FOR Salisbury City skipper Aaron Cook, stepping out at Droylsden in the Blue Square Conference Premier tomorrow will be a footballing ambition fulfilled.

Since dropping into the semi-pro game from Portsmouth, the rock-solid central defender has had his sights on reaching the top tier of the non-League game.

And, for 27-year-old Cook the achievement of getting there is doubly special given that it's the closest he will ever come now to playing professionally.

While several of City's Conference South promotion-winning side - Matt Tubbs, Robbie Matthews, Ryan Clarke and Marvin Brown among them - have signed up for Whites' new venture into full-time football, Cook will continue juggling his 40-hour-a-week job as a landscape gardener with the ever-increasing demands of non-League.

"All the lads got offered the chance to go full-time and if I was 25 or under, it might be worth it," he said. "But for the older lads who are settled in their jobs outside football, it's not worth giving that up for the sake of another year or two.