IF you are a fan of lower-league football then you will know all about Gareth Seddon.

And there is a good chance you have seen the part-time model’s face plastered across posters and in the pages of clothes catalogues.

But the Hapton Hitman’s profile has never been higher after his star turn in the brilliant recent BBC documentary, Class of ’92: Out of Their League.

That is reflected by the fact his Twitter followers have gone through the roof – 14,300 and counting – and by the fact he is now recognised in far bigger places than his hometown of Padiham.

From teachers at his daughter Millie’s school telling the five-year-old they saw her daddy on the telly, to strangers wanting to get the drinks in, Seddon’s life has not been the same since the airing of the show that followed a season in the life of non-league Salford City after they were taken over by five of the most famous footballers in Manchester United’s history.

There were the goals that fired Salford to the Evo-Stik League First Division North title, and the run-in with the club’s high-profile owners, Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt, and scary managers, former Ramsbottom United bosses Anthony Johnson and Bernard Morley, after he pulled out of two crucial matches to take a modelling assignment in Germany.

But after a year in which a camera followed his every move the bubbly Seddon was equal parts pleased and relieved by the way he was portrayed – and by the reaction to being broadcast to the nation.

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“I’m used to having stick with the modelling,” said Seddon, 35, who is now based in Ramsbottom, where he has just taken over the cheese and coffee café, The Mouse Trap, along with his partner Melissa.

“I’m like prime meat in any dressing room especially when the catalogues come through or I’m on a poster somewhere. I’m used to everyone taking the Mick. But since the documentary it’s been crazy.

“It’s been a bit overwhelming how many people have come up to me but, touch wood, everyone has been so supportive, saying I came across well and that they’d like to have beer with me.

“I went out the other week and by 11 o’clock I was steaming from all the free drinks that everyone got me. ‘Come on, let’s have a shot together!’

“My daughter came home the other day and said, ‘daddy, my teacher said they’d seen you on the TV’. She doesn’t really understand. She gets excited when people will say something to me in the street and she’ll be like, ‘daddy how do they know you?’

“The reaction has been great but I was panicking before the first programme came out because I’m a footballer and a model – and I don’t think you could get any two jobs worse for lads to hate you! But they haven’t. They’ve been really good.

“I think it showed my personality. I don’t take myself too seriously, I’m not big headed. I’m not one of those guys who thinks, ‘I’m the big I am’. I think I came across as one of the lads and I was lucky in that respect because it could have gone horribly wrong.”

Life at Salford has gone very right for Seddon since Gary Neville called out of the blue on a lazy Sunday afternoon in the summer of 2014 asking him if wanted to move from higher-league Chester FC.

The veteran striker thought it was a wind-up until he realised that it was, indeed, the Sky Sports pundit and England coach on the other end of the line.

But the fact that Neville got in touch in the first place should not have been a surprise given Burnley-born Seddon’s stellar track record.

The former Gawthorpe High School student played for Bury and was on the books of Rushden & Diamonds before a debilitating disease of the joints cruelly ended his professional career.

In fact, Seddon was told he would never play again.

But, after taking his first steps back on the road to recovery with Padiham, he has gone on to enjoy a prolific non-league career which has seen him play and score for England C and enjoy success at clubs like Fleetwood Town, where he partnered Premier League record-breaker Jamie Vardy up front.

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“I couldn’t have scripted it any better,” said Seddon. “I’d done all right at Chester but I was in a struggling team, I was 34, and I just didn’t want to end my career battling relegation.

“I wanted to have one last challenge and to show everyone that I could still score goals.

“I did think I might have to drop down a couple of levels but you get the call from Gary Neville and all of a sudden, a year later – dare I say it – you’ve starred in a documentary, scored 30-odd goals, and won the league. It’s Roy of the Rovers stuff.”

So is the fact that Seddon is on regular speaking terms with the Class of ’92 stars, including the new manager of La Liga giants Valencia.

“I still think ‘wow’, these guys know my name,” he said. “It’s so weird. I only spoke to Gary Neville the other day. I just messaged him to say congratulations on the job.

“He was like, ‘when are you back fit, we need you back fit’. He was more interested in that than speaking about the job. That just shows his passion for the football club. They have been great.”

A knee injury means Seddon has not played since September 12 but, after returning to training, he is hoping to make the bench for today’s league clash at home to Whitby Town in an effort to prove his fitness for Tuesday’s massive FA Cup second-round replay at Hartlepool United.

The veteran frontman has barely featured in Salford’s thrilling cup run which will continue with a third-round tie at home to Championship high flyers Derby County should they knock out League Two opposition for the second round running.

“It’s been so frustrating,” said Seddon, who believes Salford’s on-loan Blackburn Rovers midfielder Lewis Hardcastle, 17, has got ‘a great career in front of him’.

“It’s not like I’m 21 and I can miss half a season. I need to be playing every single game because I’m coming toward the end of my career. I feel like I’ve got to prove myself every week to prove that I’m good enough for that extra year.

“Hopefully I get on the bench this Saturday, and then get on the bench against Hartlepool, and then come on for the last 10 minutes and nick the winner.

“With the way things that have been going for me at the minute that would be the perfect scenario.”