SprySports

One Sunday in 1981 at a Great Barr Falcons Under-10s match, Darren Acton and Russell Dodd met for the first time.

Two nine-year-olds, united by a love of football, formed a friendship that day that has lasted a lifetime - and it is one that has not only enriched each other but, 45 years later, is doing the same for Nuneaton Town Football Club.

Because Acton and Russell's double act off the pitch has just delivered a historic double on it.

In only their second season as joint managers, they have won a second promotion in a row taking the club, reformed from the demise of Nuneaton Borough in January 2024, into the Northern Premier League Division One Midlands - level four of the non-league pyramid.

They have done it without a home, too. Since reforming, Nuneaton have been tenants at neighbours Bedworth United's ground a couple of miles down the road.

Next season, tenants and landlords will meet.

There are ambitious plans to return the club to Nuneaton within the next four years but, for now, Acton and Dodd are understandably enjoying their moment.

'We're like brothers'

"I was the shy one, he was the talkative one," Acton told BBC Sport.

"We just connected," Dodd added. "We finished junior school and then went to the same senior school, so we literally spent the whole five years [and] school holidays in each other's pockets."

Their connection did not end at school. Their football journeys took them both to West Bromwich Albion's youth set-up, on to trials at Kidderminster Harriers, and when Dodd joined them and Acton signed for Telford, they even attended college together.

"We've literally been together all our lives," Dodd said. "We are like brothers."

So have they ever seriously fallen out?

"Obviously you have disagreements - that's football, everyone has opinions," Dodd said. "But we're best mates so we can have a fallout and, if you ever fall out with your brother or your sister, then you'll speak a few hours later and it's normal. And that's what we're like - we're both passionate to succeed."

Acton is a Nuneaton legend. The former goalkeeper played nearly 350 times for Borough throughout the club's various incarnations, and was part of historic FA Cup ties against then Premier League Middlesbrough in 2006 as the non-leaguers took the Teessiders to a third-round replay.

No-one knows the DNA of Nuneaton better.

Dodd has gained a wealth of managerial experience with 10 clubs in the lower divisions, including a player-boss role at Bromsgrove Rovers in the Southern Premier League.

When Nuneaton offered Acton the chance to bring his old club back to life two years ago, he called his mate just in time.

"I was actually going to Boldmere and Darren phoned me and said, 'I want you to come with me. I spoke to the board'," Dodd said.

"So we sat down and built a team - we literally started with a blank sheet of paper."

The pair hit the phones, raided their contacts, spoke to former players and, with Dodd's background in sales, they "sold the dream, the vision and the project", convincing targets the crowds would come.

"I had no doubt that the fans were going to turn up because I've been there, seen it, done it," Acton said.

"I've played in front of it. I'll go back to Middlesbrough. That day was unbelievable. Especially at home, playing in front of 6,000, so I knew they were going to come back."

BBC Sport met both men to find out the secrets to their success.

'We'll have to get a statue for him'

After winning the Midland Football League Division One title with three games to spare last season, this term, despite a late charge by Atherstone and Dodd's old club Coventry United, a 3-0 win at Northampton Sileby Rangers in Nuneaton's final game clinched promotion from the United Counties League Premier Division South by four points.

One person with a ringside seat watching Acton and Dodd work is club director Lee Hayward.

He said what the two have done is remarkable.

"For Darren to come back as manager and win two league titles is a bit like dreamland," he told BBC Sport.

"We joked that we'd have to get a statue for him because he was a legend as a player and he's become a legend as a manager.

"Russ has an incredibly infectious personality, knows football inside out. They're incredibly different people and they complement each other.

"Russ' interviews are absolutely fascinating, not only when we win but when we don't win. He literally calls it exactly, always hits the nail on the head.

"They grew up together as best friends and now they're winning league titles year after year as best friends."

Pre-game, the pair dovetail, with Acton drilling the set-pieces and Dodd giving the first group speech before other coaches, like Justin Marsden, add their thoughts.

"It just works," Dodd said.

A 38-game season that has brought 27 wins, only four defeats, and 93 goals is confirmation of that statement.

Selling £35k of merchandise on a pool table

As intoxicating as the double promotion has been, no-one at the club has lost sight of the main target - returning home to Nuneaton.

Average gates at Bedworth's Oval ground have been about 600 this season, but the club are confident that will increase by several hundred next term, with more local derbies, and move into four figures by the time they get their own stadium.

Nuneaton's relationship with their landlords is very good.

Although Nuneaton miss out on tens of thousands of pounds of matchday revenue each season, Bedworth do their bit - encouraging their fans, who are not travelling away, to watch Nuneaton at 'home'.

"Without Bedworth, we would not have been able to even restart playing football. So they're as much as part of this as anybody," Hayward said.

"It's going to be incredibly weird when we host them as the away team in their own ground."

At the moment, Hayward sells club merchandise on the pool table in the clubhouse bar, an enterprise that has netted about £35,000 over the past two seasons.

That is a typically nimble strategy for a community-focused club, founded by 25 fans, who crowdfunded the rebirth of the Boro and have raised £100,000 of the £150,000 needed to get planning and feasibility plans sorted for a new ground.

National League a 'pipe dream' at the moment

Nuneaton have been given a 49-year lease in principle to play in a stadium in the Vale View area of the town, about three miles from their former ground at Liberty Way.

It is hoped it will be ready by the 2029-30 season.

"It's about getting the foundations right - it is the absolute key to all of this," Hayward said.

"The priority is getting back into Nuneaton rather than going up the leagues. That dream can wait."

Hayward added next season will probably be one of "consolidation" rather than another promotion bid.

"Obviously our fans have been spoiled with back-to-back league titles. We had to rein them in a little bit and say 'it's not always going to be like this, particularly when we go up'."

He describes a potential return to the National League, where Boro were between 2012 and 2015 mixing it with the likes of Wrexham, Luton, Mansfield and Lincoln, "a bit of a pipe dream".

Set up as a fan-owned club with huge emphasis on financial transparency and run on a not-for-profit basis, Hayward says Nuneaton are determined to show they are "very different" to the old Boro and keen to "right the wrongs of the past" that included Boro being wound up three times because of financial problems.

"We're a community interest company - we have no shareholders. If we acquire an asset, we can't sell it. Nobody can gain from the club, nobody can take money out of the club," he said.

"There's strict controls on debts. We're being ultra-transparent."

Will Acton and Dodd stay together?

Whether a third consecutive promotion will be achieved remains to be seen but, for now, Nuneaton Town's dynamic management duo are understandably taking some time to reflect on what they have done and how the strength of their relationship has helped.

"All I wanted was to bring a smile back to Nuneaton Town Football Club and the fans," said Acton.

"I think me, Russ and the staff - [coaches] Trev Edwards, Justin, Dan Kemberley, [physios] Kev Wilden and Ryan Milliner and [kitman] Blake Reynolds - we've all brought that back to the club.

"I didn't expect to win both of the leagues. I just expected to maybe get to the play-offs but I am surprised that we've done what we've done.

"Once we get back into Nuneaton, I think the crowds will just go mental."

As for his partnership with Dodd, Acton said it has been vital to their success.

"I wouldn't have done it without Russell because, if I'm being honest, did I want to be a manager? No.

"We work well together but if someone higher came in for me and said 'do you want to be the manager?' I don't think I'd do it.

"Russell means the world to me. We're like brothers. We grew up together, we go on holiday together, we've always had each other's back. We're best pals."

Dodd agreed, adding he and Acton are "like blood".

"If you'd have spoken to us three, four years ago, we would never have thought we would end up managing together and have back-to-back promotions," he said.

"So this has been the icing on the cake - to be best pals and actually do this together, it's a massive dream."