Two of Abingdon United's key performers from last season have both secured moves several levels above their current setup this summer, with Leo Cole joining Hemel Hempstead Town and Freddy Dunham heading to Maidenhead United, both National League South outfits. Two significant jumps up the pyramid, from the same Abingdon dressing room, inside the same transfer window.
Cole's switch to Hemel comes off the back of a genuinely eye-catching first season of senior football. He featured in the vast majority of Abingdon's fixtures last term, missing only a couple of the club's 33 league games, striking numbers for someone who has only just turned 17. Across that campaign he chipped in with 10 goals and set up a further 12 for teammates, a return that clearly turned heads well beyond Oxfordshire. Hemel's recruitment staff pointed to the sheer amount of first-team football already under his belt as a key factor in the move, likening his fearless, quick-footed style to that of Josh Stokes and framing him as a player worth developing over time rather than an instant fix. Banking that much senior experience at such a young age is unusual, and it's clear why Hemel moved to get the deal done.
Dunham's underlying numbers are arguably even more remarkable. The 18-year-old found the net 35 times and laid on eight more in just 42 outings last season, form that left him as the country's top-scoring teenager across the entire football pyramid. That kind of record inevitably draws attention from further up the ladder - Oxford United handed him a three-week trial back in March after taking note of his scoring streak. He capped the campaign by being named his manager's player of the year, and Maidenhead wasted little time securing his signature, with boss Ryan Peters seemingly viewing him through a similar lens to the one Slough Town used with Wiktor Makowski last season, a move that paid off when Makowski picked up the division's young player of the season award. Dunham has already spoken about the move feeling like an easy decision, and has talked up the pace and directness he wants to bring to Maidenhead's forward line.
A Pattern Worth Watching
There's a clear thread running through both deals - clubs at Maidenhead and Hemel's level increasingly look to poach proven performers from below Step 2 rather than take a punt on the open market. It's an approach that's worked before, and both sides will hope Cole and Dunham can adapt as successfully as others who've made similar jumps in recent seasons.
For Abingdon, losing two players of this quality in one window will hurt in the short term, but it's another marker of the work being done there. The real test now is replacing that output - and, if moves like this keep happening, building a reputation as one of the more reliable pipelines below the National League.
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