The Loughborough Dynamo Dream: Non League Team Spotlight

By Loughborough Dynamo F.C. - Loughborough Logo

Loughborough is a city of about 60,000 that is tucked away in Leicestershire County, England, and is best known for its University. However, within this small college town lies an emerging powerhouse within non-league football, Loughborough Dynamo. The team was first established in 1955 by grammar school students in the town. Their unusual name was adopted after the team founder saw a friendly match between Dynamo Moscow, and the Wolverhampton Wanderers. The name Dynamo was taken from the Moscow club, while the teams kit colors were taken from the Wolves.

Today they reside in the Northern Premier League Division One East, which is in the 7th tier of the English Football pyramid, and is a division which includes Sheffield F.C., the oldest football team in the world. They are managed by Lee Attenborough, who is in his first season at the helm, and at 28-years-old, is the youngest manger in the divisions history. Lee, and his Dynamo club have a chance to make some more history as well. They come into the final game of the season at Pickering Town F.C., 27 April 2019, on a 5 game winning run, and looking to make it 6 to close out the year. If they can get the 3 points against Pickering, and Cleethorpes Town loses to Stamford A.F.C., then The Moes, as Loughborough is affectionately known would finish 7th in the table. This would be their highest finish in team history!

Listen To Our Interview With Lee Attenborough

The Dynamo Dream

If you have followed Loughborough Dynamo on Twitter at all, then undoubtedly you have heard them talk about The Dynamo Dream. The dream is simple, and is the same dream that most every Non-League team aspires to, and the is the EFL, or Football League. Dynamo is the ultimate underdog story in a sense that they have a very limited budget, even by non-league standards, but they do the most with it and run a self sustained operation despite attendance that is often in the low 3 digits. However, a recent turn of fortunes have allowed them to bring The Dynamo Dream a few steps closer to reality. The biggest of those being a sponsorship agreement with https://www.sportpesa.com, a multinational company who partners with major clubs, including Premier League powerhouse, Arsenal.

Pickering Town vs Loughborough Dynamo

| LAST GAME OF THE SEASON!

@PickeringTownFC (A)
27.04.19
Mill Lane
15:00 kick-off

What a fantastic season it has been - but can Dynamo make it wins in a row to end the campaign on Saturday? #Dynamo

— Loughborough Dynamo (@lborodynamofc) April 24, 2019

Looking Towards The Future

While it is still a distant goal, several years and promotions away, this partnership, along with local partnerships such as ADT Taxis and Angie's Fish and Chips have brought a level of financial stability that the club has not previously enjoyed. Club Chairman Darren Rodgers is a man with a clear vision, and a steady handle on the checkbook, who is carefully weighing his best options for improving the club. This includes preliminary plans for improvements to their currently 1500 seat stadium, Nanpantan Sports Ground (Now ADT TAXIS STADIUM).

The team relies on a solid core of veteran players that include former league players such as centerback Luke Foster, and goal scoring machine Karl Demidh. Attenborough believes that if he can keep his core group together, and make a few key additions over the offseason that this could be a promotable side next year. Promotion or not, he says he is living the Dynamo Dream every day. As he says, there are guys on the squad who are our digging up roads all day, and then come to the pitch straight from work and play 90 minutes. In his mind "that's proper football", and at Across The Pitch, we couldn't agree more.