DAVE Thornley is aiming to bring the next Paul Mullins and Gary Williams to Accrington Stanley with no cost to the club.

The two strikers were at the Crown Ground as youngsters but were released and the Reds have had to pay £15,000 for Mullin and £25,000 for Williams to get them back.

As youth and reserve team boss at Stanley for the last 15 months, Dave is keen not to let any players get away this time and make sure there is a steady progression through the ranks into the Reds senior side.

"My ideal would be to have 11 players in the first team!" said Dave who is a former manager at the Crown Ground, in charge in 1989/90.

"But that doesn't happen. Still, I would love to bring a few through.

"Paul and Gary were both released as kids and I want to make sure I keep players here so we have the next generation of Paul's and Gary's on our doorsteps."

There are some current stars in the Stanley youth team - who also double up in the reserves - with Gareth Thornley, Andy Varns, Lee Nocton and Dominic Kay all flying out to Jersey this weekend.

The quarter have been selected for the Lancashire Football Association representative side who take on Jersey in the quarter-finals of the all-England County Cup on Saturday.

"It is great for the club. We have some good young players at the club and it's not just these, there are more as well.

"The likes of Chris Porter and Jonathan Morris are other ones to watch."

Thornley took over the role at the Crown Ground accidentally but since then he has been inudated with phone calls and letters from young lads wanting to join the Stanley set-up.

"I was watching my lad Gareth play after he had been on trial at a number of league clubs and came to Stanley.

"When the last youth team coach packed in, Eric Whalley said to me that as I came to every game did I want to manage the sides.

"Since I gave up management, I wasn't too bothered but I gave it a try and once I became involved again, it was back in the blood."

Football has always been in Dave's blood. He was a midfielder at Blackpool as a youngster, went on to Wigan where he spent one season in the Cheshire League and then went into non-League.

"I played in local leagues until I was around 30 but I was hobbling a bit with my knees!"

He went into coaching at Rossendale with Glyn Watson.

"I think he advertised and I picked up the phone and that was that!"

Coaching jobs at Winsford, Stalybridge Celtic and Hyde followed before Eric Whalley asked him to come to Stanley with manager Gary Pierce, the former Wolves goalie.

Pierce left in October 1989 and Dave took over for about 12 months.

"It was quite successful time. We were in the HFS Loans First Division, we finished quite high up and we had a good run into the FA Cup beating Gretna and one of the top non-League teams at the time Blyth Spartans. But we got knocked out with Fleetwood in the final qualifying round.

"I remember the crowd was about 2000. It was superb.

"I brought Ian Britton to the club, he was a great lad, and Paul Grayson, the England rugby union star, was also in Stanley reserves at the time. Every shot was over the bar," he laughed.

"I loved being manager of Accrington though," he continued. "I was once on holiday in Tenerife and the sports editor of 'Today' newspaper was there and heard I was their manager. He couldn't believe they were still in existence. That is it about Stanley, everyone has heard of them."

He left Accrington in November 1990 when Phil Staley took over.

"I just shrugged my shoulders and got on with it. I did my best and I didn't need the job for my mortgage," said the salesman.

So after that it was Buxton and Atherton before he went out of the game and just concentrated on watching his son.

"I'd had enough until Eric persuaded me to get involved again!

"I decided instead of having one manager of the youth team and another one of the reserves who do not communicate with each other, I would combine the job. And so far it has been good."

The youth team are going great guns, unbeaten in the LFA Floodlit League and currently top of the table and are still in the Lancashire Cup, which is at the quarter-final stage.

"When I took over my phone never stopped ringing, the letters poured in and I gave everyone a trial. Nobody was ignored and we whittled it down from 50 and then 20 were signed on by the club.

"I do think the lads in the youth team here could end up playing higher than those currently on the youth books at professional clubs.

"They are playing in the reserves against men and learning all the time. And it's the mentality as well.

"Players who get released from pro clubs sometimes suffer. But at Stanley, many are doing their A-Levels while playing at a high standard. It will all stand them in good stead.

"And nothing would make me happier than to bring some players through."

THE FA County Youth Cup between Jersey FA and Lancashire FA will be played on Saturday at Springfield Stadium, St Helier, kick off 6pm.