Meet the Rotherham United recruiter looking for the next Ben Wiles

Rotherham United's head of academy recruitment was with academy manager Richard Hairyes checking out a young Millers trialist in an under-16s encounter at Grimsby Town.

Within 45 minutes, the pair of them had seen enough. “He was a tricky little winger who Middlesbrough were releasing,” Duncanson recalls. “At half-time, we went around the pitch and told his dad we'd decided to sign him.”

So that's how teenager Joel Holvey, a first-year Millers pro who has already made his Millers debut in the Championship, ended up at AESSEAL New York Stadium two and a half years ago.

Duncanson, a former professional who started out at Sheffield United and end up in Australia for two and half years after a stint at Darlington, has been bringing players from under eight to under 16 into Rotherham's youth set-up for the last decade.

A qualified coach, the 54-year-old is in charge of a network of 12 scouts scouring the area for prospects. “From South Leeds as far as Retford and Chesterfield," he says. “We concentrate on Sheffield and Rotherham; more Rotherham, if we can.

“When I started this job there wasn't a lot in place. There were just three scouts and the report system was written. It was a pen and a pad at the side of the pitch.

“Now the scouts still take their notes but everything is then stored digitally in a central database. Everyone in our recruitment department can view it. We know where we've been, who've we seen and who we need to see again.

“We're always looking for another Ben Wiles. That's the holy grail: a Rotherham boy coming through and playing for Rotherham’s first team. We want to get them at under-eight level if we can and for them to go right the way through the academy and become a pro.”

The likes of Josh Kayode, Ciaran McGuckin, Jake Hull and Curtise Durose have all come in on his watch.

We're chatting last Thursday afternoon at New York and already know each other well from his work on Rotherham matchdays for stats company Opta.

He's still feeling the emotion of the day before and the smile that usually populates an open, friendly face disappears as he recounts the task he and lead youth coach Joe Skarz had faced.

“We had to release some of our under-16s yesterday,” he grimaces. “The toughest part of the job is letting people go. It never gets any easier. There are sleepless nights for me and Joe. We bring the parents in as well for the meetings. Often there are tears.

“Sometimes there are a few from me as well in the car on the way home, particularly when it involves a player I brought in. They might have been here for the best part of ten years. You form bonds.”

The job is hard in others ways too. Rotherham's academy is graded category 3 and there are larger, better-resourced ones on their doorstep. Leeds United, Nottingham Forest and derby County are category 1 while Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Barnsley and Hull City are rated 2.

At 16, players are offered two-year apprenticeships or released. The cream of those who make it to 18 are then in line for their first professional deals.

Rotherham uncover their own prospects in grassroots football and also step in when other pro sides bid farewell to some of their youngsters.

“When the parent club has circulated the release of a player I check my reports and say ‘Yes, I want him’,” Duncanson says. “I've driven to their house the very next day with an offer. I don't always get them even then.

“I lost one last season. He was playing for Leicester City and I drove to where he was living in Coventry. I got him to New York and ‘presented’ to him and then Middlesbrough offered him a two-year (under-16 to under-18) scholarship and a pro contract after that as well.”

Experiences like the one with Holvey make up for it and the Millers man describes them as “eureka moments”. “They usually turn out to be your best signings,” he adds.

Watch out for one-time Derby County defender George Giwa aged 17, who Rotherham have turned into a central midfielder.

“He had a trial night with us and I thought ‘Wow’,” the talent-spotter says. “The academy manager came over and said ‘We're signing him, aren't we?’. We did!”

The academy office is just off the players' tunnel but we're upstairs in the more salubrious surroundings of one of the corporate lounges, looking out on to the pitch.

He's a few pounds over his old playing weight, but only a few. The black club tracksuit sits well on him and he still has the light, athletic gait of someone who once ran around for a living.

Duncanson grew up watching his cousin, Simon Stainrod, lead the frontline for the Blades and at the end of his own time as a centre-half found himself coaching and recruiting in women's football for the then-mighty Doncaster. He's not one for bragging so I'll do it for him. Do the names Millie Bright, Mary Earps and Beth England ring any Belles?

“I fancied myself as a striker as a kid," he confesses. “When I signed for Sheffield United I was the big ‘I am’ and thought I was going to score all the goals. Unfortunately, they'd signed a lad from the north east who was much better than me. His name was Clive Mendonca.”

The same Mendonca who went on to score more than 30 goals for the Millers between 1988 and 1991 and enjoy prolific spells with Grimsby and Charlton Athletic.

Matt Hamshaw, an academy coach at the time, brought the recruiter to Rotherham. Nowadays, he attends two under-16 games a week involving pro clubs while his scouts focus more on local-level games. Last weekend saw him at the Premier League Under-16s National Tournament at Loughborough.

“I do get around quite a bit,” he says. “I'm on the road a lot. I work all day and then will be at a 7pm kick-off at somewhere like Stoke or Leicester. It's 10.30pm when I get home.

“I have a contact at virtually every club and they will tell me about a player who might not be getting offered something with them.”

Holvey, a Championship debutant as substitute at Wigan Athletic on the final day of last term, continues to make good progress and is doing well on loan in senior football with Gainsborough Trinity.

However, taking players from other clubs isn't the model the Millers want to follow and the ambition is to have a youth set-up made up entirely of locally-sourced prospects.

In the harsh world of football, there is no easy way in. Plenty are given an eight-week trial in the academy ranks but only a few survive. Around one in 20 are invited to stay on.

“The dream is that one day all our players are ‘internal’,” Duncanson says. “We have a belief that if we recruit well at the foundation phase - age nine to 12 - we can drive them all the way through to being a pro.”

“Eleven Ben Wiles in the first team,” I suggest, and he laughs loudly, delighted by such a thought.

The holy grail.