Full-time Whites delights Tommy WEBSITE EXCLUSIVE

But barely two-and-half years after helping lift the Whites away from its relegation zone, back-to-back promotions mean the charismatic Geordie is plotting his return to the big time with the Wiltshire club.

City announced this week its intention to tread the full-time route ahead of its first season in the Blue Square Premier and that top striker Matt Tubbs had signed on as its first pro player.

Widdrington, who played a key part in convincing the young striker he could further his ambition of playing league football in a City shirt, is delighted by the news.

"First and foremost, it's a recognition of the talent of the player.

"We obviously try and guide them and help them along with the bits that we've picked up along our way, but Matt's had an exceptional season.

"He's had highs and lows and a big part of his character came through I thought after his lengthy ban, when he knew that us missing him for those six games almost cost us the chance to win the title.

"But he picked himself up and I thought he was outstanding towards the end of the season.

"It hasn't surprised me that there's conjecture from all over the place that there are other clubs sniffing around him."

Tubbs netted the goal that propelled City to the top flight of the non-league game in the play-off final against Braintree Town, earning himself a call up to the National Game XI.

"The recognition from Paul Fairclough and England was fantastic and well deserved," added Widdrington.

"I wasn't surprised that he did well for them because I don't think there's many better than him in the Conference, never mind the Conference South.

"He's starting to fulfil the potential we thought he had years ago."

The hard-working Tubbs typifies the kind of players Widdrington wants around him as he and manager Nick Holmes and assistant manager Barry Blankley look to lift the club to an even bigger stage.

"When you look at who we've tried to recruit into the football club since I've been here, the majority have come from at least the level we were playing at and probably higher.

"They bring with them good habits and good traits.

"Lads like Tubbsy and Tim Bond and even Scotty Bartlett, who want to learn all the time and want to strive to make themselves better, benefit from that.

"The club has made great strides upwards and the players that we already have here have made massive strides and the recruitment side of things has helped that along massively."

After winning the Southern League Premier Division at a canter, City took to the Nationwide Conference South like the proverbial duck to water.

No one had mentioned back-to-back promotions at the start of the 2006/07 campaign, but having hit the ground running with a stunning sequence of results, they were soon being talked of as serious contenders for a play-off place.

Indeed, had an FA Cup adventure, which took them to two televised second round matches with Nottingham Forest and another FA Trophy run to the quarter-finals not taken their toll - injuries and suspensions mounted up - Whites may well have given eventual champions Histon more of a run for their money.

However, they took the play-off route to glory and as the celebrations began, the realisation that they had reached their goal a year earlier than planned began to sink in.

"Nick and I had a rueful chat and smile at each other across the desk," recalls a healthily tanned Widdrington, who is back in the driving seat at the ground after an early summer holiday.

"Once we'd done it and after it had all settled down before I went away, he said that's the first bit done - now the tough bit!"

Widdrington is under no illusion that this season will be City's hardest since he arrived from Port Vale just 28 months ago.

"Without a doubt the transition from Conference South or North into the Conference is the biggest jump that there is to make because 95-per-cent of the clubs in the Conference are professional sides.

"And they're all on an upward curve - usually because if they've been in the Football League like your Oxfords and your Torquays and your Kidderminsters and your Halifaxs, they've hit the bottom and now they're coming back up again.

"They're striving to go onwards and all of their recruitment will be from league football, without a doubt.

"We've got to quickly get into stride.

"It's happened a little bit quicker than we'd expected but you don't turn down promotions when they come along and, now we're here, the football club has made it clear that we want to stay here, at least.

"Whether that shortens our longer term plan, I don't know, or maybe it just means we've got a year in hand!"

Acknowledged as one of the best up and coming coaches in the game, the 35-year-old admits he was somewhat frustrated at not being able to coach on a daily basis at the part-time club, and before former England star Paul Ince accepted the managerial reins at Macclesfield Town midway through last season, speculation was rife that Widdrington had been offered the chance to manage one of his former clubs.

But Widdrington was reluctant to give up the opportunity to finish what he'd started at the Ray Mac, and is thrilled to at last have the chance to work even closer with the City players on a day-to-day basis.

"It's what I want.

"The only reason I would have ever left Salisbury for any club - and I had a few court me last season apart from the one everybody heard about - was that it would give me the opportunity to be on the training ground four days a week, rather than two nights.

"The way things are panning out now, with Matt being the first one, obviously I'm not going to stand on the training ground with just him.

"So people can realise now that we are going to take a few more players full-time if we can persuade them to do so.

"But it won't be all of them because, it's not right for everybody.

"Their own situation and whatever job or career they're pursuing will determine it.

"They can't all just take a gamble and go full-time because if it doesn't work for them, then I don't know if the gain outweighs the loss, if it were to come to that.

"It's a difficult situation because I'm very wary of the fact that people might think the dressing room would split in half.

"But we've got lads here with enough football nous to realise that, if the club in the longer term want to progress even further, which we do, then getting our house in order has to happen very quickly, because we just wouldn't be able to compete.

"It's as simple as that.

"People throw back at me the fact that we beat Canvey Island and Woking in the Conference and we played well at Exeter City and Stevenage Borough and took Nottingham Forest to a replay.

"But those were all one-off games and cup competitions and we had nothing to lose on those days.

"Now we'll be playing those sides every week and we've got everything to lose now.

"In the cup competitions, we'll now be the scalp to beat to get in the draw against the likes of Forest.

"The goalposts are shifting all the time and we've got to be mindful of that."

Widdrington is delighted that the club's board have, and continue to match his own ambition.

"The people behind the club have been excellent in the way they're building the club up from the bottom.

"And we on the coaching side have got to make sure we don't run before we walk.

"I think this progression into full-time by getting some of the current squad on board first and foremost and then doing some recruitment is the way to go.

"It's not the case that our lads who I think won't be interested in taking the gamble are on their way out.

"It's not like that at all.

"I still believe that a lot of the lads who have played nothing but non-league football have a big part to play for us.

"They do what they do part-time because it fits into their lifestyle."

Tommy couldn't be more hands on at the Ray Mac as he ploughs through the list of possible transfer targets and faxes and emails from players who have contacted City, wanting to be part of the Widdrington revolution.

Should City hit the ground running in the Blue Square Premier, expect to hear more chants of Tommy Widdrington football genius' from the terraces of the Ray Mac.