WHEN he was manager of Town and wrestling with last season's alarming financial problems, Mick Wadsworth would often describe the situation as "torrid".

There's no doubting both he and Town were put through the mill as the club diced with extinction.

But the problems encountered by the latest crop of players under the guidance of the 53-year-old South Yorkshireman go beyond anything he has encountered in Britain.

Wadsworth is national coach of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country torn apart by a vicious civil war which affected virtually all its 68m population.

The forthcoming African Nations Cup provides an outlet for the football-mad Congolese.

And the highly-qualified Wadsworth, who has also managed Carlisle, Scarborough Colchester and Oldham and coached for the Football Association and the national team as well as Norwich, Crystal Palace, Newcastle and Southampton, is relishing his latest football challenge in the country formerly knows as Zaire.

Congo's first foreign coach for eight years has set up a training base in Egypt before the big tournament in Tunisia kicks off on January 24.

"Congo is a proud nation with a proud footballing history," said the former Scunthorpe player.

"We begin and end every training session with a prayer and I have never done that before.

"I only have the home-based players at the moment and, while they're not paupers, they can't just go and buy a new pair of boots when they want.

"I've already had 20 balls sent out from England and brought over quite a lot of kit. Now I'm trying to get them a boot deal.

"Obviously, the European-based players are better off materially.

"If any of the home players own a CD player, they are lucky.

"The football federation pays them while they are on international duty but they get nothing from their home league.

"As Zaire they became the first African nation to qualify for the World Cup Finals in 1974, but the civil war has taken its toll.

"There is no-one who has not been affected by events. It's almost incomprehensible that four million people died. Football is a welcome distraction."

The most famous footballer produced by Congo, as far as British fans are concerned, is Lomano LuaLua.

Wadsworth first got to know the striker when they were at Colchester and when he became coach at Newcastle, he urged Bobby Robson to buy LuaLua.

"Lomano was a refugee from the war. There were so many of them," said Wadsworth, who cut his coaching teeth with Frickley.

"Top players like Claude Makelele and Emile M'Penza opted to play for their countries of adoption ahead of Congo.

"It's a crying shame and it's something I'd like to help change.

"I believe I have a decent squad and if we can get ourselves organised, who knows?

The Simbas, as Congo are known, play hosts Tunisia, Guinea and Rwanda in the group stages.

"Getting through that first phase is the nervy bit, especially when you know that 68m people are watching every thing we do," added Wadsworth, who was out of work for the first time in 20 years after being sacked by Town last March.

"But I enjoy coaching and pitting my wits against others. You step onto the pitch and all you see is the green and the players and it doesn't matter if there are 500 or 50,000 people there."