HE hardly kicked a ball outside of the top division as a player, but Newport County AFC boss Justin Edinburgh was this week honoured as the top man in football’s non-league.

Better known as a former Premier League full-back with Tottenham Hotspur, Edinburgh has spent ten years making his name as a manager in non-league football.

Now he stands as a Football League boss and S & C Slatter manager of the year in The Non-League Paper’s National Game Awards, in association with Budweiser Club Futures.

The award comes after he masterminded County’s successful Blue Square Bet Premier play-off campaign.

Edinburgh, aged 43, transformed the Exiles from relegation battlers to promotion winners inside 12 months, bringing League football back to the Exiles for the first time in a quarter-of-a-century.

County’s consistent season saw them lead the table for long parts and only drop out of the top four at the end of one of their 46 matchdays.

A fixture pile-up that saw them play 12 games in the final 33 days of the season ultimately, in the manager’s eyes, cost them a realistic shot at the title.

But even then, it was only in their penultimate game at Luton Town that County’s mathematical hopes of finishing above Mansfield Town were extinguished, and they had to settle for third place.

They did the double over the eventual champions and then a play-off semi-final job on Grimsby Town, winning both legs 1-0 to set up Wembley’s first-ever all-Welsh affair with Wrexham.

Late goals from Christian Jolley and Aaron O’Connor sealed a 2-0 win, and set Edinburgh planning for League Two fixtures against old playing clubs Southend United and Portsmouth after a grass-roots apprenticeship as a gaffer at Billericay, Fisher Athletic, Grays, Woking and Rushden & Diamonds.

Edinburgh said: “It’s taken me longer than I’d envisaged and there have been plenty of trials and tribulations along the way.

“But I’ve never been big-headed and expected anyone to hand me a job in the League. I wanted to start from the bottom and get my hands dirty.

“From Billericay to Newport, I’ve learned about every aspect of a manager’s job and exactly what it means to the volunteers who put so much time and, in many cases, money into making their club run.

“The players have been magnificent. To go from finishing 19th one season to winning promotion the next is an amazing achievement.

“I honestly believe we were the best team in the league.

“The backlog of games due to the weather eventually caught up with us, but we got there in the end on an emotional day for us all at Wembley.

“It has always been my ambition to manage in the Football League and from when we went to Wembley in the FA Trophy final (last season) I was confident I could achieve that ambition with Newport.”

l The Non-League Paper is the UK’s number one selling football title available in all shops on Sundays. www.thenonleaguefootballpaper.com