Clucas on course to follow in illustrious footsteps

[FF News]

To those of a certain generation, Ian Wright will forever be the poster boy for non-league talent that took the professional ranks by storm – with a promising striker spotted while turning out for Greenwich Borough offered his big break by Crystal Palace before going on to set goal-scoring records at Arsenal and earn 33 caps for his country.

He was not alone in his era, with the likes of Chris Waddle, Stuart Pearce and Les Ferdinand taking their first tentative steps on the road to superstardom and international honours after leaving Tow Law Town, Wealdstone and Hayes behind them.

That path has continued to be well-trodden in the years that have followed, with figures such as Stan Collymore and Kevin Phillips setting the Premier League alight in the nineties and noughties. Bringing the story up to the present day, and there are numerous top-flight performers whose roots can be traced back to the non-league ranks – from Lee Tomlin to Dwight Gayle, Ashley Williams to Chris Smalling, and that is before you get to those to have made the most impressive of marks over the course of the last 18 months.

MAN OF THE MATCH: @samclucas was named @HullCity's MOTM against @Boro today? Did you agree? #HULMID pic.twitter.com/IMlW4IyKFM

— Hull City (@HullCity) November 7, 2015

Charlie Austin, the former bricklayer and prolific Poole Town marksman, plundered 18 goals among the elite in 2014/15, while Jamie Vardy – a man who fired Fleetwood Town into the Football League back in 2011/12 – is threatening to go even better this time around as he sits proudly atop of the Premier League scoring charts.

There are, of course, plenty of similar stories to be found across the country, but the next man to burst onto the top-flight scene could well be edging his way towards hitting that target at Hull City. Sam Clucas has enjoyed a meteoric rise over the course of the last five years, with his release by Lincoln City in 2010 followed by a spell at the Glenn Hoddle Academy before being snapped up by Hereford United.

Two years with the Bulls provided him with a window to the wider football world, and he has not looked back since being drafted into League circles by Mansfield Town following their successful promotion push in 2013. One impressive season with the Stags led to a switch to Chesterfield, where another productive 12 months carried him to Hull, for a fee of over £1million. Each step up the ladder has been taken with seemingly consummate ease, with Steve Bruce having seen enough in Clucas to have made him a mainstay in his Tigers side – with 19 appearances thus far bringing 16 starts and only one fixture in which he failed to see any game time.

Hull have positioned themselves firmly among the frontrunners in the Championship promotion race, and while you are unlikely to get favourable odds on them taking another positive step towards Wembley within League Cup betting markets – having drawn Manchester City at the quarter-final stage – they are shortening by the week when it comes to bouncing back into the big time at the first time of asking.

Clucas can expect to have a leading role to play in that quest and you get the feeling that if Hull are to be rubbing shoulders with the Arsenals and Manchester Uniteds of this world again next season, then the talented 25-year-old will continue to take everything in his stride and relish the challenge of becoming the next Wright, Austin or Vardy.

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