Chris Dawson’s at a permanent corner, Josh Falkingham’s gone home

Whether they go on to become internationals or drop out of professional football, Lucy Ward doesn’t forget any of the boys she looked after in Leeds United’s academy. On Saturday, Ward tweeted her excitement at getting to watch Chris Dawson play live on the BBC in Buxton’s FA Cup tie with Morecambe. Adding to the feel good family story of Christmas 2021, Leeds loanee Alfie McCalmont was playing in midfield for Morecambe and another former academy player, Theo Richardson, was in goal for Buxton.

Richardson prevented McCalmont from scoring with a smart save from a rebound, and the involvement of Leeds alumni didn’t end there. Playing alongside McCalmont in Morecambe’s midfield, Toumani Diagouraga nearly gave Buxton a goal by dawdling on the ball on the edge of his own box, only to be saved by the post. Watching from the Morecambe bench was Scott Wootton, whose summer signing was announced on the club’s official website with the headline, ‘Scott Wootton is a Shrimp!’ Never change, Scott!

Dawson couldn’t help Buxton reach the third round and what would have been a trip to Tottenham, as Morecambe fared better than Leeds against lower league opposition, winning 1-0. Nor could Dawson help Ward and the viewers watching the TV, who struggled to see much of the only goal as the cameraman needed to wipe his lens amid a storm befitting a December FA Cup tie.

It feels like a long time since we’ve been reminded of the elvish boy wonder we all hoped would salvage us from the grim hoofball of Neil Warnock. Colin eventually gave Dawson his debut as an eighteen year old, playing just under an hour in a defeat to Derby that proved Warnock’s last game as Leeds manager. He had been an unused substitute on three occasions previously, missing winning the Under-18s title and celebrating with his friends after being dragged to Ipswich to sit on the bench for a 3-0 defeat. “Warnock knew he was leaving and said I deserved a game,” Dawson told the Yorkshire Evening Post of his debut against Derby. The idea the players already knew Warnock was about to leave makes Ross McCormack yelling “fuck off” towards the dugout in celebration of his goal in the 2-1 loss all the more delicious.

Dawson joined Leeds as a six year old and stayed for fifteen years. Playing for Richard Naylor’s Under-18s, he formed a midfield diamond including Kalvin Phillips and Alex Mowatt, the younger Lewis Cook occasionally getting a game. “We won the Under-18s league by a mile,” Dawson told the YEP. But between making his first team debut in April 2013 and leaving in January 2016 — don’t worry, I’d completely forgotten he remained at Leeds until that recently too — he had to try establishing himself under seven different managers, all wanting different things from their midfielders. He stood his best chance under Neil Redfearn, who brought Dawson off the bench in his first game as ‘permanent’ head coach — if ever such a thing existed under Massimo Cellino — and gave him two more substitute appearances before frustrating shoulder injuries stalled his development. By the time he was fit enough to return, Redders had been replaced by Steve Evans, who had no interest in using Dawson.

“He had never watched me play but said, ‘He’s not in my plans, he can go if he wants’, and I was gutted,” Dawson said. “He didn’t speak to me about it, it just came out in the press. I found out over the internet, it might have been an LUTV interview.”

With his contract expiring at the end of the season and no chance of football under Evans, Dawson reunited with Redfearn at Rotherham in January 2016, aiming to earn a return to Leeds if there was a change in management. He was left wondering whether he’d made the right choice when Evans was replaced at Elland Road in the summer, thinking he may have been able to earn a new deal under the next manager, and it was a similar story at Rotherham. Redfearn, the coach with so much faith in Dawson’s ability, was sacked. Dawson was released at the end of the 2016/17 season with his only senior appearances during his time at Rotherham coming on loan at Viking in Norway. Out of contract and recovering from a serious ACL injury, he began working as a painter and decorator with his dad. “I was heartbroken, thinking that’s probably it, I won’t play again. My contract ran down and I went in to do the rehab but I wasn’t earning any money. I just watched my money drain away to nothing. It was probably the hardest point in my life. I didn’t really know what to do.”

After eighteen months out of the game, Dawson returned to football by joining Scarborough Athletic. His career kept on refusing to go smoothly. Two spells at Scarborough came either side of a move to Bradford Park Avenue, when he played more times on loan at Grantham Town (nickname: The Gingerbreads). Whenever he began feeling like his body was beginning to adjust to the demands of playing regularly again, there was another injury, or a lockdown.

In summer 2020, he was signed by seventh-tier Buxton alongside another former Leeds player, Matt Kilgallon. Buxton are the latest ambitious non-league ‘project’, aiming for back to back promotions to the National League. It seems to be going well; they’re the premier team of the Northern Premier League Premier Division, sitting top, and were the lowest ranked club to reach the second round of the FA Cup. That doesn’t make Dawson’s regrets any easier to process.

“I watch all of Kalvin’s games, the improvements he has made are massive. He’s one of the best sitting midfielders in the Premier League now, which is mad, so nice to see. I still feel a bit disappointed that I wasn’t able to progress. I always felt I was good enough to stay, I just needed the manager to believe in me basically. Redders always believed in me and backed me. I probably would have got the chance if he had stayed. It was so hard to stay involved, with all the managers coming and going, when you weren’t an established player. You can’t always prevent injuries but I wish I could have been part of what Leeds are going through now. I’m happy for them, I’ve always wanted them to do well, so I can’t really complain. It just hasn’t worked out for me. I’ve played so few games in the last few years that now I just try to be happy when I’m playing, feeling fit and feeling good.”

If Dawson needs any encouragement, he should look not to Kalvin Phillips, but to another diminutive former Leeds midfielder. Josh Falkingham never got the hype of Dawson while progressing through the academy, leaving without making a senior appearance. A move to the Scottish top flight with St Johnstone lasted all of three months before he dropped down to the Third Division with Arbroath. He won promotion to the Second Division and stepped up another level by joining a Dunfermline side that was tipped to reach the Scottish Premier League, but entered administration and got relegated instead, leaving players unsure whether they still had jobs.

Those experiences have toughened Falkingham up. He captained Dunfermline to promotion back to the second tier before moving back to England and National League North side Darlington. Born in Rothwell, he moved closer to home with Harrogate Town, initially playing just one tier higher than Dawson is currently playing with Buxton, and has captained them on their rise to League Two. Falkingham hasn’t forgotten his roots; after winning at Wembley in the National League play-off final and scoring the decider in the FA Trophy final at the same stadium, he told The Courier, ​​”As a Leeds fan, I’d be lying if I said I had too many memories of watching my team at Wembley.”

Falkingham went one better than Dawson at the weekend, leading Harrogate to a last minute victory at Portsmouth to reach the third round of the FA Cup for the first time in the club’s history. Those difficult times during Dunfermline’s administration have given him a healthy perspective on life as a professional footballer. “Hopefully, I never experience anything like that ever again,” he said. “It will always be on my mind when I have any successes. I’ll never take them for granted or underestimate how hard you need to work. And the fact is, even if you do work hard, everything can still be taken away from you, through no fault of your own.”

There are plenty of lessons in Falkingham’s career (he’s now 31) for Dawson (aged 27). Having lost with Buxton, Dawson could be excused for ignoring the FA Cup third round draw, in which Falkingham’s heroics were rewarded with a glamour tie away at, er, Luton Town. Probably not what Harrogate were hoping for. But if Dawson spots that fixture, he might learn the biggest lesson of them all: in football, you rarely get what you deserve. ⬢