Dreaming of cup heroics, the deaf striker with a deft touch

Trying to negate the gap between the Ryman Premier League and the Coca-Cola League One leaders will be just another obstacle to be tackled by Britain's most prominent deaf footballer.

The roar that the small West Sussex team's supporters will muster, the referee's whistle, unseen cries from team-mates, the words of TV commentators if he comes to watch the video — all parts of this evening's occasion that he will not share in.

But whatever the result, the mere fact that he can play at this level ensures that he will go down as one of the triumphs of this season's FA Cup competition.

As his manager John Maggs puts it: 'Due to his problem he basically needs eyes in the back of his head. He has got to be like an owl and ' definitely does have more awareness of what is going on around him than your average player, but he needs to.

'He is a great lad and a terrific footballer, a natural goalscorer with good pace. I have absolutely no doubts that if he were not deaf he would be playing at a high level in the football league. I am sure he could play Conference football but beyond that it is difficult to say.'

Maggs had enough faith to pay a club record £2,500 for Farrell, 23, in the summer after he had scored six goals in 10 games while on loan from Lewes last season.

It was the latest step in an unheralded but still remarkable career in which he has surmounted all manner of day-to-day hurdles and, unfortunately, prejudice.

Born deaf and growing up in Littlehampton, Farrell, who has very limited speech and communicates mainly in sign language while being able to lip-read, was often shunned by other children.

When he tried to make himself understood to the next-door neighbour's child, for example, her parents forbade her to speak to him and built the fence up between the gardens. His father Graham said: 'He could not go out as a child on his own so I would take him to play football all the time.

'Sometimes the other children would just disappear when they saw him coming. I'd be standing there with tears rolling down my cheeks but I think it has helped make Lee the strong and determined character that he is.'

A prolific scorer in junior football, he came through the Sussex County League to be signed by Blue Square South side Lewes, who sold him on to Horsham.

He has also been the outstanding performer with the Great Britain deaf team, scoring a last-minute winner in the final of the Deaflympics in Melbourne to secure the gold medal.

In parallel to his football career — and an equal source of pride to father and son — is his achievement in managing to pass rigorous examinations to work at Littlehampton Leisure Centre and become the country's first qualified deaf lifeguard.

Although a recent knee injury means that he will probably start on the substitutes' bench tonight, he has thrived in the warm embrace of a friendly club like Horsham.

They are protective of him, too, and have needed to be on unsavoury occasions such as the match against Maidstone earlier this season, which illustrates the kind of problems Farrell faces.

Thinking that he had been fouled and being oblivious to the referee not whistling, he picked the ball up, resulting in an infringement. In the subsequent dispute it is widely alleged by Horsham players and officials that he was abused from the Maidstone dugout with particular references to his deafness.

The Kent team denied this, but Maggs was so incensed by what he heard that he confronted his opposite number Lloyd Hume and was sent off.

'We are a close-knit team and Lee is very popular. He is very much part of all the camaraderie that goes on,' said Maggs, who points to Farrell's two bookings this month as evidence that he gets no preferential treatment from referees.

Farrell had the perfect riposte for Maidstone, scoring both goals in his side's victory.

He said: 'That is the way to answer them. I do get people trying to wind me up sometimes but I just get on with it.

'I don't feel that being deaf is a problem and I think I am more aware of what is going on around me and can see what is happening ahead of time. I have to read body language a bit more than other players.

'I am very happy at Horsham but I do have the ambition to play at a higher level. Swansea are a big team but we have got to ignore that and remember that anything can happen in a cup tie.'

And through the truncated vowels and hand gestures you can hear the voice of a true FA Cup winner.

TV: Sky Sports 1 7.30pm (kick-off 7.45).