'It has always been a case for me that the club is growing and it is trying to continue on its upward trajectory' Mikey Williams

WHEN a manager tries to tempt a player to join him at a particular football club, you can guarantee they will try and sell a dream.

- STUART JAMES

Those dreams are usually born of grandeur and glory, but while they are often unrealistic, the challenge for manager and player is to realise that dream.

It was no different for Mikey Williams, when he was mulling over his next move in the summer of 2017. The former Plymouth Argyle Academy product had just spent four years on a scholarship in the United States, prior to a season at Tiverton Town, when he was deciding where to go next.

He was sold a dream by Lee Hobbs, who had not long taken over as manager of Plymouth Parkway.

That dream was to go through the leagues, the usual kind of hyperbole and spiel used when a manager wants a player so desperately. But whatever Hobbs said worked as Williams didn't just agree to sign, but become a bedrock at a club where the dream turned into reality.

"The manager at the time, Lee Hobbs, showed interest in me and we met," Williams recalls of that summer. "I believed in the journey they were looking to go on and I just wanted to be a part of it, really.

"Lee said it was a progressive club that were looking to climb up through the leagues, but I don't think we could ever have anticipated how well we have actually done in the last seven or eight years.

"We have had three promotions and in the space of about five years - so it was a meteoric rise and to be fair, a lot of credit doesn't just go -to the management team and the - players, but the board, the chairman and vice-chairman, who have got involved and helped grow the club.