INSIDE VIEW: Chasetown's Dean Perrow playing for family pride in final battle

May 2 2009 by Colin Stoner, Birmingham Mail

IT won’t be simply the opportunity to fire Chasetown into the Southern Premier for the first time in their history which will inspire Dean Perrow in today’s play-off final.

There is also the matter of family pride.

Nuneaton Town goalkeeper Darren Acton is a relative as well as a footballing rival so Scholars striker Perrow would love to spoil his day when they come head to head in the British Gas Business Midlands final.

In the last few contests, it has been advantage Perrow but that will matter none when they line up at Liberty Way.

“Darren is my dad’s cousin,” said Perrow. “So it would be nice to score against him.

“I scored against him at Liberty Way in the league match against Nuneaton, and I scored when we beat them in the FA Cup a couple of years ago.

“But then he got one over me at Chasetown when I couldn’t beat him. I’m looking forward to the battle.”

Perrow’s Cup goal in a 2-1 fourth qualifying round win in October 2007 helped Chasetown on the road towards history-making ties against Port Vale and then Cardiff City.

But the forward from Great Barr admits the prospect of playing in the Premier Division next season makes today’s encounter even more significant than their headline-grabbing Cup exploits.

“This is bigger than playing Cardiff,” said Perrow.

“Cardiff was more of an occasion. It was a game we could just go out and enjoy because we knew we weren’t going to win the FA Cup.

“But this is so important. Everyone at Chasetown wants to play in the Premier.

“We would have liked to have gone up automatically but this is the next best thing. Going to Nuneaton will be a great fixture – they are a big club, with great support and the best ground at our level.

“They will be the favourites but if we can put in another performance like we did at Leamington and at Atherstone then we can go there and win.”

Perrow’s treble – taking his goals tally to a career best 33 this season – helped thump Atherstone 5-0 in their play-off semi-final on Tuesday.

But Perrow is no stranger to the drama of the play-offs, having experienced disappointment with previous clubs Sutton Coldfield Town and Willenhall Town. I’m hoping this is third time lucky,” he said.

“When I was at Sutton we got to the play-offs against Banbury United to decide who would go into the Premier when the league restructuring took place,” said Perrow.

“We were leading but then they scored two goals in the last couple of minutes.

“Then I went to Willenhall with Rob Smith and Larry Chambers.

‘‘They were in the UniBond League and we lost in the semi-final at Kendal. We just lost out on winning the title and our heads were down and it was such a deflating experience.”

Chasetown will not be lacking in confidence to today’s assignment, though they know they will need to be at their very best to topple Kevin Wilkin’s Nuneaton.

However, the Scholars have players accustomed to the ‘big match atmosphere’.

“Everyone has got to be on their game,” said Perrow.

“The experienced players like Adie Smith, Gary Birch and Richard Teesdale are going to be key. Adie has won the Conference with Kidderminster, Tees has played with Hereford and Birchy has scored goals for Walsall.

“They will keep the younger players focused on the job in hand.”

Perrow admits he had endured an up and down season.

He had to sit on the sidelines for three months after hamstring and calf problems but his comeback coincided with an injury to Danny Smith and allowed him to team up with Birch up front. It’s the proverbial big man-little man partnership but Perrow says ex-Walsall, Kidderminster, Lincoln and AFC Telford forward Birch has more than brute force to his game.

“I’ve never seen a better player than Birchy at our level,” said Perrow.

“He is a class act. He doesn’t just score, he creates goals.

“It was frustrating being out for three months and Danny and Birchy worked well together but then unluckily for Danny he got injured and I got back into the team.

“It took me a while to get back scoring goals. I should have had a couple of goals against Arlesey and Bedworth in the last few matches but once you get one goal your confidence goes sky high.

“It was great to get three goals against Atherstone and get the ball signed by all the players. But I want a medal more than anything else.”