BACK TO WHERE IT BEGAN!

PEARCE SO PROUD OF ROOTS

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STUART Pearce implored top clubs to unearth Non-League treasures on the front cover of The NLP’s first ever edition — and what good advice it has proved!

The England legend famously took that path himself, beginning at Wealdstone before going on to have a decorated career at the very top of the English game.

Pearce joined the Essex Senior League’s Non-League Day groundhop yesterday to see the impact of the Premier League’s Stadium Fund, which has distributed more than £207 million in grants to over 1,000 men’s and women’s clubs throughout the English Football League, National League and football pyramid.

The fund, like The NLP, is celebrating its 25th anniversary and Pearce smiled when looking back at issue one.

“It’s incredible — and 25 years later Dan Burn walks out in an England shirt,” Pearce told The NLP. “That's a great point in case. A lot of players get released from academies and it can diminish their spirit but it shouldn't necessarily do that.