When Ryan Lowe passed through West Lancashire with his family as a child, little did he realise that a football club, nestled in a housing estate, would be the springboard to a career laden with personal accolades, silverware and over 200 professional goals.
The 46-year-old would drive through Burscough, on their way to Martin Mere, a wetland nature reserve and wildfowl collection 10 miles from Southport, and unbeknownst to him, years later he would fire the Linnets to promotion - earning a move into the Football League as a result.
Lowe had earned a reputation for being a clinical goalscorer after his success with East Villa and Southport’s youth team before he moved into Liverpool’s amateur football scene with Waterloo Dock and the Sandon.
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The tricky attacker had polished his skills with Liverpool, playing alongside Steven Gerrard, at 13 - returning at 15 - but subsequently saw his path toward achieving a career as a professional take a different turn when he subsequently left with Robbie Fowler and Michael Owen coming through.
“I had one vision and one vision only to be a professional footballer, whatever route that took me there, I had to take,” the new Wigan Athletic manager recalls.
Lowe earned his stripes and the dogged amateur football scene in Liverpool provided the perfect footing for an 18-year-old. With aspirations of becoming a professional footballer, the striker would travel around the country for trials, trying his luck at the likes of Rochdale, Hull, Everton and Tranmere.
The knockbacks served as an opportunity for him to take stock and re-evaluate. A former teammate of his father-on-law, Peter King, heard about the goal-getter and encouraged a move to Burscough, who then played in the Unibond Northern Premier League.
King was the right-hand man for Linnets manager John Davison. Lowe recalls: “I was all over the place, Everton and Tranmere. I thought I’d get my head down here and have a full season.
"If truth be known, I didn’t know where Burscough was. We used to go Martin Mere as kids and drive through but I didn’t think they had a football team at that time."
In West Lancashire, Lowe counted on experienced heads with the likes of Ged Nolan, Billy Knowles and Andy McMullen taking the Anfield-born talisman under their wing.
To this day, Burscough players past and present continue to keep in contact with a WhatsApp group named: ‘It’s always our year’, referencing their league success in 2000.
By Christmas, Lowe had fired 22 goals in 23 games - ending the season with 38 in the goalscorers chart.
It was the former Bury and Tranmere Rovers striker who scored the winning penalty against Harrogate Town that earned Burscough promotion, although they are pipped to the title by Accrington Stanley on goal difference.
“I was a goalscorer but without the exception of the gang who looked after me, showed me the ropes and what it looks like to be a footballer, never mind a professional footballer was key and Peter King was key to that,” the 46-year-old reiterates.
“It was amazing because at the time, there were some big teams who paid big money and if you know Burscough, they didn’t pay big money.
“I was the best player and I was getting £50 which I used to fill my car up, it might’ve even been £30, you had other players on good money because of where they’d been.
“But it was the camaraderie, the togetherness and the culture that we set to get us to where we wanted to go to.”
Although Lowe walked away as the Supporters' Player of the Season and with the golden boot, the battles, scars and memories still sit at the forefront of his mind despite two promotions with Bury, one with Sheffield Wednesday and a playoff winner with Shrewsbury Town.
Two-hundred-and-twelve times Lowe found the back of the net throughout his professional career but a Marco van Basten-esque volley at Bradford Park Avenue during the 1999-00 season charts among his best.
Lowe recalls: “I always remember it, it came over me and I hit it an angle, it was one of the best goals I’ve ever scored, it was about 30 yards, on the volley into the top bin (laughs), dipped over the ‘keeper.
“There’ll have been some important goals in there, at places where you’re getting kicked to death, you find yourself one-on-one with the goalkeeper and slot it under him so there was plenty but Bradford Park Avenue was one of the best I’ve ever scored.”
And still, he never managed to keep his savour his trebles, Lowe laughs: “I couldn’t take any hat-trick balls home because we needed them, we didn’t have loads.”
That summer, legendary scout Sid Benson helped orchestrate a trial at Everton during Colin Harvey and Howard Kendall’s tenure. Although it didn’t result in terms with the Blues, due to being ‘a year too old’, Lowe made enough of an impression to be recommended to the Shrewsbury.
Within a week, he departed Burscough as a promotion-winner and began his illustrious journey in professional football. In joining the Shrews, Lowe signed his first-ever contract after being on non-contract terms at Victoria Park.
But the Linnets were not left empty-handed as they were gifted compensation and held a pre-season friendly which further lined the coffers.
A once unknown entity to Lowe proved to be the springboard to a successful playing career with an impressive managerial CV to follow.
The 46-year-old reflects: “Without Burscough I wouldn’t have got to where I go to, to be honest. I had loads of knockbacks to get back up, you’ve got take these knocks to get to where you want to get to. It definitely helped me where I went to, I wouldn’t dismiss it to anyone.”
