ONE more year…

Dean Furman has given himself the now-familiar pre-season pep talk as a magnificent career extends further into its autumn.

His best days of representing South Africa more than 50 times on the international stage and playing hundreds of games professionally in the Football League may be behind him but at Warrington Rylands, he is still a key cog in the machine.

His calm and unruffled presence in midfield will continue to play a big role in the team now led by Mark Duffy, alongside whom Furman finished last season in the managerial hotseat at Gorsey Lane.

However, he has opted to focus on his playing alongside his day job at the Professional Footballers’ Association.

“I'm just clinging on to my last days, every year it's just 'one more year, one more year,” said Furman, who turned 36 during the summer.

"I just enjoy it and it's great, it's a couple of nights a week training and play on the Saturday.

“I work for the Professional Footballers' Association now, which is fantastic. I'm in the players' union - in the player services department, so we look after all the players from the Premier League and EFL.

“We've got 5,500 current members and over 50,000 former members, like myself. Once you're a member, you're a member for life.

"We are looking after the players, for example contract disputes and trying to help them through the transition.”

With Furman in the engine room, Rylands confounded pre-season expectations last season to put themselves in with a huge chance of joining neighbours Warrington Town in the National League North.

They finished inside the Northern Premier League play-off spots, only to lose in the semi-finals against eventual promotion winners Marine.

Now, they are back for another go and with one bookmaker putting them as third-favourites for the title behind Worksop Town and overwhelming front-runners Macclesfield, there will certainly be more eyes on the men from Orford this time around.

However, Furman is optimistic they can compete for a top-five spot again if they can keep what they have together.

"We've got a good little team – we got to the semi-finals of the play-offs last year so we're hoping we can put together a good team again,” he said.

“There's been a change – we've lost a couple of players and have a new manager in, who was here at the end of last season. He's had a fantastic playing career from himself.

"We've just got to build again.

"I think what tends to happen at this level is that if you've had a good season you become a victim of your own success and end up losing some of your best players.

"For us, hopefully we can keep the spine of our team together. We've got a nice strong unit and hopefully we can have a good challenge.”