Gainsborough Trinity Address Impersonation of Manager Russ Wilcox

In the quieter corners of English football, where seventh-tier clubs graft for every point and every pound, Gainsborough Trinity have found themselves dealing with a problem that has nothing to do with tactics or form.

Someone, somewhere, has been pretending to be their manager.

The Northern Premier League Premier Division side have issued a fierce denunciation of an individual who has been contacting players across the non-league pyramid, making transfer and wage offers while falsely claiming to represent Trinity boss Russ Wilcox.

The club say “a number of players” at different non-league levels have been approached, with the impostor using Wilcox’s name to try to open talks over potential moves.

Chief executive Matt Boles moved swiftly to shut it down, stressing that none of the communication came from Wilcox or anyone acting for the club.

He made it, in his own words, “categorically clear”.

“We strongly condemn the actions of the individual responsible,” Boles said on the club’s website. “Impersonating a football manager and making false representations to players is completely unacceptable and has the potential to cause unnecessary disruption and reputational damage to players, managers and clubs.”

The alarm was first raised when managers and officials from other clubs went straight to the source. They contacted Wilcox directly, convinced something was off.

Their instincts were right.

“Many have done so precisely because they know Russ, know the professional standards by which he conducts himself, and immediately recognised that this is not the manner in which he would approach or attempt to recruit a player,” Boles explained.

In non-league circles, reputations travel quickly. Wilcox, a seasoned operator with previous spells in charge of Scunthorpe United and York City, is known for a measured, professional approach. The tone of the rogue messages didn’t fit.

That mismatch helped expose the hoax.

Once the scale of the impersonation became clear, Boles delivered a blunt message to the culprit.

“Enough is enough,” he said. “Stop impersonating our manager, stop wasting the time of players and clubs across the non-league game and, quite frankly, get a life.”

Gainsborough have reported the matter to both the Northern Premier League and the Football Association, underlining how seriously they view the situation. For a club operating in the seventh tier, the margins are tight. Disruption to recruitment, confusion among players, and damage to the standing of a respected manager all carry real weight.

Under Wilcox, Trinity have been punching above their weight in the cups, reaching the FA Cup second round in 2024-25 and the first round the previous season. Those runs have helped raise the club’s profile beyond the non-league diehards.

Wilcox himself brings a substantial Football League pedigree. As a player he turned out for Northampton Town, Hull City, Doncaster Rovers, Preston North End and Scunthorpe United before moving into the dugout. That experience, and the network that comes with it, is central to Gainsborough’s ambitions.

Which is precisely why the club have moved so firmly to protect his name.

In a game where trust still underpins so many deals, especially below the professional tiers, Gainsborough’s stance is clear: their manager will speak for himself, and anyone pretending otherwise will be called out, loudly and publicly.