Graham Heathcote’s biggest problem before going to work at Altrincham Football Club is deciding what to wear. Is it a suit for his job as secretary?

Or wrap-up warm in casual gear for his role as groundsman? Or, since October, is it boots and tracksuit as worn by the team manager? That’s the latest role for Altrincham’s man of many parts and one he’s started well after taking over with the word crisis written large over the famous semi-pro club’s future.

But it’s much more than a job for Heathcote, It’s a mission. He has been involved with the Moss Lane club for many of the last 32 years since he signed for them as a 16-year-old part-time professional on £8 a week. Talk to him about the club’s slide from the edge of Football League status, and a history as famed FA Cup giantkillers, to the brink of closure, and it’s easy to see that it hurts a lot. It’s hardly surprising to hear a man who scored 147 goals in 502 starts for the club say: "I want to put the pride back into Altrincham because it has been badly dented".

Heathcote wants it so much that he’s doing the manager’s job for free, staying on his salary as groundsman and secretary rather than cut into the £1,800-a-week budget he’s got for his team.

He took over when the Robins had taken just 11 points from 13 matches. Relegation from the Conference had been agony enough but a further drop down the semi-pro pyramid into the UniBond League’s first division was too bad to even consider. Heathcote, who had rejected the managership on two previous occasions, has turned the rocky Robins round with 26 points from 14 games. But they are still far from being the old rockin Robins who played the likes of Tottenham, Everton and Birmingham in the FA Cup. They were 48 hours from closure when the board resigned last May, and Heathcote was instrumental In bringing in two of the three new directors who took over at an extraordinary general meeting.

The club debt of £650,000 remains but under the stewardship of chairman Geoff Goodwin, Andrew Shaw and Grahame Rowley, it isn’t getting any bigger. Said Heathcote: "The job is all about this club surviving and that means working seven days a week. Anyone who thinks semi-pro football means part-time football needs to think again. But results are improving, crowds are up to 600 and faces that had disappeared are driftIng back.

A lot of our problems have been self-inflicted but we’ve got a united club again and I want to keep that. We need more finance because my wage bill for the team won’t be one of the top six in the division. But Geoff Goodwin has done a marvellous job in stabilising the club. Our debt isn’t increasing and we’ve the rest of this season and the next one to work on it before a possible change in the structure of semi-pro football. The Conference want to bring in a northern division and we need to be financially capable of takIng that step if it happens".

Heathcote’s appointment as team boss, to succeed Bernard Taylor, was greeted by the sound of silence - literally. Not all fans were happy with the turn of events and a handful who saw Heathcote win his first game in charge 3-0 at Burscough showed their feelings by not cheering. Heathcote, who has had spells in charge at Barrow and Winsford, added: "I know what was being said but there was no stitch-up. Everything that happened was down to results and I know the same will apply to me if it doesn’t work out in the longer term. But I think those fans are happy now.

I’ve no interest in becoming a director. I can do what I can to help the club where I am now. I knew when I took over that we didn’t have poor players. My motivation was to get struggling players to perform to their abilities. Effort was the starting point and I wasn’t happy with the overall fitness so I put them through another pre-season training programme. It was tough but the response was superb and now we are getting the benefits". Heathcote has brought in the experienced Dalton Steele as his assistant and added players like David Gardner, ex-United, Barry Shuttleworth and Jordan Burke to his squad. Steve Lunt has stepped up from the youth team and done well. He added: "Apart from Gary Talbot, who is 33, and Mark Maddox, who is 29, the squad is very young with an average age of 23. I am looking for them to stay together in the long term".

It’s Altrincham’s centenary year and they are hoping to have a celebration dinner. Thanks to people like Graham Heathcote, at least they’ve reached a centenary to celebrate.