Two unsung footballing stalwarts are up for a national grassroots gong.

Bob Chivington and Steve Bowers, of Deal-based Cinque Ports, were put forward as Sky Bet “Real Football No.1” nominees in April by newly-appointed club secretary Peter Davies.

The pair founded the club more than a decade ago and it’s hoped Cinque Ports, which have a veterans’ side, as well as two men’s teams, will move into their own permanent ground shortly.

Davies said: “I was asked to come and help a club in crisis.

“They have been running for several years and we’re being offered a ground fairly soon. But it’s going to be a shared-council resource.

“They wanted some advice and I was the secretary of the Deal & Walmer Chamber of Trade for 12 years and I’ve worked in business management all my life.

“I found out when I came along that Bob and Steve were, not only supplementing it financially, they were doing everything.

“They were washing the kit, laying it out, painting the lines on the pitch and, for 20-odd years, Bob has provided programmes - either for Deal Town FC and, now, Cinque Ports. He does a regular round-up throughout the town.

“They spend hours and hours doing this stuff. I was just watching the TV and it said ‘Would you like to nominate No.1s in grassroots football?’.

“With these lads, you won’t see a better set of lads, on and off the pitch. That’s all thanks to Bob and Steve - hence why I wrote that recommendation.

“They [Sky] made a beeline for us. They came along and filmed us for two days. That was all hush, hush, but they said ‘We think you have got a good chance of the top prize’.

“We should find out by the middle or the end of October.”

Club president Chivington and chairman Bowers have already moved into the final five nationally, with the feature video Sky Bet produced of the work they do for the club released on YouTube.

Former top-flight footballers and Sky pundits Graeme Souness and Clinton Morrison are now set to decide the winners.

Davies added: “I’m a Crystal Palace fan - and Clinton played for us so that’s quite weird!

“We’re well-supported by a lot of local businesses.

“Once I came along, I tried to make us self-sufficient. I got £6,000 worth of sponsorship straight away.”

The team, who now have former Faversham Town physio and one-time Wales international Wayne Jones on board, have enjoyed a promising start to the season with the first-team squad playing in Kent County League Division 2 Central & East.

“We’ve got a high-level physio in,” explained Davies. “He’s in his 70s but has his own Wikipedia page.

“He got released recently from Faversham Town and he had an association with us eight years ago.”

Davies was so eager to get involved at Cinque Ports he left a secretary role at the Deal & Walmer Chamber of Trade.

“The moment I met them, they offered me a job so I shook their hands immediately because I have got a real passion for football,” he said. “Then, I weighed everything up.

“I’ve got three part-time jobs and I look after two elderly relatives.

“It’s an unpaid job but I got rid of a paid job at the Chamber because I started looking to get sponsorships from the local businesses - and I thought it was a bit unethical, if I was the secretary, to then be asking for funding.

“I think we have got a very strong case for winning.

“A lot of the candidates do individual jobs within a team, whereas our guys do the lot!”