Once, not too long ago, Wealdstone were the biggest little club around. In 1985, two years before automatic promotion to the Football League was introduced, the North London side became the first club to achieve the non-League double of the FA Trophy and Conference title. A hod-carrier named Vinnie Jones prowled the midfield. Two years earlier, a promising defender called Stuart Pearce had been sold to Coventry City.

“Pearce has been back a few times and he’s the same guy he was then,” Howard Krais, the Wealdstone chairman, said. “His last game for us was an FA Cup qualifier. I’d just turned 16 and had a Saturday job at a local supermarket. I was desperate to see it, so got out of work early and ran for a bus. I fell over and broke my wrist but went to the game anyway. I was in real pain but we did win.”

More serious agony followed. In 1991, Wealdstone’s Lower Mead ground was sold to Tesco. Homelessness and financial ruin followed. So Rotherham United, of Coca-Cola League Two, penniless and exiled from Millmoor, are fitting visitors for Sunday’s FA Cup first-round tie.

“The club got stitched up badly,” Krais said. “The ground was sold around the same time as Wycombe Wanderers and Yeovil moved stadiums and look where they are now. We should have gone up in the world. But it was all we could do just to keep alive.”

They began a nomadic existence that included a brief and unhappy groundshare with Watford. It was not until last year, when the club acquired Grosvenor Vale, then the home of Ruislip Manor, that Wealdstone finally had a place of their own again. Supporters spent the summer repairing and renovating the ground to bring it up to Ryman League premier division standards and it should be close to its 2,000 capacity on Sunday.

“The work they’ve done speaks volumes for their devotion,” Gordon Bartlett, the manager, said. “There’s a lot more to this football club than the people who’ll walk out on to the pitch on Sunday. This is my fifteenth season in charge. It’s been a challenge. When I started, we had no ground, were in administration, had three players, no reserve team and no youth team. I’m proud of what we’ve achieved, and I do emphasise the ‘we.’ ”

Only three players in the squad are older than 23. “It’s necessity,” Bartlett said. “We can’t afford experienced players. We’re aware of our limitations and we work to those. We’ll gradually keep trying to climb the ladder, but it’s a slow process.”

? John Still, the Dagenham & Redbridge manager, is desperate for his side to be taken seriously as a league club. The Coca-Cola League Two side achieved national fame as a non-League giant killer when they reached the FA Cup fourth round in 2003. But the club, who travel to Huddersfield Town in the first round tonight, have since been promoted. “I know people think Dagenham & Redbridge are a non-League club and are just here for a while, but I want to make sure we are here to stay,” Still said.

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