Danny Scopes Football Manager · Est. 2007
Vol. XIX · No. 9 Promoted · National League South · 2026–27 Updated 7 May 2026
The accidental manager

All I want
is all
you've got.

Five promotions. An FA Trophy final at Wembley. A Manager of the Season award. From the Sarah Moore pub in Leigh-on-Sea to Step Two of English football — the quiet, unflashy career of one of Essex non-league's true success stories.

Danny Scopes on the touchline at Billericay Town
Danny Scopes Billericay Town · 2026
Currently
Billericay Town
2025–26
Promoted
Career promotions
Five
Wembley appearances
One
01The Lede

A career he never meant to have.

Danny Scopes celebrating in his Concord Rangers tracksuit
Beachboys, on the up Concord Rangers · c. 2014

There are managers who spend years plotting their route into coaching, studying badges and biding their time. And then there is Danny Scopes. He didn't really want to go into management at all.

Persuaded into the dugout at Concord Rangers in 2007 — "almost bullied", as he put it — his first phone call as the new player-manager was the one that defined everything that followed. He rang Danny Cowley. The partnership that grew out of that conversation would take a club playing in front of fifty people up three divisions, and in time send the Cowleys on a journey to Lincoln, the FA Cup quarter-finals and the Championship.

Scopes stayed put. Loyalty, in his case, has always been the foundation. Nearly two decades on, the lad from Essex who never wanted to be a manager has quietly become one of the most respected figures in non-league football.

I said, well, I need a coach and I want to play as well — so you coming in will help me. It was probably the best thing I did. Danny Scopes, on the phone call to Danny Cowley, 2007
02The Chapters

Eighteen years, three clubs, one philosophy.

Ryman Premier Manager of the Month award, January 2012, Danny Scopes & Danny Cowley
Ryman Manager of the Month · January 2012
2007 — 2012

Concord Rangers I

Player-Manager · then Joint Manager (with Danny Cowley)

It started in the Sarah Moore pub in Leigh-on-Sea. Scopes thought he was helping chairman Ant Smith pick the next manager. By the time he left, senior pros Danny Heale and Dan Trenkel had talked him into taking the job himself. Crowds of fifty. Essex Senior League. A 40th anniversary season that nobody saw coming.

His first call as the new player-manager was to Danny Cowley, then a coach at Hornchurch. Cowley joined as assistant. They won the Essex Senior League at the first attempt. The following summer Cowley moved up to joint-manager, and two seasons later they won promotion again, beating Enfield Town in the Isthmian North play-off final to reach Step 3. Then, after five seasons, Scopes stepped away in summer 2012 — citing work and family commitments, with his two boys (then aged eight and five) getting deeper into football of their own. Danny Cowley took the club further still — to the National League South in 2012–13.

  • Essex Senior League champions, 2007–08 (player-manager)
  • Gordon Brasted Memorial Trophy, 2007–08
  • FA Vase quarter-finalists, 2007–08
  • Isthmian North play-off winners, 2009–10 (joint manager)
  • Two promotions: Step 5 → Step 4 → Step 3
Concord Rangers line up on the Wembley turf before the 2019-20 FA Trophy Final v Harrogate Town
Wembley · 3 May 2021 · Concord lineup, FA Trophy Final v Harrogate
2019 — 2021

Concord Rangers II

First-Team Manager · National League South

Two pandemic-disrupted seasons at Step Two with a part-time squad and behind-closed-doors football. The headline league return looks modest. The cup record does not. The FA Trophy run, navigated across two calendar years, ended at Wembley.

  • FA Trophy finalists, 2019–20 (extended into 2020–21)
  • Wembley appearance, 3 May 2021 · v Harrogate Town
  • Step 2 football navigated through pandemic curtailment
  • Part-time squad, behind-closed-doors fixtures, voided seasons
Aveley FC trophy haul including Danny Scopes North Division Manager of the Season 2021-22
Manager of the Season · Aveley · 2021–22
2021 — 2025

Aveley FC

First-Team Manager · The defining four years

Joined the Millers in October 2021 in the Isthmian North. Took them up to Step Two and to the National League South play-offs. A first major trophy since 1990. A club-record league finish. A Manager of the Season award. Three and a half years that, in CEO Craig Johnson's words, the club "could only ever have dreamt about".

  • Isthmian North champions (2021–22)
  • Velocity Trophy winners (2022–23, 3–0 in the final)
  • Promoted to National League South via play-offs
  • National League South Manager of the Season (2023–24)
Danny Scopes and the Billericay Town backroom staff with the Pitching In Isthmian Premier Division Play-Off Final Winners trophy at New Lodge, 4 May 2026
Promoted · New Lodge · 4 May 2026
Sep 2025 — Present

Billericay Town

First-Team Manager · Promoted to the National League South

The job that had once gone elsewhere. Inherited a side with two wins from six. Eight months later: third in the Isthmian Premier, eighty-two points, twenty-four wins, +33 goal difference. Twelve unbeaten matches into the final. The BBC Essex Senior Cup lifted at Colchester. Manager of the Month for March.

And then, on Bank Holiday Monday, 4 May 2026 — at a packed New Lodge against Brentwood Town. 2–1. Kaiser put through his own net early. Thomas pulled Brentwood level. Extra time. Watts, two minutes from the end of it. Promotion to the National League South. The fifth promotion of his managerial career. The third Essex club he has taken to a higher level than it had ever previously reached.

  • Promoted to the National League South 2026–27
  • Beat Brentwood Town 2–1 a.e.t. · Watts 118'
  • BBC Essex Senior Cup Winners 2025–26 (5th in the club's history)
  • Vita Risk Solutions Premier Division Manager of the Month, March 2026
  • Twelve unbeaten · 11 wins from 12 going into the play-offs
The Sun · The Echo · Yahoo Sports · Isthmian League · Essex FA · BBC Essex · Non-League Football Paper
·The Backroom · New Lodge
Danny Scopes
Manager
Adam Drew
Assistant Manager
Craig Shipman
First-Team Coach
Scott Wagstaff
Analyst
Danny Scopes addressing his Concord Rangers players in the Wembley dressing room before the FA Trophy final
03 · 3 May 2021 · Bank Holiday Monday

The 2019–20 FA Trophy final, delayed by a global pandemic and finally played the following May, was the culmination of everything the second Concord Rangers spell stood for. A part-time squad. No competitive football since February. A side that, in any reasonable reading, ought to have been overrun.

Inside the changing room before kick-off, the screen carried a six-word message that had become the team's motto. All I want is all you've got. Goalkeeper Chris Haigh produced the saves of his career. The Beachboys lost 1–0 to a League Two side. They left Wembley with their ethos intact and, as Scopes put it, hungrier than they arrived.

"We say what we're about and what we stand for. We haven't got loads of money, but we survive and we're that underdog. We've got this special DNA and fighting spirit, this never-surrender attitude. We will give everything we've got every game."

Harrogate Town
1
0
Concord Rangers
Competition · FA Trophy Final Venue · Wembley Stadium Man of the Match · Chris Haigh Assistant Manager · Lee Minshull
Danny Scopes and assistant manager Lee Minshull on the Wembley touchline before the FA Trophy final, behind closed doors
The Touchline Scopes & Minshull, empty stadium, May 2021
Danny Scopes walking the Wembley pitch in his Concord Rangers tracksuit before the FA Trophy final
The Walk Empty arches, Concord on the pitch
04The Numbers

Three clubs. Three different jobs. One pattern.

Reductive numbers don't tell this story. Two pandemic-curtailed seasons at Step 2 with a part-time squad. Four years at Aveley taking a club from Step 4 to a club-record finish at Step 2. Eight months at Billericay turning two-wins-from-six into promotion. Each card below is the right unit for the job that was done.

Concord Rangers
2019 — 2021 · Step 2 · two pandemic-curtailed seasons
Wembley
FA Trophy Finalists 2020–21
Final0–1
vsHarrogate
Date3 May 21
TierLeague 2
Aveley FC
Oct 2021 — Jun 2025 · Steps 4 → 2 · four seasons
2 + 1
Promotions · Manager of the Season
21–22Champions
22–23Velocity
22–23Promoted
23–24NLS MOTS
Billericay Town
Sep 2025 — Present · Step 3 · league only, Dan-era
2.08
Points per match · 36 games · 75 pts
P36
W22
D9
L5
The pattern
Sole management, 2019–present
5promotions
2Manager of the Season
1FA Trophy Final
1BBC Essex Senior Cup
3Essex clubs at career-best level

Records compiled from the 2025–26 Isthmian Premier League final table (TheFishy / Isthmian Football League official, 4 May 2026). Concord co-management era (2007–2012) — two promotions across five seasons alongside Danny Cowley, before Scopes stepped away in summer 2012 citing work and family commitments. Cowley then took Concord further to Step 2 in 2012–13.

05The Honours

Hardware. Earned.

Promoted to the National League South 2026-27 with Billericay Town
4 May 2026
Promoted
to the National League South
Billericay Town · 2–1 a.e.t. v Brentwood Town · Watts 118'
Danny Scopes lifting the BBC Essex Senior Cup with Billericay Town, March 2026
24 March 2026
BBC Essex Senior Cup
Winners
Billericay Town · 2–1 v Great Wakering Rovers · The club's fifth
Danny Scopes receiving the Vita Risk Solutions Isthmian Premier Manager of the Month trophy for March 2026
March 2026
Vita Risk Solutions
Premier Manager of the Month
Isthmian Premier Division · Billericay Town
Ryman Premier Division Manager of the Month award, January 2012
January 2012
Ryman Premier
Manager of the Month
Concord Rangers · with Danny Cowley
Aveley North Division Manager of the Season 2021-22 trophy and league trophy
2021 — 22
North Division
Manager of the Season
Aveley FC · also: League title, Team of the Season, Fair Play
Danny Scopes receiving an award
2023 — 24
Vanarama National South
Manager of the Season
Aveley FC · club-record league finish
06Off the touchline

The other double life.

Football is the second job, not the first. By day, Scopes is Sales Director at Essex Supplies (UK) Ltd, a cleaning and janitorial supplier serving businesses across Essex and the surrounding region for over thirty years. By night, the Billericay Town dugout. The dual life that defines non-league management.

Training sessions, away trips to Hornchurch and Cheshunt, FA Trophy Saturdays — all fitted around the Monday-to-Friday of sales targets, customer accounts and the kind of unglamorous graft that keeps the lights on at home and the boots polished at the club. It is the rhythm of football below the professional line, and Scopes has been doing it for the best part of two decades.

Home, when he is in neither, is in Essex with his wife Zoe and their two sons, Vinny and Riley. The boys came up through youth football alongside Concord kit-man Darren Leech's lad — a thread that runs through every chapter of the Wembley story, and one of the reasons Scopes cited as making the run mean what it did. We've been on park pitches, picked the dog muck up and put the goals up for years.

It is, in the end, a particular Essex story: the bloke who never wanted to be a manager, who has somehow ended up as one of the most respected in the county — while still doing his Monday-to-Friday in sales. The accidental career, sustained by the unglamorous one.

07The Creed
We approach every game like a cup final
and empty the tank.
That is all we ask.

What defines Danny Scopes is not flash or fanfare. It is consistency, loyalty, and a genuine ability to build collective belief in clubs others have written off.

Whether it was Concord rising from crowds of fifty to a Wembley final, or Aveley going from relegation favourites to National League South play-offs and a Manager of the Season award, the story is always the same: teams playing well above their station, driven by an environment their manager has carefully built around them.

The secret, in the end, is no great mystery.

Danny Scopes
Manager · Billericay Town · 2026