FA Cup first-round: Dan Lowson will go from nags to riches if Spennymoor beat MK Dons
Northern Premier League keeper is learning to be a farrier, shoeing stallions in the week then hoofing footballs on the weekend
DAN LOWSON will go from nags to riches if Spennymoor make an ass out of MK Dons on Saturday.
The Northern Premier League keeper is learning to be a farrier, shoeing stallions in the week then hoofing footballs on the weekend.
And mane man Lowson will be horsing around right up until his side’s historic FA Cup first-round clash — as he sits a practical exam just 24 hours before stepping out at Stadium MK.
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The 28-year-old told SunSport: “As part of my work, I have to go to college for a three-week block twice a year.
“You have an exam at the end of every block — and it happens to be the day before our game.
“That’s just what you need, isn’t it? Making shoes, hands battered and bruised!
“I’ll be sweating it out in the forge on Friday. Then I will be driving down from college to Northampton, getting to the hotel knackered.
“I’ve then got to get up to play a game against a team in League One!”
Lowson is studying for a diploma in farriery at Myerscough College in Preston and works for Mathison Registered Farriers in Beverley, East Yorkshire.
They are both a two-hour drive from Spennymoor’s ground in County Durham, and even further from his home in Morpeth, where he lives with his girlfriend and three-year-old daughter.
Lowson said: “On Monday morning, I get up at 4am to get to work for 7.30am.
“I stay with my auntie Monday to Friday as she lives near my work.
“But on a Tuesday night I drive back up to Spennymoor for training or wherever we have a game.
“The mileage I clock up is ridiculous, but that’s the way things have got to be. It’s my first proper job as I left school and got a YT at Gretna in Scotland when they were on the rise.
“I’ve pretty much just played football for a living since then.
“I’ve been around horses all my life — my dad has a livery yard and my girlfriend a riding school.
“So I enjoy the job. It’s demanding but it’s really interesting. It’s not like a normal nine-to-five.”
Lowson is into his second season with Spennymoor, who play in the seventh tier of English football.
And the Newcastle fan has already made his mark in the FA Cup this season, scoring an 80-yard free-kick in a 5-3 first-round qualifying win over Radcliffe Borough in September.
Lowson smiled: “Not every keeper gets to score in the FA Cup! It’s pretty cool.
“I just went to pick out the striker and overshot him.
“It bounced just inside the D, on the edge of the box, the keeper was off his line and the rest is history.
“It was mental afterwards. I was at a shoemaking competition at a show the day afterwards and got back to my phone to find I had over a thousand notifications.
“People just kept tagging me on things on Facebook and Twitter. For a full week my phone never stopped. It was crazy how far it went.
“I have friends who play in America and they were like, ‘You’ve just come on in the telly in the gym’.
“Iain Ramsay, who is in the Philippines squad, was ringing me up and saying, ‘Mate, you’ve just come on the news over here’.”
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Lowson is now looking forward to seeing himself on the TV again... on Saturday night’s Match of the Day.
He added: “It’s a bit of a bummer that we are not live on telly but we will be on the highlights.
“Hopefully we can cause an upset. They’ve just lost their manager and it’s the FA Cup, so anything can happen.”
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