strength-in-depth, we didn't have as good a team.

"By the end of the season we were in a bit of a rut and we started to struggle a bit, which led into the next season.

"We were still part-time and most teams would have been happy to finish in the top ten in that league.

"But for me, really, it was a sense of failure because we'd gone backwards and I think that was the first time since I'd been a manager that we'd ended the season not being as good as the previous season.

"And then I knew I was going to have big problems going in the next season, because we didn't have the personnel, and when you get promotion you've got that bounce, but you've lost that as well.

"The expectation's there and then it becomes harder to sustain that."

Aspin feels Town's progress needn't have stalled after losing Gregory though.

"We could have got promotion as a part-time team," he says.

"I remember the next season, we lost Lee Gregory and I knew the only player that could replace him was John Akinde.

"I can remember sitting in the airport with my wife, we were going on holiday and I was speaking to John Akinde, in the airport, because I knew we had to try and sign him.

"But he was going to smash any wages anybody was on, we'd have had to pay him probably four times what anybody else was getting.

"But I wanted to do it because if we could have got him into the team at the start of that next season and made a couple of big signings, I think we could have got promotion.

"We did start that season with five wins but we ran out of steam.

"But if we'd have signed John Akinde, I think we could have done it, I really do."

A top ten finish in 2014-15 was still respectable, but Town's downward trajectory had set in.

Rather than being on top of things like before, things were starting to slip away from the Town boss.

Recruitment, once Aspin's strong suit, now became a weakness as the club's financial constraints became harder to live with.

"I knew we weren't getting the calibre of players we wanted," he says.

"You have to realise as well that the wage structure compared with the other teams, and the fact we weren't paying the players for 52 weeks, which we never did for all the time I was there, that was a big obstacle to overcome.

"Players didn't want to come to Halifax, they could go to other clubs and get much better pay, so it was really difficult to recruit players.

"And that was summed up by not having as good a squad.

"To be fair, I probably lost a bit of drive myself, a bit of motivation, because I'd seen all the good players I'd had go.

"You do get a bit de-motivated when you walk in the dressing room and you don't have the players - you're saying the right things but you don't believe it yourself.

"I could probably see that we were going to struggle.

"Nobody wants to admit it, I couldn't come out and say 'I think we're going to struggle this season' but that's how it turned out."

Ten games into the 2015-16 season, and with only one win, Aspin's time was up following a 2-1 defeat at Guiseley on September 15, 2015.

"You meet lots of people in football and there's so many w***ers, so many people who just talk the talk, they're good at talking and good at bull*****ing," Aspin says.

"David Bosomworth, I've got a lot of respect for, I do speak to him occasionally.

"He is a really decent bloke but I always remind him that he's the only person, in all my career, that's ever sacked me and I always remind him that the way they did it, I didn't like.

"I knew we were struggling that season but I felt that after I'd been there all that time, I would at least have got a warning, maybe a couple of weeks before, to say 'if results don't improve, you're going to get sacked'.

"Even though we were struggling, it was still a shock and out of the blue when I did get sacked.

"I still speak to David now and I always remind him of that, and we get on fine, there's no problem.

"But it was disappointing and I'd have to say, management after that, I have to be honest, I never really enjoyed it after I left Halifax."

Their paths would cross again before the end of that season, in which Halifax were relegated, as The Shaymen knocked Aspin's Gateshead out of the FA Trophy en route to their unforgettable Wembley triumph under Jim Harvey.

"There were some good lads in that team, people like Scott McManus," says Aspin.

"I'm going to miss out names I could go through, but Scott McManus was a good signing for me, scored the winner, which was great for him and great for Halifax, to win a trophy.

"My only involvement in football now is I work with the ex-players at Leeds on the corporate side and in the West Lounge at Leeds, one of the ladies behind the bar is a big Halifax fan.

"There's a lot of people who are so enthusiastic about Halifax and it was a great day for people like that.

"You're always tinged with some sadness when you're not there yourself, but those players were my players so it was great that they won that.

"Mind you, they should never have won it because they beat Gateshead on penalties when I was Gateshead manager!

"How they scored in the last minute of extra-time - not that I'm bitter - but my right-back let a ball bounce over his head and we ended up conceding, otherwise we'd have probably won the cup that day!

"So there was a bit of fate involved but I don't begrudge them that."

None of Aspin's successors have taken Town to within 90 minutes of a Wembley play-off final.

His time at Town peaked with that electrifying first-leg win against Cambridge, when the impossible seemed stomach-churningly possible, but the steady decline that followed shouldn't overshadow the rapid rise that preceded it.

"You're going to get some supporters that like you and some that don't, but the reason I went to Halifax was because they had support," Aspin says.

"When you're in non-league, you've got to have a fan base because the whole point of being in any sport is you want to have some fans there.

"When I played football, it was the adrenaline you got from having a crowd.

"Harrogate didn't really have a fan base when I was there, but Halifax had been in the Football League and we had some great crowds at home, and we had great away support, which makes it a big game in non-league when you go to little grounds.

"I really enjoyed that and I got a buzz from that myself. That's what I probably needed, I needed to have adrenaline to manage as well.

"I did change the club around because there was a lot of things needed changing.

"I inherited a couple of good players who were important - Tom Baker was a massive player for me, great lad.

"Steve Payne, experienced player, great for me in that first season. It was a shame he couldn't play on longer but he did a great job.

"I could have gone in and said 'I don't want any of his players' but you try and keep the best ones and try to add to it, and that's what I tried to do."

"It's the same everywhere, if you're winning games then you're popular and if you're losing games, you're unpopular.

"You accept that as part of the job.

"But if I ever see people now, they always speak well of me, they're friendly and say I did a good job.

"You're never going to please everyone, there'll always be people who don't like you, don't rate you, but in general I'd say it was positive.

"I've got no regrets because I know myself that I did a good job and I got the club to a much stronger position when I left than when I started."

Aspin went on to manage Gateshead and Port Vale after leaving Halifax, finally fulfilling a long-held ambition to manage full-time in the Football League with The Valiants.

His stint there, from October 2017 to January 2019, was his last in football management.

"I started in football when I was 16 and my last job at Port Vale, I was 54 when I came out," he reflects.

"When you've been in for 38 years, it is like a drug and when you come out of football, it's a bit like you need to be weaned off it.

"At first you're looking at all the scores, all the non-league scores, everything, and it does take over your life.

"So I decided then that I wasn't going to look at the scores, because you leave Port Vale, you look at their scores every week, you look at all your ex-teams, but the less you do that, you then can come to terms with being out of it better and it comes out of your system.

"I grew up supporting Leeds, Leeds has always been my team, so I'm concerned what the results are in the Championship, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't look at the Premier League, but I tend not to look at too many non-league scores to be honest."

Not that Aspin needs to look at results to remind him of his time at Halifax.

"There's several games that standout," he says.

"We beat Grimsby 4-0 one night, which stands out as being such a good performance.

"The Barnet away game, when we smashed them, stands out.

"There were some really good games."

And there were some really good people, too.

Kit man Ian Helliwell, goalkeeping coach Karl Lenaghan and assistant manager Lee Nogan were among the key members of his backroom staff, as was chief scout Gareth McClelland.

"Gareth was manager at Woodley Sports, and Liam Hogan was playing for him," Aspin recalls.

"Because I'm very competitive, I didn't always get on with the opposing managers because I'm always desperate to win, but I liked Gareth straight away when I met him that night.

"We've been friends ever since and he's now probably one of my best friends.

"When I went to Gateshead, I gave Gareth a job and when I went to Port Vale, I gave Gareth a job.

"I always wanted him to work with me because he's very good, very conscientious, very good at what he does, going to look at players around the country.

"The other thing is Gareth's very loyal. You need to have staff who are loyal and who aren't going to stab you in the back and I could trust Gareth with my life, he's that type of bloke.

"It's great that he's back at Halifax now, both for Gareth and the club. I know Gareth reccommended Jesse Debrah to Halifax."

Aspin, who signed Macauley Langstaff from Billingham Synthonia while manager at Gateshead, also gave David Brooks his first taste of senior football.

"You could tell straight away, from the kick-off at Aldershot (Brooks' Halifax debut), I thought 'this lad looks a player'," Aspin says.

"If you keep telling me all the good players I signed, I think I might have to make a comeback!"

But his best best signing?

"Vardy's always going to be the best signing because he's gone on to play for England, and how many Halifax players have played for England?," Aspin says.

"He's always going to be the standout, you couldn't argue against that, but in terms of value to the team, there's probably other players who you could argue did really well over a longer period."

And what a period.

Three promotions, a conveyorbelt of rough diamonds that were polished up, some truly outstanding performances and miraculous results, and the transformation of a club from eighth in the eighth tier to within touching distance of the Football League.