Andy Drury wants to finish his career by leading boyhood club Sittingbourne to promotion.

Drury has gone full circle, rejoining the club where he made his debut in men’s football aged 17.

The midfielder has had a hell of a career in between, the highlight being a £150,000 move to Ipswich, then in the Championship, in 2011.

Throw in FA Trophy success at Wembley with Stevenage and Football League spells with Luton Town and Crawley, and it’s been quite a ride.

Some things have changed at Sittingbourne - for a start, they play at Woodstock rather than Central Park - but he’s happy to be back and on a mission to get his old hometown club into the Isthmian Premier.

“It’s nice to go full circle,” said Drury, 36.

“I started out supporting the club when I was eight or nine and I’d go and watch every Saturday with my dad and grandad.

“I always had it in the back of my mind to go back one day. You never know in football but it would be nice to finish my career here.

“It’s been good. The old faces are there on the committee and they’ve all been very welcoming to me, and the fans have treated me well.

“They’ve been brilliant. They were even clapping us off after we lost 4-1 at Deal in the FA Cup. Every other club I’ve been at, you’d be getting pelters.

“I’m proud of what I’ve achieved in football but there’s still stuff I want to achieve.

“I want another promotion with Sittingbourne and, if I achieve that, I’ll be able to retire a happy man.

“It's certainly something I’d like to do over the next couple of years.”

Drury reached the National South play-off semi-finals with Havant last season.

He still had a year on his contract but with Danny Kedwell and Dean Beckwith leaving the car school, he didn’t fancy travelling solo to Hampshire for full-time training, and decided it was time to come home.

He said: “I was the only one under contract for this season and I wasn’t keen to do the journey on my own.

“The manager was looking to go in a younger direction as well, so we came to an agreement over the last year of my deal and then I put the feelers out at a few clubs.

“It was a tough time because National League and National South clubs weren’t really signing players because they didn’t know when the season would start.

“I’ve known Andrew Marjeram on the board at Sittingbourne for years and he said he’d put something together if Daz (manager Darren Blackburn) wanted me.

“Daz was interested so we did a deal. If I was going to drop a couple of levels, there was only one club I wanted to play for and that was Sittingbourne.

“The standard is a bit different but it's still tough because in football everyone tries as hard as they can and there are still a lot of good players."

Drury was given his Sittingbourne debut when his old under-16 and reserve team manager John Roles succeeded Hughie Stinson in 2001.

He impressed in the final few months of that campaign before taking off under Mark Beeney the following season.

Drury said: “John Roles took the first-team job when Hughie Stinson left and he put me straight in the team. I’d just turned 17. It was all right, to be fair.

“I’d always believed in my ability, even at a young age, and John was good to me.

“It was probably my second season where I really broke through.

“I got myself as fit as I possibly could that summer and scored 18 goals.

“I had a few trials - Derby, Chelsea and Bournemouth - and I didn’t think I was far off.

“I was a similar standard to the players already there; if I’d been better, they might have signed me.

Drury was on the move in 2003, joining Gravesend.

From there he went to Lewes, Stevenage and Luton before Paul Jewell took him to Ipswich in a big-money move.

He spent a couple of seasons at Portman Road before signing for Crawley and then returning to Luton - newly promoted to the Football League.

Drury dropped back into non-league at Eastleigh and had a second spell with the Fleet before a year at Havant.

He said: “I’m proud I made it to where I did in my career, especially for someone from down here because you don't really see it.

“That might be changing a little bit with more academies but, back then, it was more difficult.

“There’s a couple of lads here now that I feel have got a chance but most of it is attitude.

“You really need to have that mentality to want to work as hard as you can to make it.

“That’s the most important ingredient in being a professional footballer.

“I’ve had that conversation with a couple of the boys but where it’s been stop-start we’ve only been together six or seven weeks. It’s probably something you talk about more as you get to know them.”

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