Every football club needs those ‘extra special’ team members who do the sort of jobs that no one really sees, but they are vital to the cause.

It’s no different at Ottery St Mary and they have a ‘team member’ who plays a key role, despite being the grand age of 85!

Ottery chairman Mikey Ringer knows the team member very well as it is his mother Joan!

Mikey says: “Mum [Joan Ringer] takes all the kit every week and by all the kit, I mean from the men’s first team and development team as well as the ladies team and our Under-18s!

“There’s more, for she also launders the warm-up tops and the jackets. There’s many a day when I pop in to Mum and her place is like a Chinese laundry!

“I know her neighbours will testify to the fact that they have all seen her scrubbing away to get mud out of kit before it goes into the washing machine.

“She is an absolute gem and very much one of those unseen warriors that all clubs like ours needs.”

Mikey also revealed that the team’s laundry lady also knows a thing or two about the players. He explained saying: “Mum can even identify a kit by the state of it and is always right when she says....’that kit was worn by so-and-so!”

He added: “The sad thing is that everything must come to an end and when she does eventually hang up her laundering skills, we will need to find another. That said, we might have to prise the job off her as when I ask her if she wants to take a break, all I get is: “Now, what else am I going to do if I have not got the kits to wash...”