FA Vase final: the engineer missing his shift at Wembley… to play there instead

“Don’t put me in the same category as those two!” says Jay Lovell, surprised to see his name mentioned in the same breath as Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney.

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

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

The father-of-two always had plans to be at Wembley this weekend, but not quite like that.

Lovell is an escalator engineer from Hertfordshire and works for a company responsible for the installation, maintenance and improvement of escalators at the national stadium.

This means that he and his colleagues must be on site on the day of the event in case there are any issues or issues.

Cockfosters retained their place in the final by beating Kent-based Punjab United 3-1 on aggregate over two legs in last month’s semi-final.

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

“No one is working now that I’ve reached the final,” Lovell told BBC Sport.

“All the kids come to watch me. We handed over the business to someone else.

“One of my bosses turned around and said: ‘You took a two-hour break to play football, didn’t you?’ “He joked with me a lot about it.”