FA Cup 2021-22: The former TV football soap man planning an FA Cup shock

Danny Potter is a former Chelsea youth player who was at Colchester United - Sudbury's FA Cup opponents

Heard the one about the player who joined England's most dysfunctional football club at the centre of murder plots and team tragedies - and is now plotting an FA Cup shock with Sudbury?

As a young keeper in non-league, Danny Potter topped up his income by appearing in Sky One's cult TV football soap Dream Team about the on and off-field drama at Harchester United.

As goalkeeping coach of Sudbury, who play in the eighth tier of English football, Potter hopes the Suffolk non-league club can become TV stars by defeating League Two Colchester in the FA Cup first round in front of the live BBC Two cameras.

With far-fetched plots from the club captain being shot by a sniper while lifting the FA Cup to a manager murdering a player by impaling him on a dressing room peg, Dream Team ran for 10 years before it ended in 2007.

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"It was great fun and provided me with a chance to do something different," says Potter, who played himself in several episodes of the soap following his release from Exeter City at the age of 21 in 2000.

"I came into Dream Team because the main keeper was in a coma after a bus crash.

"Talking has never been a problem for me but all of a sudden, in front of all the cameras and lighting, it felt a bit awkward. A one-line sentence would require something like 25 takes."

How a typical Harchester United line-up looked when Potter appeared in the drama. The series was known for its outrageous storylines and captain Marcel Sabatier died after a lethal injection while manager Patrick Doyle was shot by gangsters

Because of the popularity of the series, Potter attended nightclub openings and played in charity football matches.

He was offered the part in the drama through a contact but left the show - without being killed off - to raise a family and continue his playing career with Stevenage and Cambridge United.

"Filming involved long hours and it all became too much," adds Potter, a youth team player at Chelsea when they won the FA Cup in 1997.

"It got to the point where the due date for my daughter, Claudia, was getting close. I wanted to be at home."

Potter with Brazilian football legend Pele at Chelsea's 1997 FA Cup final-winning party

Father-of-three Potter, whose 17-year-old daughter Sienna is a keeper at Sudbury's full-time academy, joined the non-league club's backroom team in the summer.

His playing career also included a spell at Colchester. Potter, 42, believes Isthmian League North Division Sudbury - nicknamed the Suds - can upset his old club.

"It's the FA Cup and anything can happen," he adds.

'She's my lucky charm'

Sudbury have won five games to reach the first round and are expecting a club-record attendance of around 2,200 for Colchester's visit.

Joint manager Rick Andrews missed this week's build-up as he was in Canada, but is expected to be in the dugout alongside fellow boss Angelo Harrop in time for kick-off.

Andrews was due to make the trip to Vancouver, where he lived from the age of six months to 11, in July 2020 with his mother, Patricia. Coronavirus travel restrictions put their visit on hold.

Four months later the father-of-seven quit his job as manager of Stowmarket Town when his mum was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She died in January.

Last week Andrews travelled to Vancouver with his daughter, Alisha, to scatter his mum's ashes.

"It would have been her 80th birthday last month," he says. "She's my lucky charm."

Angelo Harrop (left) - a former Colchester United youngster - and Rick Andrews were appointed joint managers of Sudbury in June

Suds in Europe

Whatever the result against Colchester, Sudbury's players are heading to Portugal in May 2022.

The end-of-season visit to Vilamoura is the idea of the club's management team, who have helped fund the three-night break.

"We're not a full-time club but our standards are high," adds Andrews.

"We have an outstanding academy which seven or eight of the current team have come through. We're a young side with a lot of players aged 18, 19 and 20.

"We all sit down together after training to eat a healthy meal to stop the lads sliding off to KFC or McDonald's.

Sudbury play on an artificial surface at the MEL Group Stadium which has a 2,500 capacity and 200 seats

"The trip to Portugal was planned before the FA Cup run.

"It'll be part-funded by fines the players have incurred during the season. The rest of it will come from the management team.

"It's a treat and something for the players to look forward to."

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