'You're just pinching yourself'': Meet the kit men at the heart of England's World Cup adventure

The national side reached the semi-finals of the World Cup for the first time since 1990, inspired the nation, and united the country.

And in the thick of the action were two local lads. Pat Frost from Telford and Neil Jones from Lilleshall were the England team’s kit men, and spent a remarkable summer in the inner sanctum of the team’s training base.

Neil, usually the England women’s team’s kit man, went to Russia to meet up with Pat, 53, a transport company owner who had worked with Three Lions supremo Gareth Southgate before, as well as with West Brom, the club he supports.

It was every bit as inspiring as it appeared to fans, they say, from Southgate bringing the whole backroom staff into the mix with the squad, to the responsibility of handling one unnamed star’s lucky underpants after every match.

“Gareth Southgate created something I’ve never experienced before,” said Pat, who had worked with the England boss at England Under-21 level. “The positivity was instant, you were as important as any other member of staff from day one.

“We had a lot to do with the players, we were setting up the dressing room every day for training. We were cleaning the boots, washing their flip flops, we were pretty much looking after them.”

The tournament caught fire after Harry Kane scored a last minute winner against Tunisia in England’s first game – and both Pat and Neil were pitch side.

“When Harry scored that header it was unbelievable,” said Pat. “We celebrated like everyone else back home, except we didn’t have the beer. There was water and Lucozade flying everywhere.”

Before the second game Gareth Southgate dislocated his shoulder while on a run.

“Gareth came down and said I’m going to go for a run, do you have a cap I could wear,” said Neil.

“The next thing I know the doctor runs past and says the gaffer has fallen over. Afterwards he said the cap had done him a favour because he was able to cover up is face so people didn’t recognise him.”

The joke in the camp was that if Neil had given Gareth the right sized cap he wouldn’t have been fidgeting with it, lost his balance and fallen over.

Despite the manager being injured, he was pitchside to see England progress from their group by beating Panama 6-1.

It was in the second round against Colombia that the nation became gripped. England won a penalty shoot-out to progress – the first time they had ever managed it in a World Cup. That night was one to cherish for Pat and Neil.

“We’re football fans, and being part of something like that, well, you’re pinching yourself,” said Neil. “I got swept away. There was always an underlying feeling they could win a shoot out. They weren’t cocky, but they believed.”

Eric Dier scored the winning penalty after Jordan Pickford made a save during the shoot-out.

“It went wild when he scored,” said Pat. “It erupted when he came into the dressing room. It was like the scene from Lion King when Simba is held up. They weren’t getting carried away and were humble, but we certainly celebrated.”

The subsequent quarter final against Sweden provided a stressful experience for Pat and Neil.

“Most of the lads had their anthem jackets on in the dressing room and Harry Maguire pulled out his shirt and said ‘Frosty, you’ve given me a shirt big enough for my grandad’,” said Pat. “We don’t know whether it was sized wrong or we made a mistake, but he needed a new shirt.

“Between us we somehow managed to sort it in two minutes. We had to start from blank, sleeve badges, number, name... the lads were jumping around on the pitch and he was waiting at the entrance to the dressing room for his shirt. I’m not sure how many people knew what was going on but the coach came over and said ‘well done, lads’.”

Ten minutes later, Maguire scored to set England en route to a 2-0 quarter final victory.

“Afterwards he laughed and said ‘we’re going to do that after every game’,” Pat said with a smile.

By now the country was starting to believe football really was coming home. As we all know now, it wasn’t to be. England lost 2-1 to Croatia in the semi-final.

“I remember coming in the dressing room after we lost and it was silent,” said Neil. “Nobody spoke for 15 minutes. But we had a job to do, to load vans and get out. There was a boot steamer in the dressing room, which I needed to wheel across the room, but I knew its wheels would squeak. Two of us ended up having to carry it because we didn’t want any sound. The lads weren’t even getting changed. Everyone was just thinking what might have been.”

Pat and Neil would have got a World Cup medal had the tournament gone our way.

But the whole England squad returned home to a hero’s welcome, and this summer will live forever in fans’ memories.

“Every game before we went out Gareth got us in a huddle and talked about the team, the togetherness, the fans back home,” said Pat. “We would be stood between Gareth and Harry Kane – this is the sort of stuff you’ll never forget and we’ll tell the grandkids.”

“We were very privileged and very lucky.”