PREMIER LEAGUE: From Stocksbridge to stardom the journey of Jamie Vardy.

On Saturday afternoon Jamie Vardy will walk out onto the pitch at St James’ Park knowing he is on the cusp of making history. Attempting to match Ruud Van Nistelrooy’s record of scoring in 10 consecutive Premier League games, he has already surpassed the likes of Alan Shearer and Thierry Henry by reaching 9 consecutive games.

Surrounded by 52,000 fans, it will be his second visit to the stadium and by no means the grandest stage he has played on during his time with Leicester City. Yet given his humble beginnings in football he would be forgiven for savouring every moment.

Eight years ago he was playing in the eighth tier of English football for Stocksbridge Park Steels. Released by Sheffield Wednesday at 16 years old after being deemed too small, he was now in far less manicured surroundings, earning £30 a game and working in a carbon fibre factory during the week. “Jamie was with us for seven years and I saw him on his second match,” Stocksbridge chairman Allen Bethall explains. “He’s not altered a great deal how he plays on the football field. He had tremendous energy and you couldn’t run like he could for 90 minutes. I believe he started out as a winger then moved inside later on.”

His time at Stocksbridge was not without issue however. In his last season with the club he collected a handful of red cards as opposition defenders began targeting him. He was also forced to play with an electronic tag due to an assault conviction (Vardy says he was defending a deaf friend that was being mocked by youths).

With a 6pm curfew imposed upon him it meant he was forced to leave away games at 4:15 to be back at home in time. On one particular occasion it was nearer 4.25 when he was eventually substituted. Nervous he may be late, he jumped straight over the railings and into his parent’s car without even getting changed.

While such stories may paint Vardy as disruptive, Bethall has nothing but good things to say about the ‘skinny young lad’ he worked with for seven years. “He was the first into training and the last one out and that goes right back to when he was a 17 year old,” he says.

Those sentiments are echoed by Paul Webster, a non-league football writer that covered Vardy while he was at Stocksbridge. “Jamie would always have a chat with you after a match and it was never too much trouble for him to talk to you which was great,” he says. “He was always honest about his opinion too. I remember him getting sent off in one game and he held his hands up afterwards and said he deserved it. He was just that kind of lad really.”

As his goal scoring form continued to improve it quickly became apparent that Stocksbridge would not be his home forever. “He’d got what you couldn’t teach a player,” Webster adds. “He was fast but he wasn’t a kick and run merchant. He could control a ball with his first touch and he ran at defenders. It was like the ball was stuck to his toes and he was a nightmare for defenders.”

With visiting scouts becoming an ever growing presence at Stocksbridge games a number of teams took an interest, including nearby Sheffield United. While interest was high concrete offers were not forthcoming. Scouts were nervous to take a risk on him and he remained in limbo.

Eventually Neil Aspin opted to take him across Yorkshire to FC Halifax Town alongside experienced defender Mark Bower. “It was a really high quality side at the time for the league we were playing in,” Bower explains. “He was really quiet at first but when he started scoring goals I saw his true character come out. He felt comfortable and he really thrived on the set-up there. He had that pace and directness and you knew he was going to go further than the Evo-Stik Premier League.”

Although the move represented a step up in quality he did little to alter his game. “He was 100% effort and energy and didn’t mind doing the dirty side of the game,” Bower adds. “He did just as much work coming back as he did going forward and he had a real appetite to play. He won some games for us completely on his own and part-time defenders found him really hard to play with.”

Influential on the field he was just as important off it. “He was a real character once he got settled in,” Bower says. “He was the life and soul of the dressing room. We were winning nearly every week so it was a bubbly dressing room and he was certainly a big part of that. Neil Aspin insisted on us going out together and the good team spirit was in a big part down to him.”

Unfortunately for Aspin his striker’s goal-scoring heroics had attracted attention from the Conference and after just one season with Halifax he was sold to Fleetwood Town. While some saw it as a potential peak for his career others viewed it as the the next step on a much bigger journey. “I remember being in the board room after one game with the chairman of Stocksbridge and I said, ‘Mark my words that lad will play in the football league.’ ” Webster explains. “I thought was good enough for the Championship even then.”

Although he wasn’t in the Football League yet he was close. Fleetwood were one rung below the Football League but aspired to be higher. Signing Vardy for a non-league record fee of £150,000 his impact was almost instantaneous. “I was actually injured for his first game so I didn’t play,” former Fleetwood teammate Gareth Seddon recalls. “I’d heard we’d signed this kid from non-league. When we saw him nobody thought much of him to be honest. He was a really skinny, gangly lad, then we heard rumours we’d paid a lot of money for him and we all wondered why. Then after about 20 minutes of the game he was just like a whippet, bombing round everywhere. We thought they’ve obviously seen something in him but we had no idea how good he was going to be.”

Back in the team not long after that, Seddon and Vardy managed to form a deadly partnership. “We got on really well on and off the pitch,” Seddon says, revealing the two still stay in touch by text message. “We played up front together and it was kind of get the ball up to me and I’ll flick it on and Vardy can chase it and score. That’s basically what we did all season. He had one of those purple patches where everything he touched went in. I helped him to settle into the club off the pitch and I think that helped him on it.”

Fleetwood eventually went up as champions and Vardy finished the season as the club’s top scorer with 28 goals in all competitions. It was then that the scouts at Leicester decided to act on their interest. “He never talked about going up to the Championship or anything like that. I think he was just happy to be playing at Fleetwood,” Seddon explains. “As the season wore on the interest increased but I still think even he didn’t believe he was going to move on. We just thought we’d get promoted, get to League Two and see how he went there. We were worried he might go to a big Championship club and just not get a game.”

Eventually signed for £1million by Nigel Pearson he was initially used as a substitute and only managed to net four goals during a disappointing first season. After initially struggling to find form, his second campaign saw him hit 16 goals in the Championship and fire Leicester into the Premier League - completing his unlikely journey to the top. “I was actually watching him on TV in the pub the other week,” Seddon says. “When he got the ninth goal in a row I was celebrating along with everyone else. I’m really pleased for him.”

And for one of his former teammates the story serves as a reminder to those still plying their trade in non-league football. “A few of my players actually played with him at Halifax so they already know the story but I still tell it to the new lads,” Guiseley manager Bower says. “I think every non-league manager up and down the country will be saying the same thing to their young players; work hard, it’s never too late.”