While the vast majority of West Auckland fans will be travelling around 250 miles today to watch the Northern League team in action, Scott Nixon has flown 3,000 miles from Azerbaijan – just for one day to see his son Jordan play at Wembley.

Twenty-year-old Jordan will be between the posts in today’s FA Vase final for West Auckland against Sholing, and his dad has taken time off work from an oil company in far off Azerbaijan to come to the game.

“When he’s at home, he always comes and sees me play,” said Jordan. “Even when I started out as a seven-year-old playing junior football, kicking the ball for the first time, he has always been to see me play.

“After we beat St Andrews in the semi-final, he couldn’t believe it when he realised that he was going to be working out of the country.

“So he’s approached his boss, who has kindly agreed to let him have a couple of days off. I’m really pleased that he can make it, he’s supported me for years. It means a lot to both of us.”

It means that Scott left his oil rig off the coast of Azerbaijan, which is situated between Southern Russia and Iran on the Caspian Sea, yesterday morning, and flew 3,000 miles back to Heathrow Airport, hopefully arriving at about 11pm last night.

He was due to stay last night in a hotel, and will head to Wembley at lunch-time, watch the game, and then jump on a flight back to Azerbaijan to restart work on Monday morning.

“It shows how proud he is to see me play at Wembley, and I’m absolutely delighted, it wouldn’t feel the same for me if he was going to miss the game,” said Jordan.

Nixon junior spent several years at Middlesbrough learning the football trade. “When I started playing, I said that I would only ever go to Wembley if Boro got there, or if I played there – so I’ve got there first," he said. "I was a massive Boro fan, when they had the run in the UEFA Cup nine years ago, my dad and I went all over Europe watching them play - we went to Bucharest, Basle and Eindhoven.”

He was released by Boro, and snapped up by Darlington at the start of the 2011-12 season when Craig Liddle was youth-team manager. He was a big part of the youth team, and sat on the first-team bench when necessary.

He made his first-team debut for Quakers in the last game of the ill-fated and very eventful 2011-12 season, almost two years to the day from today’s final.

“I was a little bit disappointed that I didn’t play after Sam Russell left the club for Forest Green, but I think Lidds wanted to protect me," he said. "I think he realised that there were some very tough games left in that season, and he didn’t want me to be on the wrong end of a hammering. He was brilliant towards me.

“I then went to Gateshead, but never made a first-team appearance. I played for their reserves under Paul Brayson, and we won a couple of cups.

“But then West Auckland came in for me, and I’ve never looked back.”