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Chey Dunkley interview: Wigan defender's rise from non-league

Exclusive interview with Wigan defender Chey Dunkley

Wigan Athletic defender Chey Dunkley has gone from non-league football to marking Sergio Aguero and winning promotion to the Championship. Adam Bate caught up with him to find out how he did it and why those years of hard graft are paying off now.

Paul Cook is adamant his Wigan Athletic team will not let up. One more win is all it will take for them to claim the League One title. Unless Blackburn Rovers put at least 18 past Oxford United at Ewood Park, even a draw will be enough. No wonder Rochdale boss Keith Hill has called them "the best League One squad" that he has seen in his long career in management.

There have been many heroes. Will Grigg's 18 goals have come at an unmatched rate of one every 131 minutes. Nick Powell's quality never did belong in the third tier. Nathan Byrne has been a revelation at right-back and Sam Morsy's midfield work is much admired. Dan Burn made the PFA League One team of the year and nobody could argue with that.

But perhaps it is Burn's centre-back partner who has been the biggest surprise hit of the season. While Chey Dunkley was not among the four Wigan players named in that team of the year, he is many supporters' pick for the club's player of the year. A free transfer signing from Oxford, he was Cook's first acquisition for Wigan and surely his best.

Wigan's Chey Dunkley and manager Paul Cook are presented with the SkyBet player and manager of the month awards for March 2018 - Mandatory by-line: Matt McNulty/JMP - 04/04/2018 - FOOTBALL - Wigan Athletic - SkyBet Player of the Month
Image: Dunkley and Paul Cook receiving their League One awards for March

Cook was encouraged by the fact that Dunkley had worked his way up through the leagues. That he had earned his chance the hard way. "I started out at Crewe but got released after my YTS with them," Dunkley tells Sky Sports. "I ended up going to Hednesford for two seasons. Then I got a chance to play full-time in the National League with Kidderminster."

The Wolverhampton-born defender was almost 23 when Michael Appleton gave him his chance in the Football League with Oxford. Now 26, Dunkley looks back on those years spent in non-league football as crucial to his current success. "It has definitely moulded me into the player I am today. It gets you ready straight away as a teenager," he explains.

Image: Dunkley back in his non-league days playing for Kidderminster Harriers

"It is different to just being on the bench. If I had stayed in the academy from 18 I don't know how I would have developed. It could have been a very different story. If you're lucky you might get in early, and Crewe are known for that, but at a lot of clubs you might end up waiting until your early twenties for that chance to get an experience of men's football.

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"Instead, I was getting games. I remember playing for Hednesford in the Staffordshire Senior Cup and I was up against Geoff Horsfield at the back end of his career. He gave me a hard time, to be fair, with a few elbows and stuff like that. But it develops you and that's why you are seeing more and more players come from non-league. It helped me, for sure."

Dunkley on the gaffer

“I know he played in midfield for Wolves and apparently he had a wand of a left foot. I see it on the training ground all the time. The gaffer is always one of the first ones out for shooting practice, putting it in the corners or driving it. He has a few techniques so you can see he was a technical player.”

An ageing Horsfield is one thing but Dunkley has since shown he can help shut out Sergio Aguero too. He was a key part of the Wigan side that beat the Premier League champions 1-0 in February. It was a reminder that the side's success is built on their defensive resilience - they have kept 26 clean sheets in the league this season, more than anyone else in England.

Grigg, the hero against City, calls that record "incredible" but Dunkley is magnanimous. "When you are alongside someone like Dan Burn, you just want to keep at the standard," he says. "He gives confidence to the whole team. It has been a good partnership for us but we are strong all over. Alex Bruce came in and did a job too. Hence why we are where we are."

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Highlights of Wigan's recent 4-0 win over Fleetwood in League One

There have been goals too. Three for Dunkley in March alone helped him to pick up the League One player of the month award. "I'm up there for corners and set-plays so if I can chip in it is always good," he says. But the big goal was promotion and with that now secure, Dunkley can begin to wonder just how far his journey from the bottom could yet take him.

"It is a good feeling to be so close to the second tier of English football," he says. "The Championship would be a new challenge. It is a higher standard and a better level. It would just be a case of pushing myself again. Others have done it before me and not found it a problem so I would back myself to do well and take that opportunity.

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"The truth is that you never really know until you are in that league. It was the same with League One. I remember playing Oldham in the FA Cup for Kidderminster. You get a taste of it but that's all it is. When we played against Manchester City, everyone raised their game. But anyone can do it for one game. The challenge is to do it on a consistent basis.

"I would back myself to do it but you still need to put the graft in, be professional and do the right things." The signs are good so far and three points against Doncaster Rovers on Saturday will ensure he enters the Championship as a champion with Wigan Athletic. "This is a top club," he adds. "It is moving in the right direction." And so it seems is Chey Dunkley.

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