FA Vase Final: Engineer misses his shift at Wembley… to play there instead

“Don’t put me in the same category as those two!” Jay Lovell said he was shocked to have his name mentioned in the same breath as Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney.

The 33-year-old defender is set to join the former Liverpool and Manchester United captain in the history books by leading a team to Wembley on Sunday.

Lovell will lead Cockfosters from Enfield, north London, into the FA Vase final against AFC Stoneham, based in the Hampshire town of Eastleigh.

The father-of-two had always planned to be at Wembley this weekend, though not like this.

Lovell is an escalator engineer from Hertfordshire and works for a company responsible for installing, maintaining and upgrading escalators at the National Stadium.

This means he and his colleagues need to be on site on the day of the event if there are any issues or problems.

Cockfosters beat Kent-based Punjab United 3-1 on aggregate in last month’s semi-final to reach the final.

It means Lovell will no longer report to Wembley as an engineer this weekend, but will instead help his side lift the FA Vase for the first time in the club’s history.

“Now that I’ve actually reached the final, nobody’s working,” Lovell told BBC Sport.

“All the guys are coming to see me. We’ve given the job to someone else.

“One of my bosses actually turned around and said: ‘You’ve got a two-hour break to play football, have you?’ He had quite a fight with me about it.”