Passion, Grit, and Glory: Dorking Wanderers' Epic Football Adventure

From Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest to Claude Ranieri’s Premier League win with Leicester City, football has produced fairytales that go beyond even Disney’s imagination.

The latest fairytale is brewing and is set to shake up the footballing world: Dorking Wanderers, a semi-professional club based in Surrey, England.

Dorking is a classic case of where looks deceive. 

Their founding father, Marc White, posing in his Top Man suit and mohawk could easily be mistaken for a boyband reject. But, don’t be fooled, White is an absolute killer. Not in literal a sense, but few that match his achievements in football. 

He took Dorking Wanderers from rock bottom to one of the English league’s most formidable forces. And it all started with 50 quid and a dream. 

“I was just a Wimbledon fan and they were in dire straits around the time of the franchise (MK Dons),” White told the Daily Mail. “So me and my friends said, ‘We’re not going to follow Wimbledon any more. (Instead) I paid a fiver a week, we rented a pitch for £50 and got the local pubs to give us some kits.”

At first, there was no long-term plan for Dorking. White was still marketing in the City and Dorking Wanderers was simply a way to get his mates together each weekend. 

“Why not start something with a few friends, have a bit of a laugh?”, White recalls. 

Twenty-four years later, his side has achieved twelve promotions. That’s a promotion every other year since their inception in 1999, a British record. 

To put that into perspective, White has taken Dorking from the Sunday league with little ambition, to one promotion away from League 2. And it hasn’t been a fluke. As a manager, he has achieved a 52.65% win rate, a record that’s better than Mauricio Pochettino (51.6%), Rafael Benitez (48.2%), and Brendan Rodgers (45.3%). 

But, Dorking’s journey wasn’t all smooth sailing. After their meteoric rise in 2005 to the top division of the West Sussex League, they hit their first hurdle. 

“The first seven games that year, we lost all seven,” White told The Guardian. “We were stone bottom of the league, and I realised I couldn’t keep players. We got out of jail that year and won the league the next season. Now I’ve got four coaches, three physios, and a scouting team behind me.”

White’s achievements haven’t gone unnoticed. Top English sides have reached out to Dorking’s founder to ask whether he’d jump ship. But, White has remained loyal because he believes Dorking can make it to the Premier League.

A few years ago this would have been seen as ludicrous. Now, it’s seen as a very possible reality.

However, one area of contention is White’s lack of coaching qualifications. To manage in the EFL, the law states that managers must “hold a minimum of the UEFA A Licence and be working towards completing the UEFA Pro-Licence within 3 years of appointment.” 

White was asked on the Undr The Cosh podcast whether he plans on completing his badges.

After a quick swig of his water bottle, he candidly admits that “I ain’t got f*ck all.” And he vows to start a nationwide campaign to change the rules. 

“I back myself, and I don’t need a f*cking badge to back myself,” he said. “I know it’s meant to be all about equality, but my level playing field is that I couldn’t give a f*ck about their badges, I do it my way.”

In a way, White’s got a point about doing things his way. While he cherishes the wisdom imparted to him by successful top-flight managers, he combines this with his unique strategy. 

His strategy for success goes beyond badges and can be broken down into three core pillars. 

Pillar one: maintaining the core of players 

In White’s view, new signings should be few and far between, even after a promotion-winning season. 

He said: “We want to keep our beliefs that we have had from day one all the way through the pyramid.” 

A revolving door and continuous churn of players isn’t compatible with this strategy. He only keeps players who are eager to embody Dorking’s core principles and philosophy, both of which have been crafted by White.

Pillar two: install a winning mentality

Adding to this, White only wants to recruit players with a winning mentality. 

He showed his desire for a winning mentality after Dorking’s surprise 2-0 FA Cup defeat to Horsham, who were two steps below them. In his post-match press conference, White made it clear that he accepts nothing absolute commitment to achieving a result, something he felt his team lacked on the day.

“They fully deserve to be in the draw and I really hope they get something amazing and life-changing so my f*cking s*it players can learn a f*cking lesson.” 

He continues: “They were so poor and I’ll tell you one thing, I will always put my hand up, it's not about availability, injuries, who was returning, who wasn't. It wasn't about that at all, it was about the fact that that team let the fans down 100 per cent, wholeheartedly.”

In more serious cases, White has a knack for eliminating what he calls “passengers” at the club - a reference to players and staff that aren’t striving for excellence. 

It also helps that he’s “world-class at spotting w*nkers.”

Pillar three: strike fear into opponents

Successful managers across the football pyramid aim to strike fear into their opponents. 

From Sir Alex Ferguson’s fear factor in the top-flight to ninth-tier manager Simon Clifford painting the opposition’s dressing room bright pink in 2005, unnerving the opposition has been a strategy that has stood the test of time. 

White has openly adopted this strategy and admits to encouraging his players to break the rules early into a new season, even if it leads to a “six-game ban.” 

But his love of the game can sometimes lead him to break character. When Dorking faced Wrexham in the English National League, White walked into the Surrey Yeoman pub and handed £300 to a group of Wrexham fans to enjoy a drink ahead of the game. 

“We were in the first pub we found, there was only a handful of Wrexham fans in there, we were all talking and then Marc White walked in.

“He came over to the bar and said ‘welcome to Dorking, have a few beers on me’ and game me £300 because he said I looked trustworthy,” one Wrexham fan recalls.

Dorking Wanderers’ story is a modern-day classic and the history books will remember their rise as one of the greatest in English football. It shows that where there’s a footballing will, there’s always a way.