Draft talk:Danny Scopes

The editor who submitted this draft is personally acquainted with the subject. The article is based entirely on independently published sources and does not rely on any information provided by the subject. All claims are verifiable from the cited references.

Summarize Timeline Fact Check

This draft is submitted on the basis that Danny Scopes meets the notability requirements for a biography under the general notability guideline (WP:GNG) and the sports-specific guidance for football managers (WP:NFOOTY).

The subject has received significant coverage in multiple independent, reliable secondary sources across a sustained period. Most prominently, BBC Sport provided national coverage of Concord Rangers' run to the 2019–20 FA Trophy final at Wembley Stadium in May 2021 (James Law, BBC Sport, 3 May 2021). The FA Trophy is a national knockout competition organised by The Football Association, and the final at Wembley represents the highest level of non-league cup competition in English football. The BBC Sport article names Scopes directly in his managerial role and was published independently of any club. The Football Association's own official match report additionally names Scopes in the same context.

Sustained independent coverage is further provided by the Southend Echo (regional newspaper, Newsquest group), The Non-League Football Paper (the primary national publication for non-league football in England), FourFourTwo magazine, and BBC Radio Essex. This coverage documents Scopes' managerial appointments, departures, and achievements at Concord Rangers, Aveley, and Billericay Town, including: an Essex Senior League title (2007–08), the Isthmian League North Division title (2021–22), the Isthmian League Cup (2022–23), promotion to the National League South — Step 2 of the English football pyramid — for the first time in Aveley's history (2022–23), and the Essex Senior Cup (2025–26).

Scopes was awarded the National League South Manager of the Season for 2023–24, a league-level individual award reported independently by the Southend Echo.

Multiple promotions achieved across different clubs, when supported by independent coverage rather than club sources alone, are regarded as an indicator of notability for non-league football managers and are treated as such in comparable approved biographies on Wikipedia.

The article focuses solely on the subject's managerial career and documented achievements, avoids promotional language, and relies on independent published sources. Taken together, the BBC Sport and FA national coverage of the 2021 FA Trophy final, BBC Radio Essex, the Southend Echo interviews, and the Non-League Football Paper features demonstrate significant independent attention sufficient to satisfy WP:GNG.

1. WP:NFOOTY no longer applies. It has been superseded by Wikipedia:Notability (sports).
2. In Wikipedia, significant coverage (WP:SIGCOV) "addresses the topic directly and in detail, so that no original research is needed to extract the content. Significant coverage is more than a trivial mention." In this context, we would be looking for coverage that talks about Scopes "directly and in detail ... and more than a trivial mention". Some of the coverage mentioned above is not significant coverage about Scopes - the James Law BBC piece does not mention Scopes at all; the FourFourTwo article is primarily about the Cowleys with two passing mentions of Scopes.
3. Interviews of the subject tend to be regarded as primary sources - see WP:IV.
4. In Wikipedia, it is customary to sign Talk page contributions - use four tildes (~~~~). Paul W (talk) 17:09, 13 May 2026 (UTC)

This draft uses Harvard referencing ({{sfn}}) throughout. All citation keys in the body text have matching {{sfnref}} entries in the bibliography. No Wikipedia articles are cited as sources (WP:CIRCULAR compliant).

The birth date of September 1974 is sourced to the subject's Companies House directorship record (company no. 05389422), a UK government statutory register. Third- party databases including Transfermarkt incorrectly record the date of birth as 2 October 1973. The Companies House record has been preferred per WP:BLPPRIMARY as a primary government source and has been independently confirmed as accurate. Editors should not amend the birth date without providing a reliable published source.

The playing career section is supported primarily by a 2015 interview with the subject published on Christopher Clark Sports (christopherclarksports.blogspot.com). As a self- published primary source it is used only for uncontroversial factual claims per WP:BLPPRIMARY. The key claim regarding Great Wakering Rovers is independently corroborated by a Newsquest/Southend Echo report (Southend Echo, 23 March 2026) which confirms Scopes played for the club during his playing career. The approximate appearances figure of 350 is stated by Scopes himself in that interview and is presented as approximate throughout.

The Non-League Football Paper profile (Badcock, 1 June 2025) is paywalled and is cited accordingly using |url-access=subscription per WP:PAYWALL. Its content is corroborated on all key points by freely accessible sources including BBC Sport, The FA, FourFourTwo, and the Southend Echo.

The Christopher Clark Sports source (christopherclarksports.blogspot.com) triggered Wikipedia's automated blog filter on save. The source is retained as it is a direct interview with the subject conducted by a named third party, used only for uncontroversial playing career facts per WP:BLPPRIMARY, and is corroborated on all key points by independent Newsquest sources. This is noted here per the filter's recommendation to discuss on the talk page first.