Five top-flight players to boss in non-league

The Pitmen are now fighting to preserve their National League North status after sinking to the bottom, due to last night's 3-0 defeat at Stockport County.

Former Chelsea defender Frank Sinclair was supposed to bring a touch of pedigree to Keys Park, after playing for the Blues and Leicester City in the Premier League.

The 28-cap Jamaica international instead become one of a number of top-flight performers to have tried their hand at managing a non-league team in the West Midlands.

The 44-year-old is by no means alone, it's clear credentials count for nothing when dealing when the muck and nettles of the game. Here, Craig Birch looks at five more.

1, The England 1966 World Cup winners and Telford United.

Not many non-league clubs can boast an Englishman with a World Cup winners medal at the helm, but the old Telford United had two. In fact, it ended up being three.

Wolves hero Ron Flowers spent a spell in 1971 as player-manager of Telford, who had changed their name from Wellington Town two years previously.

Only the players on the pitch at the end of the World Cup final were granted medals and Flowers was just in the squad. After the FA lobbied FIFA, he finally got one in 2009.

Geoff Hurst, still immortalised as the only man to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final, bossed the Bucks from 1976 to 1979 before taking a job on the England coaching staff.

Goalkeeper Gordon Banks, responsible for one of the best saves ever from Pele, was put in charge from January 1979 to September 1980. He left the game after getting the sack.

2, Jan Molby is just champion again with Kidderminster Harriers.

Former Liverpool star Jan Molby will tell you himself he needed some persuading to manage outside of the Football League, after he was axed from his first post at Swansea City.

He'd won three First Division league titles, a trio of FA Cups and a League Cup in a trophy-laden 12 years at Anfield, plus 33 caps for Denmark. He seemed an ideal television pundit.

But he persuaded to give it a go and the move paid off. His old Reds team-mate Mike Marsh, who couldn't play in the Football League due to an insurance policy, was a vital addition.

It was Molby who lead the Aggborough club to the promised land as champions of the Conference, non-league's top tier, in 2000 after a sterling first season under his stewardship.

He was enticed away, after keeping Harriers in the league for two seasons, by Hull City. A return in 2003 saw him resign a year later. Harriers went down and never came back up that season.

3, Mel Eves tries to spin a few more plates with Willenhall Town.

Darlaston-born Mel Eves is an example of a Black Country boy made good and was in a First Division Wolves side when the club won their last major trophy, the League Cup in 1980.

After hanging up his boots, he became an agent and guided the likes of Fabrizio Ravanelli, Benito Carbone and Robert Earnshaw, a role he is still employed in to this day.

He also bossed the Lockmen, who took to a Division One Midlands play-off final after taking charge in March 2006. Come November 2007, he resigned through work commitments.

4, Tim Flowers can't get to grips with life in non-league.

Tim Flowers is best remembered for being one of the top goalkeepers during the formative years of the Premier League, winning the title with Blackburn Rovers in the 1994-95 season.

Flowers worked as a goalkeeping coach at his last club, Leicester City, and then at Manchester City and later became an assistant boss to Iain Dowie at Queens Park Rangers and Hull.

The first top job he was ever offered on a permanent basis was at cash-strapped Stafford Rangers in October 2010 but, on New Year's Day, he was threatening to quit.

He went through with walking away 11 days later, leaving former Leicester team-mate and Scotland international Matt Elliott in charge until the end of the season.

Wolves legend Steve Bull had left his post at Marston Road through financial difficulties after 11 months in December 2008, warning his successors should have heeded.

Flowers looked to have got a second chance at a top job with Kidderminster last September, but he was gone from the club within a fortnight after Dave Hockaday was hired.

5, Richard Sneekes proves to be the last man standing at Rushall Olympic.

Dutchman Richard Sneekes was brought to England by Bolton Wanderers, who paid a bargain £200,000 to bring him over from Swiss outfit Locarno in August 1994.

The talented midfielder played his part in the Trotters' promotion to the Premier League and featured in the 1995 League Cup final, which they lost 2-1 to Liverpool.

But chances were few and far between with Bolton when they got to the top flight, so he was sold to Albion for £400,000 and would spend five years at the Hawthorns.

He would settle in the area after his retirement and coach at Tamworth and Hereford United, before he was appointed manager of Evo-Stik Northern Premier League Rushall.

He's kept the Pics ticking over in the division and will celebrate his second year at Dales Lane in May. With No 2 Steve Hinks by his side, he seems happy enough in his work.