Mind Over Matter...

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So welcome back to the upfront and unfiltered podcast where we've made it to a 10th episode
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i'm your host dean turton and this time around i've got a
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great lineup for you joining me this week are the most
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decorated father and son duo in manx football chris bass
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senior and chris bass junior both of them are going to
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talk through their incredible journeys in manx football the highs the
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lows and what they think of the current state of manx football as well
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and then we'll round this out as we always do with our
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seven si team in select seven so seeing him
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i'll start with you where does manx football start well manx
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football oh good evening dean manx football started for me when i came from
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portsmouth just before my 16th birthday and i met a group of people that were
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playing football in derby square park in douglas kicked around with them for
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a bit and then And through that,
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I think it was through Glyn Prescott and Robbie Prescott,
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who were brother-in-law to Brian Carney, who was at Old Boys at that particular time.
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Brian came out the house and played football with us. And then from there,
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I got introduced to Old Boys.
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My first season as a young 16-year-old lad, it was spent mostly for about six
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months on the bench behind a very aging Alan Palmer, Sharma,
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Sean Collister, Ian Colquitt.
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But patience, you know, you just had to do that. That's what you did.
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You know, you didn't complain that you weren't getting on.
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I remember the first game of football was down at Jim's in the combination.
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I think I scored five in the first game.
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But then from there, once you got into the team, it was tough.
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Once you got in, it was a tough introduction. And I always like,
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historically, the way we used to play football because, Because,
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you know, everybody used to say, you know, they can't run without legs.
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And it was just get out there, get in his face, kick him up in the air,
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drag him down, do whatever you got to do just to stop him from playing.
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And that was the way, you know, a decent centre forward was treated back then.
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But, you know, at the end of the game, after you've, you know,
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you're covered in blood and dirt, you shook hands and you got on and you went to the next game.
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So it was a really good introduction for me because you look at the,
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I feel that there was always tough centre halves. It was like Roger and Kevin Christian.
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Then there was Bones and Eric Nelson at Russian.
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There was Jeff Goff and Dave Perry at Ramy and all these people.
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They're all like probably bigger than myself, a lot broader than myself.
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And, you know, they weren't accustomed to being nice, you know,
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an elbow every sort of like two or three minutes.
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Got used to but you just had to get on with it when you could properly get stuck in
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yeah yeah i used to do an awful lot on loan at the referee for
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more protection but it was never coming and then i remember
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one day i can't remember the team we were playing kevin manning
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came to the island man now that was a different gravy when you
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bring kevin manning to the island man from liverpool leagues you
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brought somebody that was used to giving it out and not taking
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it from the center halves and i remember playing up here
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at blackberry lane and i was playing center forward and
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he was playing just off me and I was
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getting a bit of a tough time and Kevin said
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to me he said just hey Bassey Bassey just move
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out to the left for five minutes I'll bring you back in a minute just go out
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to the left for five minutes okay Kev I went out to the left for five minutes
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the referee's not looking and someone's been chinned right on the nose and whatever
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sorry chinned and it's like you can come back in now okay Kev thanks very much
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and it was like leave Leave the kid alone.
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But that's what football was like. And it was great.
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And were you spelted? Oh, I got my dad. That was by David Cole up at Strenaby
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in Laxy. We went in for a slide tackle.
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Unfortunately, his forearm hit me in the teeth. I lost one. One was hanging
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out. Cotton wool, carry on.
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There was none of this business of going off.
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No, no, you just played. and you know everybody was the same back then and it
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was it was just such a joy to be involved it's a shame that some of that didn't
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rub off on nick on friday isn't it i was good well well the family consensus
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was get on the pitch stop whining stop whining about calling your chin,
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well that's it isn't it so from there obviously you have quite a successful
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career obviously So you see Old Boys and then on to Jims as well and Times.
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Yeah, Old Boys was the first league title that I won.
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And that was a pretty good team with Gary Cox and Lee Cox and Trevor Peace,
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Steve Roberts, myself, Colin Purvis, who was, you know, very,
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very quick fullback and a bit like myself, you know, very good to give it out, you know, cheekily.
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He was doing things when the ref wasn't looking, used to make you laugh all
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the time just to wind people up as you do. Was it Ted Pepper was brilliant at that down at Russian.
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That was his main role. I think, you know, rather than playing football,
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it was just to wind people up.
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But every club's had them. Yeah.
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Listen, it takes all kinds to make a team. And if you've got one of those,
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then you've got to use that attribute. Yeah, definitely.
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So old boys. Yeah, that was, that was the first one, Nikki Smith,
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alongside Brian Carney. Yeah.
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I remember there was one season where we had Ricky Riley in goal.
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I think we only conceded 10 goals in the year, which was pretty phenomenal back
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then to, you know, to concede. It's mental, isn't it? 10 goals over what?
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And that was probably a 26, 30 game season? I think it was more like 26.
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Yeah. I think it was 24 or 26. I can't remember.
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Yeah. I'm knocking on now, 64 this year. So the memory's not what it should be.
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I can tell because he asked you about gyms, not all of us. Yeah,
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but no, he said that he started it. Started it. He said started it.
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It's Jim's days, it's fine. Yeah, so you go to Jim's and that was...
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Jim's was a very special team playing up front with John Garland. That was a laugh.
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He was another one that we used to wind people up. He still does it now? Yeah.
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I was down the other day. It was more of a laugh when he got sent off. That pumps the balls.
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Yeah, so we were up front and then I think you had Steve Harrison,
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Vinnie Ellison, Gary Blackburn, Brian Osborne, Keith Brew was in goal.
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The midfield was Steve Faulkner, Nicky Gerrard, Sam Kenny and Albert Harrison.
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Two very good subs or rotating within the squad. I do like to call them subs,
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but they were also good players. Martin Feely and Ray Hicks.
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That team won the Grand Slam and we went to 10 consecutive cup finals.
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So you consider that's three years in Manx football being in every cup final.
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It's mentalised. So that was a very, very good team. Sam Kenny was a special player.
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He was a great leader, great organiser. Had a bit of an edge,
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Sam. And he could be nasty when he needed to be.
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But yeah, he's a very intelligent footballer. Well, that's what you want,
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isn't it? Like you say, every team has a wind-up merchant.
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Every team's also got one of them people that can have that little bit of nastiness in them.
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But after that final whistle goes, shake your hand and you're done, aren't they? Yeah.
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And then, yeah, from there it was to, it was, I think, I can't remember the
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order now, but I played at Braddon, I played at St John's.
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I made a deal with family members, like Steve Ingham and Nick Ingham. you come and play for St.
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George's, I'll come and play for St. John's. I don't know who got the better
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of the deal, but it was fun, just the same.
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I do remember when we went to St. John's playing with Nick Hurt for the first
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time, another very good footballer, intelligent footballer, reads the game well.
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Two-footed, yeah, he was a bit special, Nick.
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And he also scored 14 goals against us when I started managing at St.
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George's. Not happy about that. No, he won the Golden Boot, wasn't he?
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Eight behind, one game to go.
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John Palmer was worse off than me because he lost to Golden Boo that day.
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He was eight ahead of her. One game left and her team scored 14 against her. Yeah, yeah.
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So we've had so many ups and downs. I had a great season at Braddon playing
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with Tam McLaren down at Clucas Laundries.
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So, yeah, I was a bit of a journeyman, which once I went into management,
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I was completely the opposite way. You know, show some loyalty.
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So you do change. You do change.
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But yeah i had a fantastic playing time
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i loved it i love what made you call quits on your playing days
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we went up to air united and we were playing a league game up there and i was
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player manager at the time and the lads had come in at half time and i'd given
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them the right rollicking for not doing the correct things and then i decided
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to put myself on and from the minute i put myself on And there was 42 at the time,
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I believe, and nothing went right.
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Everyone, everything literally went wrong. And you could hear the murmurings,
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like, you know, oh God, here we go.
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And so, so the minute I walked off to the pitch, I went into the dressing room
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and said, right lad, you'll never see me on the pitch again.
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That was it but i did have a special memory when
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i was not gonna remember that oh yeah it's i did have
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a special memory when we came up here and we'd
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won the league and i managed to take to the pitch with myself
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andrew nick and chris and luck would have it the ball fell to me in an overhead
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kick on the edge of the box and for all love ball money i thought it was going
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in and my My whole family was hoping it didn't go in just so they didn't have
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to live with it for the next 10 years.
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And the ball came back off the crossbar. And I think that was about my only
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contribution in the game, really.
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I think me and Andy had our hands on our heads as it came back off the ball. I think we celebrated.
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Celebrated as much as the defence did. It's gone out, it's gone out.
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It's not very odd, is it, when your own team say, no, don't go in, don't go in.
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Yeah, I've had some fantastic memories in terms of playing.
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And I wouldn't change a thing. I wouldn't change a thing.
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If I could, I'd probably say I would like to have been a little bit fitter, which was hard.
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Yeah. But that's what I would like to have been because fitness means everything in football.
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Yeah. Especially the last five minutes. It does, yeah. It does, yeah.
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We'll get on to that. So, Junior, I'll come to you now. Yeah.
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And I'll ask you the same question as I asked your dad. Yeah.
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Where does Manx football start for you?
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Watching my dad. I grew up watching my dad every Saturday.
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Every Friday night, I'd clean his boots. He'd give me his boots from the week before.
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I'd take them outside and I'd clean them I'd scrub them with soap and water
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the next day I'd polish them put dubbing on them there you go dad there's your boots
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brought to you every Saturday proper apprentice every Saturday I loved it that's
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what I grew up doing wanted to go and watch my dad play football and if you
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like he was my hero growing up because I just loved watching him play score
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goals because he'd score every type of goal but when I first started playing I think I was 6.
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And again, my dad got into, he was the coach at the time, wasn't he?
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It was Dave. Kevin McKean.
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I thought, wasn't it Dave Powell? Was it before? Dave McKean.
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Was it Dave McKean? No, it wasn't. It was Tony McMeekin. Tony McMeekin.
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I'm sure he was the coach. You went to three. Yeah, I'm sure he was coach.
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He went down at Peel, first game.
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Yeah, and it was Richard Clarke. Was it Richard Clarke?
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It might have been. It was Richard Clarke. It was Richard Clarke.
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It was Richard Clarke, didn't he? Yeah, I was six years old and that's when
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it started. I started playing for Joy's at six. Yeah. So.
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Scored two, had one disallowed in the under 12s at six.
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I don't remember the game too much, but I've seen a few pictures on it.
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It was tiny, so small, but it was 11 side.
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Back then it was 11 side in the big goals. It's not like now when you see the football on Sunday.
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Yeah, the little pictures with the little goals. This was the full size,
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11 side pitch, full size goals.
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You can imagine the size of me at six years old, but yeah, I loved it.
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Not growing up since, have you? No, not growing at all.
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He learned how to do a lot of good things but he also learnt not what to do
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because remember that goal I
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tried to score up here diving header the ball was only about sort of like,
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two to three or four inches off the deck and I tried to dive in header and as
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I did it the ball just got wedged between my face and the turf and didn't move
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and then I looked up behind the goal all I could see was Chris just rolling
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around I think it was me Coxie.
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Might have been Patrick Manning and we just sat behind the
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goal here on the bank and the ball was stuck stuck in one we're all
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pointing and laughing he looked up at us i was
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at so i was at geordie's from six and then they didn't
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have a team one age group i think it was under 12s maybe they didn't have a
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team so i left and i went to keon droggers which is it which was on back then
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so i'm gonna call kenny hewitt he's the manager so i went with him and it was
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like mark walmsley was playing and some of the quirks were playing,
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Trevor Moffat was playing as well, yeah. Some of the players were playing.
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But then I was there for a year, maybe, I think.
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As soon as Geordie's had a team, I think maybe I was there two years because
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Geordie had started back up again.
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Right. And when I come back, that's when Johnny Myers was there and I think
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Sean was playing. Stephen Underwood, one of my mates from school,
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was playing. So it was back to St.
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George's at under 14. Under 14, probably.
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Yeah. Yeah, so I'd only missed out one, maybe two years while I was at Keown
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Jogging while they didn't have a team. so then I've played for Geordies ever
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since there's someone who do I see I keep seeing someone that works for I used
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to work with at the Ingham's and he's like remember when you signed up for St.
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John's and I didn't it was when my dad was playing for St. John's and I played
214
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in the friendly when I was about 15 or 16 I never signed gone down just signed
215
00:13:28,050 --> 00:13:30,970
me up to watch and just played one game no I've only ever played for St.
216
00:13:31,070 --> 00:13:34,110
George's yeah your boots your boots are in the van do you fancy a little run
217
00:13:34,110 --> 00:13:37,170
out with your dad yeah let's go it's a Saturday afternoon what are they going
218
00:13:37,170 --> 00:13:39,470
to be watching that was the Easter festival.
219
00:13:40,430 --> 00:13:43,250
Everybody likes it myself and probably dicko as well they
220
00:13:43,250 --> 00:13:46,590
used to walk around cool rose with a pair of boots in your hand because the
221
00:13:46,590 --> 00:13:49,910
you know when they came over from england half of them were drunk couldn't make
222
00:13:49,910 --> 00:13:52,730
the game so you've got to get you can you can end up playing two or three games
223
00:13:52,730 --> 00:13:55,590
a day yeah that was really good fun yeah we missed out
224
00:13:55,590 --> 00:13:58,250
on all that beast festival but yeah so but that on the
225
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14s team i went back to was myself and
226
00:14:01,310 --> 00:14:04,610
i just showed you that picture didn't i yourself julian ringham johnny
227
00:14:04,610 --> 00:14:07,530
mike and sean quay in the under 14s and you're all still playing still
228
00:14:07,530 --> 00:14:10,590
playing chris coxon's in there as well he was in that geordie's team
229
00:14:10,590 --> 00:14:15,590
he's still playing for old boys which is good to see yeah so but i was trying
230
00:14:15,590 --> 00:14:19,170
on that 14 i was with dicko at the school of excellence which is great it's
231
00:14:19,170 --> 00:14:23,270
the school veterans was brilliant which is something that maybe the other man's
232
00:14:23,270 --> 00:14:27,150
lacking a little bit now maybe for the young kids we had school excellence we
233
00:14:27,150 --> 00:14:28,430
had kevin manning our coach.
234
00:14:29,150 --> 00:14:34,310
And dicko was the coach and we were away trialing myself myers steve oh yeah
235
00:14:34,310 --> 00:14:38,050
steve priestnell got a a couple of trials away and I was at Oldham for a bit
236
00:14:38,050 --> 00:14:43,790
and I was there I was at Oldham every half term every school holiday yeah for
237
00:14:43,790 --> 00:14:45,910
one season the season before I left school,
238
00:14:46,510 --> 00:14:49,730
and I didn't get taken on there was a game we played at Macclesfield on
239
00:14:49,730 --> 00:14:52,450
a park pitch terrible weather terrible pitch we lost
240
00:14:52,450 --> 00:14:55,290
1-0 and no one spoke to me after the game just left me
241
00:14:55,290 --> 00:14:58,450
to it and I got picked up and went away never heard back from them never got
242
00:14:58,450 --> 00:15:02,930
taken on but over there that's the ethic of football back then isn't it it's
243
00:15:02,930 --> 00:15:07,430
no one turns around you don't you know if you weren't good enough that's it
244
00:15:07,430 --> 00:15:10,950
you're done you're out but I was I was good enough and they were ringing up
245
00:15:10,950 --> 00:15:13,510
to me they were ringing up my dad and saying he's doing really well,
246
00:15:13,970 --> 00:15:16,970
we'll probably look to take him on in the summer give him a scholarship the
247
00:15:16,970 --> 00:15:20,770
coach the coach that you had was Billy Armstrong and Billy Armstrong was army
248
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physical trainer right initially you know during the.
249
00:15:24,445 --> 00:15:27,745
The war or whatever and and he he
250
00:15:27,745 --> 00:15:30,545
he used to he used to swear and scream
251
00:15:30,545 --> 00:15:33,245
and shout at chris and chris would phone me up and he's always
252
00:15:33,245 --> 00:15:36,625
having a go and i used to say to chris listen if he's
253
00:15:36,625 --> 00:15:39,585
screaming and shouting at you he believes you have something
254
00:15:39,585 --> 00:15:42,405
when he's not talking to you that's the
255
00:15:42,405 --> 00:15:45,405
time to start being concerned but then chris
256
00:15:45,405 --> 00:15:48,245
was unfortunate because billy ermston you know he said to
257
00:15:48,245 --> 00:15:51,285
me that chris was the top player in
258
00:15:51,285 --> 00:15:54,245
the academy at that time but because of his size back then
259
00:15:54,245 --> 00:16:00,065
it was all about Ian Dowey now Ian Dowey is a very intelligent guy but in terms
260
00:16:00,065 --> 00:16:05,165
of his football he was a bit of a dog really it was a bit of a yarp dog in terms
261
00:16:05,165 --> 00:16:09,445
of elbows and he just believed in strength and size but now you look at modern
262
00:16:09,445 --> 00:16:13,505
football today and look how many world class smaller players there are,
263
00:16:14,045 --> 00:16:18,485
and it's just changed the world you look at Ian Oleski for example he's five
264
00:16:18,485 --> 00:16:23,425
foot not often isn't he that way different yeah because I didn't get taken on
265
00:16:23,425 --> 00:16:27,145
for a scholarship which disappointed me but my family moved away to the Isle
266
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of Wight because you used to live at the Isle of Wight didn't you?
267
00:16:28,825 --> 00:16:32,985
Yes. So my Uncle Pete moved to the Isle of Wight with his family and my cousins
268
00:16:32,985 --> 00:16:35,405
of the same age started playing for.
269
00:16:36,485 --> 00:16:39,525
Newport College in the Isle of Wight who were just starting up an affiliation
270
00:16:39,525 --> 00:16:43,705
with Newport County Isle of Wight so they were playing the English Leagues so
271
00:16:43,705 --> 00:16:47,565
they started up this college affiliation so I went because I hadn't got a scholarship
272
00:16:47,565 --> 00:16:51,445
I left the Isle of Man at 16 and went and played there that lasted I don't know,
273
00:16:52,055 --> 00:16:54,935
till february the next year and it sort of fell apart
274
00:16:54,935 --> 00:16:57,695
the money fell out of it and it was it was brilliant at the tracks which
275
00:16:57,695 --> 00:17:00,475
we went to college you know i can be playing getting away playing games on
276
00:17:00,475 --> 00:17:03,415
a wednesday and saturdays but it sort of fell out fell
277
00:17:03,415 --> 00:17:06,535
apart a little bit so i ended up going to science then
278
00:17:06,535 --> 00:17:09,355
it's funny because coxie plays here for all the boys he he came with
279
00:17:09,355 --> 00:17:12,075
me to the l white then he came with me to science esther as
280
00:17:12,075 --> 00:17:15,955
well so we were playing at science esther for i think i was there for 18 months
281
00:17:15,955 --> 00:17:20,795
maybe and they were the only college team in the uk that played in the what
282
00:17:20,795 --> 00:17:24,015
was called youth alliance league so they play the pro teams right so we play
283
00:17:24,015 --> 00:17:29,535
against the pro teams under 17s under 18s every every week twice a week maybe so,
284
00:17:30,095 --> 00:17:33,395
why are we doing that so so that was like a learning curve that's a like what
285
00:17:33,395 --> 00:17:36,975
you'd say a better standard than the other man but i was giving it a go i was
286
00:17:36,975 --> 00:17:41,255
trying to get elsewhere and better myself and then from there i got picked up
287
00:17:41,255 --> 00:17:45,295
by the england schools team yeah so i played for england schools under 18s the
288
00:17:45,295 --> 00:17:49,795
british colleges under 18s and we were away we We played against Scotland.
289
00:17:50,655 --> 00:17:52,555
Scotland, Ireland, Wales in the tournament.
290
00:17:52,695 --> 00:17:55,335
They used to have it on Skype, not the one I was in, but they used to have the
291
00:17:55,335 --> 00:17:56,875
schoolboys, the victory school.
292
00:17:57,035 --> 00:18:00,255
Yeah, I think a couple of weeks ago they got the schoolboys on Channel 4.
293
00:18:00,335 --> 00:18:04,295
This was the colleges, like if you weren't affiliated with clubs,
294
00:18:04,395 --> 00:18:06,275
this was the colleges equivalent of it.
295
00:18:06,335 --> 00:18:10,175
So I was playing there and then my granddad George, a big Oldham fan,
296
00:18:10,635 --> 00:18:13,075
rang Oldham back up and said, this is what he's doing now.
297
00:18:13,135 --> 00:18:14,915
He's played for British College, he's played for England schools,
298
00:18:15,115 --> 00:18:18,575
he's playing for Simon Sester and that's when Then Oldham took me back on.
299
00:18:19,075 --> 00:18:21,915
They said, well, come for a trial. And that's when Ian Dowey was the manager.
300
00:18:22,115 --> 00:18:24,355
That's why I got taken on a non-contract.
301
00:18:24,695 --> 00:18:29,315
So I played for Oldham for a season, basically. Played a few reserve games.
302
00:18:29,555 --> 00:18:32,375
Played some good players. Played against Alan Fletcher for Man United.
303
00:18:33,135 --> 00:18:36,735
Played against Kenny Miller at Molyneux for Wolves. So I got into the reserves,
304
00:18:36,815 --> 00:18:41,455
but I just, I think I let myself down there because, like Dad was saying,
305
00:18:41,475 --> 00:18:44,895
Ian Dowey was this big, he was a big, strong fellow himself.
306
00:18:45,175 --> 00:18:48,355
He didn't play. So he's a unit, wasn't he? And he's just hired.
307
00:18:48,475 --> 00:18:51,215
He had a coach called John Harbin. He was an Australian coach,
308
00:18:51,335 --> 00:18:52,535
like a rugby league coach.
309
00:18:52,695 --> 00:18:56,695
So they were coming to training, coming to the club in the morning.
310
00:18:56,735 --> 00:18:59,395
They were swimming early in the morning, going to the club for breakfast,
311
00:19:00,075 --> 00:19:02,115
footy training till dinner time.
312
00:19:02,215 --> 00:19:04,915
And then some days going to the boxing gym. So he trained three times a day.
313
00:19:05,215 --> 00:19:09,455
And I wasn't a good swimmer and I wasn't a big, strong boxer.
314
00:19:09,935 --> 00:19:12,955
But I could have done a bit more myself, to be honest, to get better at them
315
00:19:12,955 --> 00:19:15,115
things. But I wasn't his type of player. Yeah.
316
00:19:15,715 --> 00:19:18,215
And I used to listen to the players that he signed that come up from London,
317
00:19:18,595 --> 00:19:20,195
like some lads from Wimbledon.
318
00:19:20,795 --> 00:19:25,055
We used to turn up in the mornings, play five-a-side for an hour and a half
319
00:19:25,055 --> 00:19:27,175
and then go home. They weren't used to it either. No.
320
00:19:27,435 --> 00:19:32,215
But he's doing quite well. I think he just missed that promotion with Oldham from League One.
321
00:19:32,275 --> 00:19:34,895
Wigan went up and then Wigan went up again to the Premier League just after
322
00:19:34,895 --> 00:19:35,895
that with Leighton Baines.
323
00:19:36,055 --> 00:19:40,115
Yeah. I played against Leighton Baines on the first game of the season for the
324
00:19:40,115 --> 00:19:42,955
under-18s. Yeah. And when Wigan came to...
325
00:19:44,116 --> 00:19:48,436
Boundary Park after the new year he was in their first team and they won the
326
00:19:48,436 --> 00:19:52,936
league by a mile mad isn't it yeah and the difference is because I signed at
327
00:19:52,936 --> 00:19:56,756
exactly the same time as a lad called Mark Tierney who'd been at Preston he
328
00:19:56,756 --> 00:19:58,816
was a year younger than me,
329
00:19:59,356 --> 00:20:04,016
same same side same left foot would play but more defensive bit stronger,
330
00:20:04,656 --> 00:20:07,616
probably better in the box a bit better swimmer as
331
00:20:07,616 --> 00:20:10,336
well probably understood the game a little bit more because he'd
332
00:20:10,336 --> 00:20:13,056
lived there and been coached by Preston when I
333
00:20:13,056 --> 00:20:15,776
left he went to colchester then norwich and played in
334
00:20:15,776 --> 00:20:18,576
the premier league for knowledge it's mad isn't it it's been mad and i
335
00:20:18,576 --> 00:20:22,236
used to watch him play with the prayer yeah you played
336
00:20:22,236 --> 00:20:25,276
football with him and yeti that's it well that rolls in
337
00:20:25,276 --> 00:20:28,036
nicely actually to a question from dave matheson because he's obviously
338
00:20:28,036 --> 00:20:31,356
a matter of all yeah yeah and he basically said
339
00:20:31,356 --> 00:20:34,516
obviously in dow he was a manager you lost in the playoffs versus qpr
340
00:20:34,516 --> 00:20:38,176
and stuff yeah but did you have like any funny
341
00:20:38,176 --> 00:20:41,116
stories or any like about the older players
342
00:20:41,116 --> 00:20:43,896
out there some people like he's like David Ayres Fitz Hall
343
00:20:43,896 --> 00:20:46,816
Chris Armstrong Clint Hill I just remember Fitz
344
00:20:46,816 --> 00:20:50,596
Hall that was his nickname was one size Fitz Hall
345
00:20:50,596 --> 00:20:55,616
Fitz Hall one size that was his nickname but I remember Clive Wynard came and
346
00:20:55,616 --> 00:21:00,416
he'd been at Leeds and he turned up in his brand new BMW soft top turned up
347
00:21:00,416 --> 00:21:04,856
in the game turned up the ground and he was a good player and he was Ian Dowey's
348
00:21:04,856 --> 00:21:07,396
type of player big strong centre forward scored loads of goals.
349
00:21:08,276 --> 00:21:12,276
Well yeah he had Dylan David Ayres was a 38 year old left winger,
350
00:21:12,976 --> 00:21:17,636
he was 38 he was going up down the wing he was brilliant he was Michael Clegg was playing for,
351
00:21:18,116 --> 00:21:21,316
Oldham and Michael Clegg couldn't get the team Michael Clegg had played for
352
00:21:21,316 --> 00:21:24,956
Man United a couple of seasons before in the Champions League and he wasn't
353
00:21:24,956 --> 00:21:28,536
getting in the side three and that week he wasn't picking him but I remember
354
00:21:28,536 --> 00:21:31,056
I remember doing it a pre-season friendly,
355
00:21:31,796 --> 00:21:34,376
and they'd signed on this Portuguese fella,
356
00:21:35,156 --> 00:21:38,456
and and they had an old Really old Scottish pro.
357
00:21:38,776 --> 00:21:40,716
Yeah. And they signed on this Portuguese fella.
358
00:21:41,496 --> 00:21:45,616
And then he was a young lad. And he was getting changed in the dressing room.
359
00:21:46,056 --> 00:21:50,196
And this Scottish fella started going, watch for the cock, watch for the cock,
360
00:21:50,216 --> 00:21:51,736
watch for the cock. He took his kegs down.
361
00:21:51,856 --> 00:21:54,336
This thing started swinging around. Everyone just started going, whee!
362
00:21:57,936 --> 00:22:00,536
And he didn't have a clue what was going on. He had no idea.
363
00:22:00,996 --> 00:22:03,556
It was just hilarious. And this young kid started going...
364
00:22:04,803 --> 00:22:08,083
I had no idea what was going on even at this point you had no idea.
365
00:22:09,203 --> 00:22:11,983
That's why that must be what I think it's just
366
00:22:11,983 --> 00:22:15,383
some of the Scottish pro giving up I can't remember
367
00:22:15,383 --> 00:22:20,103
his name actually they had some good players so in that age group where Will
368
00:22:20,103 --> 00:22:24,023
Hayden was the year above me he ended up playing in the Scottish Premier League
369
00:22:24,023 --> 00:22:28,363
Scott Vernon was my age in my age group he played in the Scottish Premier League
370
00:22:28,363 --> 00:22:34,903
for Aberdeen so there's not many that went on from there on from there no It was like,
371
00:22:34,943 --> 00:22:37,743
if you were good enough, you were going.
372
00:22:37,843 --> 00:22:43,183
If not, it was that level. Well, I had Adam Griffin in front of me. He was the left winger.
373
00:22:43,563 --> 00:22:47,023
But again, because I never got taken on when I should have done for a scholarship,
374
00:22:47,223 --> 00:22:50,623
some of the lads, when I went back two and a half years later,
375
00:22:50,643 --> 00:22:53,103
they were there. And they were asking, how come, what happened?
376
00:22:53,643 --> 00:22:57,023
And loads of players never turned up that they'd actually given scholarships to.
377
00:22:57,663 --> 00:23:01,103
But he was in front of me and he's a left winger. So then when he went on loan to Chester,
378
00:23:01,223 --> 00:23:03,983
January, February time, that's when i got into the
379
00:23:03,983 --> 00:23:06,903
reserves and that was really my chance to yeah and i
380
00:23:06,903 --> 00:23:09,703
didn't do enough i always remember when my dad dad saying
381
00:23:09,703 --> 00:23:12,403
to me when i was growing up if you ever get a chance if you
382
00:23:12,403 --> 00:23:17,003
get taken on by a club be the first person in and the last person to leave at
383
00:23:17,003 --> 00:23:22,563
night and i didn't because i wanted to be one of the lights one of the like
384
00:23:22,563 --> 00:23:26,863
yeah i just want to fit in first yeah i want to be like i wasn't staying in
385
00:23:26,863 --> 00:23:31,183
digs with them we'd met family on holiday in oldham yeah years before and I stayed with them
386
00:23:31,563 --> 00:23:34,683
so I wasn't in digs I didn't get to know them really so I just wanted to be
387
00:23:34,683 --> 00:23:36,503
liked by the lads that I was playing with.
388
00:23:37,403 --> 00:23:41,243
So and then when you did extra things you get the old oh he's a busy bastard
389
00:23:41,243 --> 00:23:45,443
and all that so I kind of went into my shell a bit and just wanted to just fit
390
00:23:45,443 --> 00:23:46,823
in first but I wish that now,
391
00:23:47,463 --> 00:23:50,563
you should be there for yourself it's all about you it's not about them,
392
00:23:51,143 --> 00:23:53,823
I want to be a footballer now and that's me I don't care what
393
00:23:53,823 --> 00:23:56,663
you want to do I want to be a footballer now if I had my time again I'd
394
00:23:56,663 --> 00:23:59,523
do that I'd be in the first and I'd be out last and I'd do
395
00:23:59,523 --> 00:24:02,823
whatever it take I'd be into that coach John Harbin saying listen I know
396
00:24:02,823 --> 00:24:07,043
I'm not the biggest or the strongest what do I need to do and that's the experience
397
00:24:07,043 --> 00:24:11,403
you gain when you get past that stage and I wish I'd have done that but I didn't
398
00:24:11,403 --> 00:24:14,863
and then obviously come back to the Alleman back to the Alleman listened to
399
00:24:14,863 --> 00:24:18,723
my dad he said come back and I did get an offer from I went and tried to Rochdale
400
00:24:18,723 --> 00:24:20,403
train with their first team for a bit,
401
00:24:20,923 --> 00:24:23,803
and then I was offered Mosley they
402
00:24:23,803 --> 00:24:26,523
were offering me a couple hundred quid a week to go and play for them but my dad said
403
00:24:26,523 --> 00:24:29,623
to me come back get a trade so you've
404
00:24:29,623 --> 00:24:34,363
got something behind you and then you can maybe try again but yeah come back
405
00:24:34,363 --> 00:24:37,983
to St George's went and done the Brick Lane trade in the college and that's
406
00:24:37,983 --> 00:24:41,923
it then I started playing with all my mates again from back here from school
407
00:24:41,923 --> 00:24:48,003
just going off the stories that Chris was telling Johnny Myers at the same time Chris was away,
408
00:24:48,123 --> 00:24:54,423
he was away at Stockport when he went on trial to Stockport they had a few tough
409
00:24:54,423 --> 00:24:58,823
guys and one of these guys that what they reputedly called the toughest in the
410
00:24:58,823 --> 00:25:03,543
club went straight through Johnny Myers. A young kid, they went straight through him.
411
00:25:04,191 --> 00:25:06,991
But Johnny Myers, being Johnny Myers, you know, got up.
412
00:25:07,631 --> 00:25:12,431
When we talked to the coaches about how did they do, they knew that they were
413
00:25:12,431 --> 00:25:15,431
going to take Johnny Myers' YT the minute he stood up.
414
00:25:15,811 --> 00:25:20,291
So again, it goes back to how strong you are, how mentally strong you are.
415
00:25:20,291 --> 00:25:22,831
That's how I remembered it. But he told it slightly differently when he was
416
00:25:22,831 --> 00:25:24,211
here, didn't he? He told it slightly differently.
417
00:25:24,431 --> 00:25:28,251
But that's how I remember that he was playing in a certain position.
418
00:25:28,331 --> 00:25:31,791
One of the biggest lads went straight for him. He got straight up and carried on.
419
00:25:31,791 --> 00:25:38,911
Whereas me and Steve were smaller quicker yeah technical players yeah and like here.
420
00:25:39,451 --> 00:25:42,551
You'd look at us and you'd go what are the best two on the
421
00:25:42,551 --> 00:25:45,851
island at that age but over there for every one of us there's another ten of
422
00:25:45,851 --> 00:25:49,331
them that live just down the road so you have to be special at the size for
423
00:25:49,331 --> 00:25:53,991
the size of me and Steve Priestnell we have to be special to get taken on yeah
424
00:25:53,991 --> 00:25:57,671
and that's it like when Johnny was on Johnny said to me himself he said the
425
00:25:57,671 --> 00:26:01,111
only reason obviously he didn't stay on in the end was the IEV deal that went
426
00:26:01,111 --> 00:26:02,351
otherwise he'd have been over there.
427
00:26:02,351 --> 00:26:06,351
He was trying to get they were trying to get into Merkel's field as well just after.
428
00:26:06,491 --> 00:26:10,311
I think the thing you've got to look at is when Chris talks about there being
429
00:26:10,311 --> 00:26:15,551
another 10 players over there you know it's not far wrong but it's the cost implication.
430
00:26:15,991 --> 00:26:19,891
Massive. To have those other 10 it's costing the club nothing because their
431
00:26:19,891 --> 00:26:22,611
mums and dads would drive them to train and then they'll take them home.
432
00:26:22,751 --> 00:26:27,071
But to make a big commitment to somebody from the Isle of Man that's going to cost money.
433
00:26:27,271 --> 00:26:32,271
Yeah. And that's the downfall that little bit of water between us and England
434
00:26:32,271 --> 00:26:35,791
is a massive... I think it'd be very interesting to speak to someone like Adam
435
00:26:35,791 --> 00:26:39,091
Long now and see what that impact was on him. You know what?
436
00:26:39,211 --> 00:26:42,351
Like, in this sort of day and age where he's gone over and...
437
00:26:42,351 --> 00:26:45,751
But they follow him all the time. He's at Fylde now and he scored on you last weekend at Fylde.
438
00:26:45,791 --> 00:26:50,171
I just mean, like, the financial costs and how did his parents find it and how
439
00:26:50,171 --> 00:26:51,571
did things like... You know, it'd
440
00:26:51,571 --> 00:26:55,191
be interesting to see comparison to what you've done to how Adam's gone.
441
00:26:55,311 --> 00:26:59,911
I think with Adam Long, I think, and this goes down to Jeff Dobbin,
442
00:26:59,911 --> 00:27:04,731
I think, you know, when they're at Union Mills, all those kids that came to
443
00:27:04,731 --> 00:27:06,371
St. George's from Union Mills.
444
00:27:07,225 --> 00:27:10,605
Weren't likely to get the first team opportunities because of the way,
445
00:27:10,645 --> 00:27:14,785
you know, who was at the club and who was managing the club and the story I got.
446
00:27:14,885 --> 00:27:18,505
You know, it was a case of they've been here a long time. We're going to stick with them.
447
00:27:18,605 --> 00:27:20,885
So all those kids came to us.
448
00:27:21,125 --> 00:27:26,385
And when we went down to, I think we were playing Peel at Colby.
449
00:27:26,385 --> 00:27:29,105
Colby semi-final, yeah. And we were down there.
450
00:27:29,405 --> 00:27:34,765
And the minute Adam Long, at the tender age of what he was, actually had an
451
00:27:34,765 --> 00:27:36,585
outstanding game against Peel, he'll go
452
00:27:37,025 --> 00:27:42,185
he's got it so the minute we were walking out the ground Dicko and I travelling
453
00:27:42,185 --> 00:27:46,185
back we need to get on the phone you know Dicko's got the contacts let's get
454
00:27:46,185 --> 00:27:52,265
it sorted and then the rest is his and he wasn't the best one it's just the size again.
455
00:27:53,865 --> 00:27:57,065
Like he had the legs already for it his legs were
456
00:27:57,065 --> 00:27:59,925
massive he was 16 and he just sent the half left footed sent
457
00:27:59,925 --> 00:28:03,645
the half and Dicko knows from where he's been in the game he knows people look
458
00:28:03,645 --> 00:28:09,165
at that the size of him the age of him left-footed centre-halves so he could
459
00:28:09,165 --> 00:28:15,265
get him somewhere but yeah for me when I come back then like you say I started
460
00:28:15,265 --> 00:28:19,665
I played first team at Geordie's 14 when Dad took over or just before you took over wasn't it?
461
00:28:19,725 --> 00:28:24,745
I was on the sideline with Stephen just before he took over I played at 14 in
462
00:28:24,745 --> 00:28:28,665
the first team imagine again go back to my size then I wasn't I was never going
463
00:28:28,665 --> 00:28:31,225
to be big enough strong enough I remember I remember,
464
00:28:32,145 --> 00:28:36,925
Steve Moran saying to me up at St. George's because you were on the bench.
465
00:28:37,345 --> 00:28:40,805
And he said to me, he says, do you think he's up to it? Do you think he's ready?
466
00:28:41,105 --> 00:28:45,285
And I said to Steve, I said, if you put him on the pitch, I'll guarantee you
467
00:28:45,285 --> 00:28:47,965
he's the only player in your team that won't give the ball away.
468
00:28:48,605 --> 00:28:52,065
And true to a word, that particular afternoon when he came on in the second
469
00:28:52,065 --> 00:28:55,005
half, didn't give the ball away once, kept possession all the time.
470
00:28:55,265 --> 00:28:58,225
And then there was somebody up in the background on the bank at St.
471
00:28:58,625 --> 00:29:03,045
George's. Go, oh, what the bloody hell's going on? What's he doing on the pitch?
472
00:29:03,045 --> 00:29:05,885
Christ, he's far too effing small. La-di-da-di-da-di-da.
473
00:29:06,875 --> 00:29:11,075
And then we go down to, I think it was either Castletown the following week.
474
00:29:11,155 --> 00:29:15,015
And I think he had a blinder and he scored or something. And we go back to the clubhouse.
475
00:29:15,375 --> 00:29:21,275
And the guy that's doing all the gobbing off the top of the bank was stood next to me in the urinals.
476
00:29:21,375 --> 00:29:23,835
And he was going, oh, you're a young lad, son of a player. I said,
477
00:29:23,915 --> 00:29:26,315
oh, I said, you've seen a change of ref and attitude, haven't you?
478
00:29:26,935 --> 00:29:29,855
You know, you were up on the bank and he's gone, it wasn't me in particular,
479
00:29:30,055 --> 00:29:33,475
you know, man's tradition. It wasn't me. I said, yes, it bloody was.
480
00:29:34,115 --> 00:29:39,495
It's mad, isn't it? It's mad. and that's it so obviously both of you you know
481
00:29:39,495 --> 00:29:43,195
Chris you then come in you go back into senior football at St.
482
00:29:43,235 --> 00:29:46,555
George yeah tell us about what was it like to be in that team.
483
00:29:47,115 --> 00:29:51,295
Yeah because I come back so do you know what and I missed it and I came back
484
00:29:51,295 --> 00:29:55,615
towards the back end of the season we finished fourth in the league so I remember
485
00:29:55,615 --> 00:30:00,875
when we first started at 40 when my dad first took over I think he said 32 players
486
00:30:00,875 --> 00:30:03,715
over the course of two seasons 32 players left right,
487
00:30:04,215 --> 00:30:08,215
for different reasons and obviously he annoyed them when he was playing with
488
00:30:08,215 --> 00:30:12,255
some of them because of his mouth and he probably thought, I don't want him to be my manager.
489
00:30:12,695 --> 00:30:17,355
So they cleared off. But he knew he had the likes of myself and the lads of
490
00:30:17,355 --> 00:30:19,455
my age coming through and he thought, well, I'll just stick with them.
491
00:30:19,475 --> 00:30:20,355
We'll just see how we get on.
492
00:30:20,535 --> 00:30:23,415
And we gradually got better. And then when I came back from across,
493
00:30:23,695 --> 00:30:28,555
Johnny Myers had come back the year before from Stockport and all I heard about
494
00:30:28,555 --> 00:30:31,455
was how good this Johnny Myers, how good Johnny Myers had been because he was
495
00:30:31,455 --> 00:30:34,435
lean and he'd shaved his hair off.
496
00:30:34,435 --> 00:30:37,315
He looked like an absolute machine and he would go box to
497
00:30:37,315 --> 00:30:40,635
box to box and I missed that season only the
498
00:30:40,635 --> 00:30:44,915
back end of it when I got released from Oldham around about April I'd come back
499
00:30:44,915 --> 00:30:48,235
and played a few games Get that hospital cup sort of spirit Hospital cup yeah
500
00:30:48,235 --> 00:30:52,835
and we finished 4th in the league no I think yeah we finished 4th just I remember
501
00:30:52,835 --> 00:30:55,895
and I remember one game one game does stick in my mind That was with Steve Moran
502
00:30:55,895 --> 00:31:00,395
in charge because my first season that I was in charge we finished,
503
00:31:00,855 --> 00:31:04,315
in Oh yeah no we finished no this is when I first come back No,
504
00:31:04,335 --> 00:31:06,935
we finished the year before we won the league, I think we finished fourth.
505
00:31:08,396 --> 00:31:11,676
The year I come back, because I played only a couple of games at the end of
506
00:31:11,676 --> 00:31:15,076
the season, and one game I remember playing
507
00:31:15,476 --> 00:31:19,216
was at Pulley, and we were playing against St Mary's who were going for the
508
00:31:19,216 --> 00:31:22,656
league, and we were kind of still maybe round about, we were getting better
509
00:31:22,656 --> 00:31:24,436
obviously, and we thought maybe next year we've got a chance.
510
00:31:24,576 --> 00:31:29,356
We were beating St Mary's 2-0 at Pulley, and Sam Kenny was the player manager.
511
00:31:29,776 --> 00:31:32,056
I don't know how old he was then, but he brought himself on.
512
00:31:32,456 --> 00:31:34,576
We lost 3-2, never touched the ball.
513
00:31:35,096 --> 00:31:37,536
Sam Kenny brought himself on when they were 2-0.
514
00:31:38,396 --> 00:31:43,696
I never touched it good boy so we just kind of snowballed from there dad was obviously going out and,
515
00:31:44,296 --> 00:31:47,296
speaking to players like he recognised players that
516
00:31:47,296 --> 00:31:49,936
played against him which ones were good and which ones he wanted and he was
517
00:31:49,936 --> 00:31:52,776
good at getting them he was very good at going out and getting players
518
00:31:52,776 --> 00:31:55,896
we'll come on to that with your dad I've got no
519
00:31:55,896 --> 00:31:59,696
qualms in asking your dad how good he was at poaching players I've no qualms
520
00:31:59,696 --> 00:32:04,056
in that and I know he'll answer it as well well yeah I was a better poacher
521
00:32:04,056 --> 00:32:08,836
of players than Steedo is as a fisherman yeah but and he's not bad but yeah
522
00:32:08,836 --> 00:32:12,996
so we've done all we've done all going through the leagues playing and you know one of the things is,
523
00:32:13,756 --> 00:32:17,336
you're playing with your brothers because Andy was playing Nick played you're
524
00:32:17,336 --> 00:32:21,496
playing with your best mates that I knew from school from junior football and
525
00:32:21,496 --> 00:32:24,496
you're adding in one or two others that you know and then your dad's a manager
526
00:32:24,496 --> 00:32:27,136
and then we've been since then I've been,
527
00:32:27,716 --> 00:32:31,896
I played well I'm what am I on now 86 caps for the Isle of Man I'm still trying
528
00:32:31,896 --> 00:32:32,876
to chase the latest record.
529
00:32:33,676 --> 00:32:38,016
We've done MIFA yeah and we've done on FC Altman and I've pretty much done it
530
00:32:38,016 --> 00:32:42,576
all together and do you know what I've been playing football the amount of places
531
00:32:42,576 --> 00:32:44,916
around the world I've been just playing football,
532
00:32:45,536 --> 00:32:50,416
it's amazing and there's nothing I'd change the one thing maybe I do regret
533
00:32:50,416 --> 00:32:54,616
is deciding not to go to Gotland when the Arn team won the gold medal because
534
00:32:54,616 --> 00:32:57,556
I've got two silvers never won the gold and I decided one year not to go Would
535
00:32:57,556 --> 00:33:01,776
you not change that penalty against Nice?
536
00:33:02,256 --> 00:33:06,736
Yeah probably Yeah Because we win the World Cup Yeah, but we should have got
537
00:33:06,736 --> 00:33:08,176
a penalty when I got fouled before that.
538
00:33:08,316 --> 00:33:12,156
It was a penalty, but he actually apologised afterwards. The referee got it
539
00:33:12,156 --> 00:33:14,356
wrong. Yeah, well, Austin, we're talking about changing things.
540
00:33:15,316 --> 00:33:19,156
Tristan Ringham sent me a question for you. Yes. Would you change the time you
541
00:33:19,156 --> 00:33:23,516
went off and celebrated at Union Palace when the ball hadn't crossed the line?
542
00:33:23,776 --> 00:33:27,016
So, you know, and this has come up. That's brilliant. This has come up a few
543
00:33:27,016 --> 00:33:33,896
times recently because, right, because history may well repeat itself this year because St.
544
00:33:34,016 --> 00:33:38,496
George's are struggling in the league and we've got to go away to Union Mills.
545
00:33:38,836 --> 00:33:44,856
Yeah. And when Dad first took over and I was away in the Isle of Wight with Coxon. Yeah.
546
00:33:45,196 --> 00:33:49,196
And sometimes when we didn't have a game, St. George's would pay for us to come home.
547
00:33:49,676 --> 00:33:52,196
So we'd play. We'd been playing all week. We'd train every day.
548
00:33:52,236 --> 00:33:55,256
So we were fit and we were getting better at football. St. George's would ask
549
00:33:55,256 --> 00:33:57,176
us to come back because they were short on players.
550
00:33:57,876 --> 00:34:00,736
Union Mills and St. George's were struggling to stay in the league.
551
00:34:01,136 --> 00:34:04,276
And it was up on the old pitch. while the hospital was being built.
552
00:34:05,525 --> 00:34:09,305
Pissed down all week. Union Mills wanted the game off and we wanted it on because
553
00:34:09,305 --> 00:34:12,025
me, Cox and my back and the other strong team that day.
554
00:34:12,345 --> 00:34:16,645
Union Mills said it's not playable and seeing it's like, get the referee.
555
00:34:16,785 --> 00:34:19,145
The referee decides. So we're walking around the pitch with the referee.
556
00:34:19,525 --> 00:34:23,645
This pitch is playable. We play on this. Easy. So we bullied him a bit, got the game on.
557
00:34:23,985 --> 00:34:26,965
Referral the ball. Sorry, James Robb. We quoted the rule book.
558
00:34:27,165 --> 00:34:30,825
Yeah. If the ball rolls and bounces, the pitch is playable.
559
00:34:31,185 --> 00:34:34,445
So we kicked the ball up in the air. Luckily enough, found the driest spot.
560
00:34:34,445 --> 00:34:36,585
It ran the hardest spot on the pitch. It bounced.
561
00:34:36,785 --> 00:34:40,985
I remember George nicking a couple of bits. He shoved a load of building sand
562
00:34:40,985 --> 00:34:43,165
off the new hospital building site. He did.
563
00:34:43,485 --> 00:34:47,805
The hospital was getting built, and they had over 100 tonnes of sand there.
564
00:34:48,045 --> 00:34:51,045
And George says, look at all the sand over there. Go and get some of that sand.
565
00:34:51,125 --> 00:34:53,465
Put it... That sand doesn't belong to us. Then you wouldn't do it.
566
00:34:53,465 --> 00:34:54,745
So George jumped in his car.
567
00:34:55,025 --> 00:34:59,165
He went up to B&Q. Oh, to go to B&Q. Bought 12 bags of sand in the back of his car.
568
00:34:59,245 --> 00:35:03,165
Come back, put them all on the pitch. In the meantime, I'd actually demanded
569
00:35:03,165 --> 00:35:06,385
the head of referees or who figures, yes, come up to the ground,
570
00:35:06,545 --> 00:35:10,445
look at the pitch and say, you know, what are they doing?
571
00:35:10,705 --> 00:35:13,405
This isn't, you know, this is football. People come to watch games,
572
00:35:13,465 --> 00:35:15,625
not come to see, you know, games get called off.
573
00:35:15,945 --> 00:35:20,745
So anyway, the guy said that the game is playable. So the game went ahead.
574
00:35:21,025 --> 00:35:25,305
But the moral of the story is Union Mills could have said, excuse me,
575
00:35:25,385 --> 00:35:27,025
we're responsible for this ground.
576
00:35:27,185 --> 00:35:31,365
Now you F off because the game's not on. but they didn't know the rules well
577
00:35:31,365 --> 00:35:36,325
enough so the game went ahead and there's quite a few people down watching and
578
00:35:36,325 --> 00:35:39,485
obviously they knew that me and Coxie were playing away so we were getting a
579
00:35:39,485 --> 00:35:42,905
bit of stick because we'd come over especially for the game and I think we were
580
00:35:42,905 --> 00:35:46,485
winning 2-1 at the time and I raced through and.
581
00:35:47,691 --> 00:35:51,271
Went round the goalkeeper, slotting it in the goal. And so I thought,
582
00:35:51,451 --> 00:35:54,911
shirt over my head, ran down the line to celebrate, passed or left,
583
00:35:55,071 --> 00:35:57,891
because there was quite a lot of people watching and they'd been giving me sticks.
584
00:35:57,931 --> 00:36:01,951
So I put the shirt over my head, ran past them all, and they all turned around,
585
00:36:01,991 --> 00:36:04,731
it's not even in, not even gone in, swearing at me.
586
00:36:04,851 --> 00:36:07,511
And I turned around and the goalkeeper had the ball in his hands.
587
00:36:07,591 --> 00:36:11,271
I was like, what's going on? And I was adamantly gone and the goalkeeper jumped on it and rolled over.
588
00:36:11,591 --> 00:36:14,331
We hadn't crossed the line because it got stuck in the muck because it was that wet.
589
00:36:15,251 --> 00:36:18,131
It was memorable. We still won. we stayed up
590
00:36:18,131 --> 00:36:21,431
when Union Mills went down brilliant and that was the biggest talking point
591
00:36:21,431 --> 00:36:25,911
in their annual dinner by the way they were still complaining about St George's
592
00:36:25,911 --> 00:36:31,031
and that game but like Chris says history's come down again now we're both struggling
593
00:36:31,031 --> 00:36:34,971
in the league this year that'll be a game but it's watching definitely I'll
594
00:36:34,971 --> 00:36:35,991
turn up to that when I've watched,
595
00:36:36,511 --> 00:36:41,411
just hopefully you can get all of London and if not I'm going to video it because
596
00:36:41,411 --> 00:36:45,351
everything's it's sad I mean if you've worn any guns anyway it doesn't matter
597
00:36:45,351 --> 00:36:48,711
well you obviously you mentioned you've got like 86 Ireland caps now which are
598
00:36:48,711 --> 00:36:52,491
all crisp like what's that being like you know representing the Isle of Man,
599
00:36:53,171 --> 00:36:56,971
just for the Isle of Man FA first it's amazing I love playing for the Isle of
600
00:36:56,971 --> 00:37:00,711
Man at any level whenever I play for the Isle of Man because and I always had
601
00:37:00,711 --> 00:37:04,591
this attitude when I came back from playing away at Oldham and the place I'd been,
602
00:37:05,091 --> 00:37:09,531
this is like Manx football you can't when you're playing Manx football you can't
603
00:37:09,531 --> 00:37:13,351
go and play at a higher standard while you're on the island so my attitude was
604
00:37:13,351 --> 00:37:17,351
well I'm going to play it as if it's the Premier League I'm going to play and
605
00:37:17,351 --> 00:37:21,411
I'm going to look after myself as if it's the highest standard of football that
606
00:37:21,411 --> 00:37:24,891
there is because this is the highest standard that I can play in at the moment while I'm here.
607
00:37:25,111 --> 00:37:29,171
So that was always my attitude. So if there was an opportunity to play for the
608
00:37:29,171 --> 00:37:33,811
Isle of Man, I wanted to play and I've loved every single minute of it. I always do.
609
00:37:33,911 --> 00:37:38,691
And I went to the Isle of Man games last year and unfortunately I got an injury which, touch wood.
610
00:37:39,698 --> 00:37:43,838
That was my first serious injury in my whole career, and I'm 39.
611
00:37:43,838 --> 00:37:46,778
I remember coming up, because I came to training at Al Fletcher,
612
00:37:46,898 --> 00:37:50,238
and we were speaking before the game. Yeah, you were training.
613
00:37:50,598 --> 00:37:54,438
And I said to you, Chris, what's it like? How are you feeling?
614
00:37:54,498 --> 00:37:57,498
And this was only probably two weeks before, or was that a week before?
615
00:37:57,918 --> 00:38:02,038
And you said, I don't know, it's touching gold. And you said that to me dead
616
00:38:02,038 --> 00:38:05,258
over. Well, I had problems when I was playing with FCL.
617
00:38:05,318 --> 00:38:08,978
Because of my age, and I've had to change my game, obviously, I've got slower.
618
00:38:09,698 --> 00:38:13,638
But I was having a lot of problems with my hamstrings and just the strength
619
00:38:13,638 --> 00:38:16,618
in my muscles and things like that. So my hamstring was twinging.
620
00:38:17,098 --> 00:38:19,878
And we played FCL, a man-and-walk game, and I lasted five minutes.
621
00:38:20,018 --> 00:38:21,738
And I thought, that's it, that's me done, I'm not going.
622
00:38:22,698 --> 00:38:26,458
But it hadn't hauled, it hadn't turned. It was just, I think it was just fatigue.
623
00:38:26,758 --> 00:38:30,058
It just kept pulling me back. And then, so I ended up going still.
624
00:38:30,358 --> 00:38:33,858
But the same leg, I was playing, I came on a sub in the first game,
625
00:38:33,898 --> 00:38:37,558
sub in the second game. And in the second game, I don't think I was strong.
626
00:38:37,618 --> 00:38:40,498
My muscles were strong enough. off and I went into a tackle and
627
00:38:40,498 --> 00:38:43,378
I ended up not knowing at the time after the tackles because
628
00:38:43,378 --> 00:38:46,478
I carried on playing but I'd done a grade two
629
00:38:46,478 --> 00:38:49,338
grade three term MCL which is the first time I'd ever
630
00:38:49,338 --> 00:38:52,618
done anything like that yeah in in my career on the only
631
00:38:52,618 --> 00:38:57,458
time I've had a knee injury was when I was away with Morrissey on holiday and
632
00:38:57,458 --> 00:39:00,898
someone knocked me off this we were on scooters and someone some drink driver
633
00:39:00,898 --> 00:39:04,198
drove into the scooter I was in the back of knocked me off the bike and I fractured
634
00:39:04,198 --> 00:39:07,778
my skull my elbow and damaged my knee so I was in and out of football for a
635
00:39:07,778 --> 00:39:10,738
year after After that, a year or two until I got a little up on my knee.
636
00:39:10,878 --> 00:39:15,778
But yeah, so that's the Island Games last year. And if I've got a chance,
637
00:39:16,078 --> 00:39:18,318
obviously, I've got to get the support of my wife.
638
00:39:18,398 --> 00:39:21,798
You have to have good support from your family back home to do all these things.
639
00:39:21,898 --> 00:39:23,038
Like my dad's had support from
640
00:39:23,038 --> 00:39:28,278
my mum, Karen, and they have to understand what type of person you are.
641
00:39:28,458 --> 00:39:32,718
And she's supported me through everything I've done since I've been with her football-wise.
642
00:39:32,798 --> 00:39:36,818
So if there's an opportunity and if the management feel like I'm good enough,
643
00:39:36,818 --> 00:39:40,498
I'd love to go back and represent them again next summer Chase that Cap like
644
00:39:40,498 --> 00:39:44,938
last time I seen him he said to me have you still not broke that record and obviously.
645
00:39:46,258 --> 00:39:50,518
That's always been my goal and he knows that I've always wanted to be the most
646
00:39:50,518 --> 00:39:53,838
capital man player if I can and for reasons like,
647
00:39:54,579 --> 00:39:58,379
But my own fault, sometimes not going on trips and then a lot of injuries.
648
00:39:58,439 --> 00:40:01,219
I've been to loads of tournaments where I got injured in the first game,
649
00:40:01,279 --> 00:40:02,839
missed the next two or three. Yeah.
650
00:40:04,359 --> 00:40:07,579
It's a local game, isn't it? It's a local draw and it's injuries that I've had.
651
00:40:07,699 --> 00:40:10,559
I would have easily, I reckon, I would have had 100.
652
00:40:10,939 --> 00:40:14,859
Yeah. And a lot of people probably would say, you know, I could have done that
653
00:40:14,859 --> 00:40:15,959
if I didn't get injured as well.
654
00:40:16,039 --> 00:40:19,679
But I should have had it. But yeah, I just love representing the other one.
655
00:40:19,979 --> 00:40:24,059
Even Mipha, I loved representing Mipha when we were away.
656
00:40:24,059 --> 00:40:27,039
Some of the best trips I've ever had was with the football teams
657
00:40:27,039 --> 00:40:29,819
and then obviously you've gone on you know you were in that
658
00:40:29,819 --> 00:40:33,179
first FC Allemagne team amazing and gone through that amazing memories it's
659
00:40:33,179 --> 00:40:36,339
like I said I'm doing it with my best mates the mates that I've grown up with
660
00:40:36,339 --> 00:40:41,619
and then you you have you gain friends along the way through football because
661
00:40:41,619 --> 00:40:46,139
it's social and you just gain friends and then you get to do all these things
662
00:40:46,139 --> 00:40:50,479
with the friends with your friends and then your family come along and it's just such a nice feeling
663
00:40:50,899 --> 00:40:53,799
but the memories that you have you'll never ever ever
664
00:40:53,799 --> 00:40:56,699
recreate them with anything else and i'm doing it well i'm doing
665
00:40:56,699 --> 00:40:59,599
it with family and friends and it's just been amazing and that's and that's
666
00:40:59,599 --> 00:41:02,319
it so that comes in nicely for to a question from ryan
667
00:41:02,319 --> 00:41:05,499
gartland actually yeah and he just wants to know who your favorite roommate
668
00:41:05,499 --> 00:41:13,119
at an island games was he wants me to say ryan gartland you want me to say ryan
669
00:41:13,119 --> 00:41:16,579
gartland because his mom said to me when we're away and he was like he's on
670
00:41:16,579 --> 00:41:21,859
the phone all the time and uh his mom kept saying to me He is the most dirtiest,
671
00:41:21,859 --> 00:41:23,919
untidy person ever.
672
00:41:24,039 --> 00:41:26,419
And do you know what? In that room, he wasn't. He was as good as cold.
673
00:41:26,859 --> 00:41:32,039
So I'm going to say, my God, and the quietest one when we were in Keneath, it was...
674
00:41:32,830 --> 00:41:36,970
I was rearing with Joey Morland on my way in Sweden. Didn't say a word.
675
00:41:37,010 --> 00:41:38,230
He was only young, wasn't he? Yeah.
676
00:41:38,310 --> 00:41:41,830
Only 16, which you're not allowed to do now because I know last year we went
677
00:41:41,830 --> 00:41:42,790
to the Island Games. Yeah.
678
00:41:43,110 --> 00:41:47,070
Tina had to have rearing on his own because he's 16. Yeah. I was going to say,
679
00:41:47,110 --> 00:41:50,390
I think you've got to get some sort of dispensation from your parents and things like that.
680
00:41:50,430 --> 00:41:53,350
When we went to Sweden, Joey reamed with me and he was the quietest.
681
00:41:53,370 --> 00:41:56,570
But yeah, I was going to say Ryan then just because he asked the question.
682
00:41:56,750 --> 00:41:59,350
That's fair enough. To make him happy, wasn't it? So, ka-ching.
683
00:42:00,010 --> 00:42:07,550
Well, segue back now. Senior, your managing days, everyone knows what a manager
684
00:42:07,550 --> 00:42:12,830
you were, the trophies you won, you know, how you were, what was it like for you from the inside?
685
00:42:13,930 --> 00:42:18,170
Well, I never really thought, and I don't believe anyone else thought that I'd
686
00:42:18,170 --> 00:42:19,730
ever be a decent manager.
687
00:42:20,130 --> 00:42:24,210
I first came to the job when Steve Moran was at St George's.
688
00:42:24,250 --> 00:42:28,410
It was Barry O'Leary who asked me, he said to me, would I take over?
689
00:42:28,490 --> 00:42:31,350
And I said, why do you want me to take over? You've got Steve Moran. around he said
690
00:42:31,350 --> 00:42:34,570
well the club would like to go in a different direction next
691
00:42:34,570 --> 00:42:37,810
year anyway and he said
692
00:42:37,810 --> 00:42:40,590
you know would i be interested in doing it you're the person that
693
00:42:40,590 --> 00:42:45,470
we'd like to do it and i said well if that's what you want okay then i'll do
694
00:42:45,470 --> 00:42:50,930
it but providing that you know if i take it on you've got to give me three years
695
00:42:50,930 --> 00:42:56,950
because there's an absolute shed load of dead wood here and they all need to
696
00:42:56,950 --> 00:43:00,070
pretty much move on. And that's where it started.
697
00:43:00,470 --> 00:43:04,350
And as Chris said, you know, from the first campaign we finished.
698
00:43:05,409 --> 00:43:08,569
Out of goal difference, I think it was, we stayed up. And then the following
699
00:43:08,569 --> 00:43:11,109
season, it was by one or two places.
700
00:43:11,249 --> 00:43:14,609
Then the next season after that, I think it was third or fourth that we finished.
701
00:43:15,249 --> 00:43:18,189
Then after that, we won our first league title.
702
00:43:19,369 --> 00:43:24,909
But it was, to me, it was all about discipline. And I've been a great believer,
703
00:43:25,069 --> 00:43:28,629
and I've said to Chris on many times, and players will tell you,
704
00:43:28,729 --> 00:43:32,109
we'll have won games five or six nil, and they'll have come in the dressing
705
00:43:32,109 --> 00:43:35,089
room, and I'd have been chugging things around like a screaming banshee.
706
00:43:35,529 --> 00:43:39,349
Just because you're winning a game, you start to show both. That's no good to me.
707
00:43:39,509 --> 00:43:44,129
We had one instance, I remember up at Geordie's and it was an end of season
708
00:43:44,129 --> 00:43:50,469
game and we're playing against Brown, who, you know, at the time were quite a decent team and we won.
709
00:43:51,129 --> 00:43:56,009
Didn't we? We were winning. It was about eight or nine. I think it was either
710
00:43:56,009 --> 00:44:00,049
six or seven at the time. And Gareth Jones gave an offside or something.
711
00:44:00,149 --> 00:44:02,289
No, it was a penalty and he never gave it. He didn't give it.
712
00:44:02,309 --> 00:44:05,829
And he went mad on the sideline for not giving the penalty. and someone shouted over.
713
00:44:06,249 --> 00:44:09,969
Nigel Shearman. Yeah, Nigel Shearman, who was an unbelievable footballer.
714
00:44:10,089 --> 00:44:14,809
He shouted over and he said, you're winning 6-0 already.
715
00:44:14,969 --> 00:44:18,069
What more do you want? He said, come on, Bassey. He said, you know,
716
00:44:18,069 --> 00:44:19,949
show some respect. You're winning 6-0.
717
00:44:20,149 --> 00:44:26,069
I said, it's my effing job to win by as many as I can. That is showing you respect.
718
00:44:26,469 --> 00:44:30,229
Us giving up and showboating is not showing you any respect.
719
00:44:30,409 --> 00:44:34,309
Yeah, because you shouted on to, I don't care if I'm winning 6. I want to win 26.
720
00:44:34,869 --> 00:44:37,529
And Shim said to me at the end of the game when you shake everyone's hands he
721
00:44:37,529 --> 00:44:41,109
said I thought that was really disrespectful and his response was,
722
00:44:41,629 --> 00:44:45,669
well what would have been more disrespectful from us is being 6-0 up and all
723
00:44:45,669 --> 00:44:49,249
of our players then trying to take the piss and showboating that would have
724
00:44:49,249 --> 00:44:50,769
been more disrespectful not the
725
00:44:50,769 --> 00:44:54,069
fact that we want to try and score as many goals as we can and I was like
726
00:44:54,509 --> 00:44:57,689
you can't argue that response because you know I don't think Shim had anywhere
727
00:44:57,689 --> 00:45:00,369
to go with it and that's the type of manager he was
728
00:45:00,809 --> 00:45:05,129
Well it was all about doing the right things Right to the last minute. Yeah.
729
00:45:05,589 --> 00:45:09,869
It doesn't matter what stage of the game is, you just do the right thing. You keep it simple.
730
00:45:10,049 --> 00:45:14,109
And if you, you know, if you square the ball, for instance, let's just go all
731
00:45:14,109 --> 00:45:16,029
the way back to Russian and we call it mumps gate.
732
00:45:16,289 --> 00:45:18,669
Frank Jones, great player, great energy.
733
00:45:18,949 --> 00:45:22,329
You know, he's the sort of guy that, you know, makes, makes a team with,
734
00:45:22,329 --> 00:45:25,029
with his, you know, determination. Yeah.
735
00:45:25,592 --> 00:45:31,292
He went through with the keeper to beat down at Russian the last couple of minutes.
736
00:45:31,412 --> 00:45:33,392
He could have squared it to Sam Kane for an open goal.
737
00:45:33,632 --> 00:45:37,412
Frank was in a good position to take the shot, but that's just a matter of choices.
738
00:45:37,772 --> 00:45:41,392
But if Frank squares the ball and Sam Kane puts the ball in,
739
00:45:41,572 --> 00:45:44,272
St. George's don't lose any games in 97.
740
00:45:44,932 --> 00:45:49,852
It's mad. That's mad to think in Manx football. I think in Manx football, you've always got them.
741
00:45:50,572 --> 00:45:55,572
97 games is a massive run, but there's always one in 20 games where three of
742
00:45:55,572 --> 00:45:59,072
the lads or someone's stag do or something and you miss your team, don't you?
743
00:45:59,132 --> 00:46:05,592
Well, you only play 24 games and we went for eight years on the spin with averaging
744
00:46:05,592 --> 00:46:09,792
a plus 100 in 24 matches, plus 100.
745
00:46:10,352 --> 00:46:14,712
We actually scored 163 in one particular year.
746
00:46:14,872 --> 00:46:19,132
So we averaged 6.7 goals per game, every game of the season.
747
00:46:19,332 --> 00:46:24,332
So these are records that are just absolutely mind-blowing.
748
00:46:24,972 --> 00:46:29,052
In a run of eight seasons, there's four seasons where we never lost a game.
749
00:46:30,172 --> 00:46:34,112
So what did I say to you before? I think in, was it about nine or 10?
750
00:46:34,672 --> 00:46:41,712
In something like since 2007 to 2019, St. George's lost only eight games.
751
00:46:41,952 --> 00:46:45,952
It was mad. Yeah, it was something like that, wasn't it? It was 2007 to 2019
752
00:46:45,952 --> 00:46:47,212
or something. Eight games.
753
00:46:47,392 --> 00:46:54,532
Eight games. And all the goals that they scored. And again, it all comes down to mental attitude.
754
00:46:54,972 --> 00:46:57,152
How much of the credit do you take for that, though, yourself?
755
00:46:57,792 --> 00:47:01,312
Well, in terms of badges, I've never had any.
756
00:47:01,832 --> 00:47:05,112
That's why I doubted myself, you know, with all the coaching badges that they
757
00:47:05,112 --> 00:47:08,112
have today in terms of would I make a good manager?
758
00:47:08,472 --> 00:47:13,972
But I always believed I knew how to win games. Yeah. And I knew how to get people across the line.
759
00:47:14,232 --> 00:47:18,532
And I felt by challenging them the way I did that I would get the best out of them.
760
00:47:18,772 --> 00:47:22,832
I mean, I remember going to Isle of Wight to watch Chris play when Kevin Manning was the manager.
761
00:47:22,832 --> 00:47:25,512
He was having a torrid time when i was effing and
762
00:47:25,512 --> 00:47:28,452
jeffing at him from the sideline he responded by effing jeffing at
763
00:47:28,452 --> 00:47:31,632
me and then the second half is game upturned so
764
00:47:31,632 --> 00:47:34,272
there's trigger points just to give you
765
00:47:34,272 --> 00:47:39,832
another example of how i wanted to do so well chris being like he's always talked
766
00:47:39,832 --> 00:47:46,132
about being little yeah i remember at the time where his mental psychology wasn't
767
00:47:46,132 --> 00:47:51,952
to get stuck in so i took Took him to see a psychologist to try and get the better out of him.
768
00:47:51,952 --> 00:47:54,572
More of a more aggressive person in there somewhere.
769
00:47:54,772 --> 00:47:57,532
Yes. And the following Saturday he got sent off for fighting.
770
00:47:58,460 --> 00:48:02,260
So that might have worked it might have worked it did work it was with Chigby
771
00:48:02,260 --> 00:48:07,480
wasn't it from Maxi what you've got to take all the credit for is giving the
772
00:48:07,480 --> 00:48:12,100
players that mentality of how to win and how to how to.
773
00:48:13,000 --> 00:48:17,340
Motivate yourself to win and be as fit as you can because it was okay we had
774
00:48:17,340 --> 00:48:20,460
lots of comments at the time when we were winning stuff we've got all the best
775
00:48:20,460 --> 00:48:24,520
players it's dead easy got all the best players but it's that mentality you
776
00:48:24,520 --> 00:48:27,160
could have the best players but you have to have a mentality and that's what
777
00:48:27,160 --> 00:48:31,580
he gave us was the mentality to win and train we lost the cup final one so we
778
00:48:31,580 --> 00:48:32,960
lost the cup we started the season,
779
00:48:33,520 --> 00:48:36,920
we drew with Union Mills at home we were winning 3-0 and drew 3-3,
780
00:48:37,420 --> 00:48:41,180
we lost at Russian didn't we we lost at Russian and we drew 3-0 drew 3-0 at
781
00:48:41,180 --> 00:48:43,560
Mills and probably should have lost the game in the end we were 3-0 up half
782
00:48:43,560 --> 00:48:47,140
time should have lost and we'd start the season really poorly and he came in
783
00:48:47,140 --> 00:48:49,560
the changing room and said if you want to effing win this league again
784
00:48:49,960 --> 00:48:53,760
we're going to train three nights a week from now on and we trained three nights
785
00:48:53,760 --> 00:48:57,400
a week for the rest of that season I remember that it was Wednesday night I
786
00:48:57,400 --> 00:49:00,000
used to always go for a run, didn't you? I used to see three nights a week.
787
00:49:00,120 --> 00:49:02,260
And that was the mentality. You can have all the best players you want,
788
00:49:02,340 --> 00:49:03,100
but you have to have that.
789
00:49:03,140 --> 00:49:08,220
You can imagine the players that we had, like Kyle Morrissey is unbelievable.
790
00:49:08,540 --> 00:49:11,760
But some of the things he could do for a big fella was amazing.
791
00:49:11,760 --> 00:49:16,900
And you think of his attitude towards it. But Barsy, it was always, but Barsy, but Barsy.
792
00:49:16,980 --> 00:49:20,520
And you think he'd know more than what my dad was saying. Sometimes I don't
793
00:49:20,520 --> 00:49:23,320
need you to tell me, but you've got to have someone to keep them in check.
794
00:49:24,160 --> 00:49:30,180
And that's what he did. But when you consider the fact that Laxi won a grand
795
00:49:30,180 --> 00:49:31,780
slam and then won nothing.
796
00:49:33,163 --> 00:49:38,443
Russian won the league and then won nothing. So people can talk about having
797
00:49:38,443 --> 00:49:42,743
good players and great players, but to actually get the best out of those players
798
00:49:42,743 --> 00:49:47,323
for sort of like 15 years, and we're talking about three football teams.
799
00:49:47,423 --> 00:49:52,163
We're not talking about one. We're talking about the mainstay of Chris and Sean
800
00:49:52,163 --> 00:49:54,483
and one or two others and likes of Callum and what have you,
801
00:49:54,543 --> 00:49:59,423
but bringing in players likes of Stewie Belscott, Robin Bates,
802
00:50:00,103 --> 00:50:03,843
Neil Brogan, Michael McHale, Michael McHale, Chris Mellie. Yeah,
803
00:50:03,843 --> 00:50:05,243
Chris Mellie was good. Craig Lund.
804
00:50:05,403 --> 00:50:11,683
Yeah. You know, so it's actually knowing which position that you need to build
805
00:50:11,683 --> 00:50:14,323
on to get you across the line for the following year.
806
00:50:14,763 --> 00:50:18,843
And Neil Brogan, great footballer. He was another one that did YT.
807
00:50:19,003 --> 00:50:21,543
I think he was up in Aberdeen or might have been. But in the Premier League. Yeah.
808
00:50:22,723 --> 00:50:27,243
So, and he came to St. George's being this super fit person.
809
00:50:27,823 --> 00:50:30,883
Couldn't be Chris or Frank in a race. so he's actually
810
00:50:30,883 --> 00:50:33,723
come to somewhere where he's getting challenged whereas at laxey he
811
00:50:33,723 --> 00:50:36,803
was the number one yeah so when he's come to st george's
812
00:50:36,803 --> 00:50:41,323
again brogie's another one massively mentally strong look what he's doing today
813
00:50:41,323 --> 00:50:48,083
yeah so it was it it is that and if you can get that i mean the amount of games
814
00:50:48,083 --> 00:50:53,143
that we got across the line and we would regularly score three or four goals
815
00:50:53,143 --> 00:50:54,483
in in the last 15 minutes.
816
00:50:55,003 --> 00:51:00,903
Everybody else is tying up. Now I watched the cup final with old boys and Foxdale. Yeah.
817
00:51:01,323 --> 00:51:06,983
The other day. And the football was pretty good, actually. It was pretty good from both teams.
818
00:51:07,123 --> 00:51:11,883
Now, Foxdale weren't really in the cup until the last 70, last 20 minutes.
819
00:51:12,083 --> 00:51:15,643
Yeah. The fact that all boys are playing with 38, 39 year old players,
820
00:51:15,763 --> 00:51:19,323
Jay Chatwood wasn't in the game until 15 minutes to go.
821
00:51:19,403 --> 00:51:21,683
And it could have finished to all. And if you'd gone to extra time,
822
00:51:21,783 --> 00:51:23,323
Foxdale was going to win. Yeah.
823
00:51:23,693 --> 00:51:27,153
But old boys sort of like, you know, it's just home on in there.
824
00:51:27,213 --> 00:51:30,773
It was fitness, wasn't it? If Lee Garland got one because they've got to push.
825
00:51:31,093 --> 00:51:34,473
We say that all the time. That was always the thing that you said. It's the fitness.
826
00:51:34,553 --> 00:51:37,513
You can't work on, amongst football, you haven't got a facility where you're
827
00:51:37,513 --> 00:51:38,853
going to, and you can't train every night.
828
00:51:38,913 --> 00:51:43,513
You haven't got facilities to work on the shape of your team or we do set pieces
829
00:51:43,513 --> 00:51:44,673
maybe before a cup fight.
830
00:51:44,713 --> 00:51:47,193
You can't really have a set off.
831
00:51:47,413 --> 00:51:51,133
You've got to do fitness work. And we were gas work steps all the time.
832
00:51:51,173 --> 00:51:54,713
I remember one time, Falky was managing Laxey, wasn't he? and he couldn't beat us.
833
00:51:54,893 --> 00:51:58,773
He sat in his car one time by the C-turn and watched us go up and down the gas rig steps.
834
00:51:59,013 --> 00:52:01,533
Went back to Laxey and told them what we were doing. Rick Holden stood outside
835
00:52:01,533 --> 00:52:03,833
the dressing room listening to our team talk. Yeah.
836
00:52:04,033 --> 00:52:08,573
So people were trying to find little bits of information that will help them.
837
00:52:09,053 --> 00:52:12,653
But then when we were training, and you know, it's like you do these ball skills
838
00:52:12,653 --> 00:52:14,673
in and out cones and the team that loses.
839
00:52:15,013 --> 00:52:20,133
It was always the case of the team that, you know, the losing team's doing press-ups, right?
840
00:52:20,493 --> 00:52:23,393
So they would go through all the cones and I'd say, right you lost
841
00:52:23,393 --> 00:52:26,113
you're doing 20 press-ups and the likes of the winners will
842
00:52:26,113 --> 00:52:29,673
be all smiling and laughing and say you won so you're doing 19 and i
843
00:52:29,673 --> 00:52:32,193
go what are you on about i said you won't you're doing one less get on with
844
00:52:32,193 --> 00:52:35,893
it yeah yeah and then i always used to say to chris he said if i give you 20
845
00:52:35,893 --> 00:52:39,753
put 25 in because you're putting five in the bank for next week yeah and and
846
00:52:39,753 --> 00:52:44,053
that's the mentality of them and we just kept going and going and going and
847
00:52:44,053 --> 00:52:48,393
now if i was a wealthy person really really wealthy person,
848
00:52:48,513 --> 00:52:52,753
I'm so mentally driven to get the best out of you.
849
00:52:52,813 --> 00:52:56,153
I would get that guy over from the SAS who does the TV.
850
00:52:56,253 --> 00:52:59,453
I would have the players train for three months.
851
00:52:59,573 --> 00:53:02,873
You know, if I had the money, pay the wages, get them trained for three months
852
00:53:02,873 --> 00:53:07,193
and then go to that guy and say, right, which one of them have got the capacity to play for us?
853
00:53:07,873 --> 00:53:11,173
What a challenge that would be. Brilliant. I mean, that's the sort of thing
854
00:53:11,173 --> 00:53:12,573
that Chris would love to do.
855
00:53:12,913 --> 00:53:15,933
Frank Jones would love to do it. Neil Brogan would love to do it.
856
00:53:15,933 --> 00:53:18,773
So when you've got people that love to
857
00:53:18,773 --> 00:53:21,853
do that kind of thing you know that you're
858
00:53:21,853 --> 00:53:24,833
going to get the best out of them on the football pitch 100 and
859
00:53:24,833 --> 00:53:27,773
i think that segues in quite nicely actually to
860
00:53:27,773 --> 00:53:30,833
a couple of questions i've had this is just about you'd
861
00:53:30,833 --> 00:53:33,993
say george's time managing ones from craig cowan from
862
00:53:33,993 --> 00:53:37,373
fcl man he's a kit man down there craig said did
863
00:53:37,373 --> 00:53:40,333
you ever have like a thorn in your side was there always a team
864
00:53:40,333 --> 00:53:43,933
or a person when you were managing St George's
865
00:53:43,933 --> 00:53:46,653
that would either get the better of you
866
00:53:46,653 --> 00:53:49,433
or really annoy you in that way to you
867
00:53:49,433 --> 00:53:55,833
know push you on I think the only time I was in terms of management and losing
868
00:53:55,833 --> 00:54:01,733
the only time I was really annoyed was when Laxey won the Grand Slam because
869
00:54:01,733 --> 00:54:07,253
we were put out of the semi-final I think by Laxey we lost the other two finals
870
00:54:07,253 --> 00:54:08,473
I I think, against Laxey.
871
00:54:08,473 --> 00:54:13,773
We came second in the league to Laxey. And the fact is, and this is where you
872
00:54:13,773 --> 00:54:16,533
get your mental strength from, the fact is...
873
00:54:17,203 --> 00:54:22,743
Laxey weren't necessarily a superior or greater team. They were better.
874
00:54:22,843 --> 00:54:27,783
You can't take anything away from them. They were definitely very well organised.
875
00:54:27,943 --> 00:54:29,043
They were definitely better.
876
00:54:29,463 --> 00:54:36,363
But when we came in after being down at Laxey, I think we lost 6-3 or 7-3 or something like that.
877
00:54:36,523 --> 00:54:39,923
I went mad at my team. I went into the dressing room and said,
878
00:54:40,023 --> 00:54:45,063
you lot, you've just allowed yourselves to be effing bullied out there.
879
00:54:45,223 --> 00:54:48,223
Never mind the football match. every tackle they won
880
00:54:48,223 --> 00:54:51,063
every second ball they won because you played like
881
00:54:51,063 --> 00:54:54,063
a bunch of cowards that will never have that happen
882
00:54:54,063 --> 00:54:57,003
you will never ever walk in this dressing room again and have
883
00:54:57,003 --> 00:55:01,823
not crossed that line and got stuck in and that's a turning point yeah so then
884
00:55:01,823 --> 00:55:05,983
you go you go went and got players like james mcstay and liam cowan yeah yeah
885
00:55:05,983 --> 00:55:12,703
james mcstay and liam cowan were like they were a godsend yeah because if i
886
00:55:12,703 --> 00:55:15,043
said to liam cowan or james mcstay.
887
00:55:15,583 --> 00:55:18,583
See him over there when the referee's not
888
00:55:18,583 --> 00:55:21,543
looking i want you to clobber him yeah right
889
00:55:21,543 --> 00:55:24,223
they would do that oh if i said to
890
00:55:24,223 --> 00:55:26,983
you if i said to james mckstay there's a
891
00:55:26,983 --> 00:55:29,803
bottle of water over there go and grab it pick it
892
00:55:29,803 --> 00:55:32,483
up and spray it in the center half space just to
893
00:55:32,483 --> 00:55:35,243
wind him up they would go and do it yeah yeah so they were your
894
00:55:35,243 --> 00:55:38,683
dogs of war you could they were your go-to people and and
895
00:55:38,683 --> 00:55:41,603
they would sort of like upset the team
896
00:55:41,603 --> 00:55:44,583
and it was great because the minute you upset set someone their focus
897
00:55:44,583 --> 00:55:48,123
has all gone away from the game yeah and that would open up doors and avenues
898
00:55:48,123 --> 00:55:52,783
for us to get through so we could pick the players that we needed to upset to
899
00:55:52,783 --> 00:55:56,843
just sort of like make room for you know for people to score goals we were very
900
00:55:56,843 --> 00:56:01,343
good at doing that kind of thing and that's that's fair enough and well i'll
901
00:56:01,343 --> 00:56:02,823
ask you this one because we touched on it before.
902
00:56:03,483 --> 00:56:07,683
You were and i think everyone knows you were great at poaching the best players
903
00:56:07,683 --> 00:56:08,743
on the alabama and Bassey and
904
00:56:08,743 --> 00:56:12,443
like fantastic at getting them was there anyone that ever said no to you?
905
00:56:12,983 --> 00:56:17,503
I think there probably was but I can't remember because we got Steedo Steedo
906
00:56:17,503 --> 00:56:20,263
had the best year of his life playing up in St.
907
00:56:20,363 --> 00:56:23,523
George's and when we talk about discipline here's
908
00:56:23,523 --> 00:56:26,623
a story for you you know the lads like Callum
909
00:56:26,623 --> 00:56:29,663
you know they want to answer back and certain players
910
00:56:29,663 --> 00:56:32,843
want to answer back and at the particular time I think Paul O'Brien
911
00:56:32,843 --> 00:56:37,103
was with me Keith Lunt was with me and by the way Paul O'Brien was a godsend
912
00:56:37,103 --> 00:56:41,003
for me because he was with me for like 21 years what a guy what an absolute
913
00:56:41,003 --> 00:56:46,703
start so anyway going back to this game before the game starts sit them all
914
00:56:46,703 --> 00:56:49,683
down we've done all the tactics and by the way before you go out here.
915
00:56:51,178 --> 00:56:56,598
Any one of you effing little la-di-da-di-das, answer me back,
916
00:56:56,758 --> 00:57:02,438
or Keith, or Paul, don't look at me, just walk off the pitch because you're
917
00:57:02,438 --> 00:57:05,158
coming off, right? So that was the order.
918
00:57:05,318 --> 00:57:08,338
We get in, Steedo, Steedo's such a funny guy.
919
00:57:08,618 --> 00:57:12,798
He's such a, he's such a, so anyway, and he's having the game of his life.
920
00:57:13,838 --> 00:57:16,758
I'm saying to Steedo, Steedo, get forward.
921
00:57:17,018 --> 00:57:19,758
Steedo, get back. Steedo, get forward. forward
922
00:57:19,758 --> 00:57:22,718
steedle and he went oh for father dada
923
00:57:22,718 --> 00:57:25,478
f f f f steedle and off
924
00:57:25,478 --> 00:57:28,238
he walked that was it and he apologized to me he
925
00:57:28,238 --> 00:57:31,538
scored a hat trick in about 25 minutes and but he
926
00:57:31,538 --> 00:57:34,618
only gave his last but that's the point the point
927
00:57:34,618 --> 00:57:37,498
is we're all in it together and the
928
00:57:37,498 --> 00:57:41,718
one thing i will say is i never ever criticized
929
00:57:41,718 --> 00:57:44,498
anyone on a personal level no
930
00:57:44,498 --> 00:57:47,818
yeah when you're a football manager you're a
931
00:57:47,818 --> 00:57:50,518
a football manager the amount of arguments i've had
932
00:57:50,518 --> 00:57:53,438
with karen blesser over the fact that my
933
00:57:53,438 --> 00:57:56,198
kids and holly and not picking them and
934
00:57:56,198 --> 00:58:01,158
not doing this and not doing that and and i would say listen when i'm at football
935
00:58:01,158 --> 00:58:05,958
i'm their manager when i'm here i'm their dad but sometimes they found it difficult
936
00:58:05,958 --> 00:58:11,398
to but you could separate yeah to separate that so it was never always easy
937
00:58:11,398 --> 00:58:13,958
but i was driven and And I just hate losing.
938
00:58:14,138 --> 00:58:19,158
My kids have never won anything against me unless they've done it on merit.
939
00:58:19,318 --> 00:58:25,538
And I'm talking from snakes and ladders, tiddlywinks, hallway football, anything.
940
00:58:26,478 --> 00:58:31,238
If they beat me, it's a shake of the hand because they've done it.
941
00:58:31,378 --> 00:58:35,478
Not because you've let someone do it. Because if you let someone do it,
942
00:58:35,518 --> 00:58:37,758
it's a false thing. It's just not real.
943
00:58:37,958 --> 00:58:42,798
I gave up playing chess. Nick Caron, I'm playing chess. Nick was very good at chess.
944
00:58:43,238 --> 00:58:46,798
It was very good he's just not good at riding bikes I remember just after Covid
945
00:58:46,798 --> 00:58:50,138
when you had to go and pick him up from around on the back of the wheel because
946
00:58:50,138 --> 00:58:53,498
he was dying couldn't even keep up with me it was funny that was a funny one
947
00:58:53,498 --> 00:58:58,098
that but yeah might be good at chess but you can't ride bikes so St.
948
00:58:58,218 --> 00:59:05,218
George's obviously glittering career three grand slams you know 97 games unbeaten
949
00:59:05,218 --> 00:59:10,838
you know 10-11 years there's records here that they'll never beat but,
950
00:59:11,640 --> 00:59:16,720
One of the records, and as a striker, I would love to have this record.
951
00:59:17,060 --> 00:59:23,540
St. George's won eight railway cups on the spin, probably played in about 13
952
00:59:23,540 --> 00:59:26,800
out of 14 cup finals on the spin, winning eight of them.
953
00:59:27,080 --> 00:59:34,720
But the eight that they won on the spin, Frank Jones scored a goal in every game and won.
954
00:59:35,280 --> 00:59:39,540
Now you can play football for 500 years and that's not going to happen.
955
00:59:39,540 --> 00:59:43,000
No that is that is that is memorable the
956
00:59:43,000 --> 00:59:46,540
team going and winning and having a plus 100 for
957
00:59:46,540 --> 00:59:49,600
eight years in a row not going to happen like we
958
00:59:49,600 --> 00:59:53,440
touched on about you know a team scoring 6.7 goals every
959
00:59:53,440 --> 00:59:56,340
game for 24 games in a row not losing
960
00:59:56,340 --> 01:00:01,440
four games in you know going four seasons in eight years without losing a game
961
01:00:01,440 --> 01:00:07,780
that that's just phenomenal that just shows you that's not about having good
962
01:00:07,780 --> 01:00:14,940
good players that's about having the mental capacity the right attitude desire and belief.
963
01:00:15,500 --> 01:00:19,000
And no one missed training because they knew if they missed training they weren't
964
01:00:19,000 --> 01:00:22,320
playing i remember johnny saying johnny myers when he's on here saying that
965
01:00:22,320 --> 01:00:25,060
we'd won cup finals and you get in the changing rooms everyone'd be buzzing
966
01:00:25,060 --> 01:00:30,280
to be loving it it'd be like right then next one onto next one forget that you've
967
01:00:30,280 --> 01:00:33,980
won that now onto the next one that's the way it was for years when my My thing,
968
01:00:34,120 --> 01:00:38,560
they could probably tell what I was going to say at every annual dinner because
969
01:00:38,560 --> 01:00:44,300
I thought that one of my roles was not just to make good football players.
970
01:00:44,360 --> 01:00:48,120
I said, we're not here as good football players here. We're here to make good men.
971
01:00:48,120 --> 01:00:52,860
And people, what I mean by that is if you've got the right mental attitude out on the pitch,
972
01:00:53,080 --> 01:00:58,940
you can walk into any job, whether it's banking or building or whatever it is,
973
01:00:58,980 --> 01:01:03,460
and be strong enough to have whatever's thrown at you and deal with it.
974
01:01:03,800 --> 01:01:05,780
That's what we talk about in mental strength.
975
01:01:06,180 --> 01:01:10,260
And that's fair enough. So there's St. George's, wonderful time.
976
01:01:10,540 --> 01:01:14,080
You then had the opportunity to manage that Mephysite, that Malcolm Blackburn
977
01:01:14,080 --> 01:01:16,520
settle. Yeah. What were them days like?
978
01:01:17,160 --> 01:01:21,460
Well, I think Manchester United should be looking to Malcolm Blackburn to get
979
01:01:21,460 --> 01:01:24,700
him and do what he can for us. The new stadium. The new stadium, yeah.
980
01:01:25,000 --> 01:01:28,680
Because I can tell you now, with all the football that we've played,
981
01:01:29,580 --> 01:01:34,080
I have the greatest respect for Malcolm in what he managed to achieve.
982
01:01:34,600 --> 01:01:39,020
And I don't know how he managed to achieve it from private jets to five-star
983
01:01:39,020 --> 01:01:42,920
hotels to go to Sweden, Cyprus, Hungary, France.
984
01:01:44,102 --> 01:01:49,322
Like Chris said, you know, you feel like you've traveled half the world representing a small island.
985
01:01:49,482 --> 01:01:55,042
And when we were in Sweden, that all the games were actually getting zoomed
986
01:01:55,042 --> 01:01:59,002
back to Jacks. And then by the time we'd reached the final, they were getting
987
01:01:59,002 --> 01:02:01,722
zoomed into Port Air and into Peel, into Ramsey.
988
01:02:02,222 --> 01:02:08,182
Once again, it's something that's excited the community of the Isle of Man coming together.
989
01:02:08,602 --> 01:02:13,482
And the players knew what they had to do. So when they scored a goal, they ran to the camera.
990
01:02:13,482 --> 01:02:16,402
Yeah that wasn't for them that was for everybody else at
991
01:02:16,402 --> 01:02:19,242
home that's really satisfying when you
992
01:02:19,242 --> 01:02:21,942
you know the players appreciate what the people at
993
01:02:21,942 --> 01:02:25,302
home are doing for them and you think them players that you brought in there
994
01:02:25,302 --> 01:02:29,622
you know you've talked a lot about mental strength was that squad mainly picked
995
01:02:29,622 --> 01:02:34,022
on their mental strength knowing you were going to them places to play teams
996
01:02:34,022 --> 01:02:38,622
that were going to be better than well supposedly better than you i think there's
997
01:02:38,622 --> 01:02:40,682
situations where where they will get stronger.
998
01:02:40,902 --> 01:02:45,742
Yeah. One of the, you know, I spoke to Dicko before one of, one of the things
999
01:02:45,742 --> 01:02:49,882
that I sat them down when we were at King Williams college and said to them,
1000
01:02:49,942 --> 01:02:54,622
if we go to this tournament and you're in the squad.
1001
01:02:55,733 --> 01:03:01,273
We go as a squad. Now, when we're putting the teams out on the pitch and we're playing,
1002
01:03:01,533 --> 01:03:07,773
if I hear any one of you complain about the fact that somebody's in ahead of
1003
01:03:07,773 --> 01:03:11,493
you or somebody else should be playing because you don't hardly doubt,
1004
01:03:11,573 --> 01:03:16,013
whatever reason, the minute you open your mouth and you begin to talk like that,
1005
01:03:16,153 --> 01:03:19,273
you are disrespecting the squad.
1006
01:03:19,693 --> 01:03:24,153
Not that particular person. Yeah. Because we're in it together.
1007
01:03:24,153 --> 01:03:28,493
We win together we lose together so when you talk negatively like that you're
1008
01:03:28,493 --> 01:03:34,713
disrespecting everybody yeah so when you so sit down and think about it and
1009
01:03:34,713 --> 01:03:40,033
if you're not playing try harder yeah that's it try harder show me that you
1010
01:03:40,033 --> 01:03:43,633
want to play show me because we played one particular game.
1011
01:03:44,793 --> 01:03:48,613
Unfortunately i had to take a player off in in i think when i'd been playing
1012
01:03:48,613 --> 01:03:52,573
10 15 minutes or or something like that. And I have to change it and take a player off.
1013
01:03:53,213 --> 01:03:58,193
And they were on the dugout. Somebody in the dugout says, you can't do that.
1014
01:03:58,253 --> 01:04:01,733
Or somebody else sat next to him and said, yeah, I think can. And he will.
1015
01:04:03,073 --> 01:04:06,693
And fortunately for us, the change that we made work, we won the game.
1016
01:04:06,773 --> 01:04:09,293
Yeah. So you can't go anywhere with that.
1017
01:04:09,633 --> 01:04:13,673
If you don't win the game and those particular instances, then that particular
1018
01:04:13,673 --> 01:04:17,113
player, you know, my doors always open, come and speak to me,
1019
01:04:17,113 --> 01:04:21,133
talk to me and then I'll give you my reasons and that's where it finishes,
1020
01:04:21,793 --> 01:04:26,693
and that's it so obviously after Mipha you were still at St George's at the
1021
01:04:26,693 --> 01:04:32,373
time as well you know that all happens FC Allemand comes about how do you get
1022
01:04:32,373 --> 01:04:34,513
that FC Allemand job to start off with?
1023
01:04:34,933 --> 01:04:39,793
Well I think the let's first of all say.
1024
01:04:40,673 --> 01:04:43,593
They've done a fantastic job Paul Jones has done a fantastic
1025
01:04:43,593 --> 01:04:47,033
job job in creating the
1026
01:04:47,033 --> 01:04:51,253
club that's where he's done a really good job then then
1027
01:04:51,253 --> 01:04:53,893
you have the situation of who's going to
1028
01:04:53,893 --> 01:04:56,873
be the manager yeah fortunately enough just
1029
01:04:56,873 --> 01:05:00,893
fell my way it fell my way and obviously
1030
01:05:00,893 --> 01:05:03,573
it was it was a pride thing it was yeah you've got
1031
01:05:03,573 --> 01:05:06,853
to you've got to be the first manager to take that into you know
1032
01:05:06,853 --> 01:05:09,653
the english leagues uh so for me again it
1033
01:05:09,653 --> 01:05:12,393
was because of your your your links and i think it's
1034
01:05:12,393 --> 01:05:15,513
your joy is because of lee dixon i think
1035
01:05:15,513 --> 01:05:18,853
helping paul jones create the club and it yeah started i think
1036
01:05:18,853 --> 01:05:21,673
it was dico that mentioned to paul do we go to it was
1037
01:05:21,673 --> 01:05:24,753
i think it was dico that mentioned to paul look if you're
1038
01:05:24,753 --> 01:05:29,853
not going to do it but i.e paul jones if you're not prepared or ready to do
1039
01:05:29,853 --> 01:05:36,593
it yeah then obviously he said he's got to be the go-to guy based on everything
1040
01:05:36,593 --> 01:05:40,713
and like he said to you would he asked lee would you work with him and obviously
1041
01:05:40,713 --> 01:05:42,493
So they work so well together for St.
1042
01:05:42,653 --> 01:05:44,893
George's, for MIFA and everything.
1043
01:05:45,073 --> 01:05:48,213
So it was really the, the obvious choice.
1044
01:05:48,853 --> 01:05:51,873
Oh, for that was, I think it was the obvious choice.
1045
01:05:52,613 --> 01:05:55,073
And then you could get Paul O'Brien to help with the goal.
1046
01:05:55,680 --> 01:06:02,140
Paul O'Brien and Lee Dixon and myself, and this is not in an arrogant way.
1047
01:06:02,940 --> 01:06:08,080
But I often walk past the Bee Gees statues down the promenade and I think to
1048
01:06:08,080 --> 01:06:12,780
myself, the three amigos, Paul O'Brien, Dicko and Bassey. Get one of them.
1049
01:06:13,500 --> 01:06:17,540
Three unlikely people that you should be making statues of and stuff like that.
1050
01:06:17,620 --> 01:06:22,960
But just as a fun side of the thing, because that's, and being a manager is
1051
01:06:22,960 --> 01:06:25,160
being able to listen Listen to everybody.
1052
01:06:25,500 --> 01:06:31,140
And it's my job to take all the information in and then put the team out there.
1053
01:06:31,380 --> 01:06:35,540
That could be Paul O'Brien would advise me on goalkeepers.
1054
01:06:35,640 --> 01:06:40,600
Dicko would advise me on how players are performing and understanding the coaching systems.
1055
01:06:40,860 --> 01:06:44,640
So you listen to your coaches. You're not stupid enough to go,
1056
01:06:44,760 --> 01:06:48,740
oh, no, I'm just going to ignore you because those coaches aren't going to be with you for very long.
1057
01:06:48,880 --> 01:06:53,420
No. We always used to have these little powwows and talk about it.
1058
01:06:54,860 --> 01:07:00,620
And I'm through that. You become very, very good friends. And Dicko is a very,
1059
01:07:00,820 --> 01:07:03,660
very nice guy. Paul O'Brien is a really nice guy.
1060
01:07:04,520 --> 01:07:07,880
Dicko, you don't get into an argument with Dicko because he just speaks that
1061
01:07:07,880 --> 01:07:09,100
quick. He'll just lose you.
1062
01:07:10,260 --> 01:07:13,800
The only unfortunate thing for you is you had to room with him every time we went away, didn't you?
1063
01:07:14,220 --> 01:07:18,980
What was that unfortunate for him? It's unfortunate for him because I was snoring a bit. So, yeah.
1064
01:07:20,120 --> 01:07:22,400
He might have drowned the head because he's in. He might have drowned his head.
1065
01:07:22,400 --> 01:07:26,120
Yeah, it was an out, wasn't it? By the way, while I'm snoring,
1066
01:07:26,160 --> 01:07:27,660
I don't want to tell you what he's watching.
1067
01:07:29,120 --> 01:07:32,360
I've got a funny story for you about him. Someone came away,
1068
01:07:32,480 --> 01:07:36,720
someone come away on their very first island trip. It might have been Callum.
1069
01:07:37,060 --> 01:07:40,700
Their first island trip in Gibraltar and they got ruined with Dicko and that's
1070
01:07:40,700 --> 01:07:41,960
not one person you want to be with.
1071
01:07:42,520 --> 01:07:46,760
So he's in there and then he's come back into the room. I might have this wrong.
1072
01:07:46,780 --> 01:07:49,920
It might not have been Callum, but he's come back into the room and there's
1073
01:07:49,920 --> 01:07:51,600
Dicko Lannan's bed, nothing on.
1074
01:07:51,600 --> 01:07:55,140
Absolute buddy starkers he's
1075
01:07:55,140 --> 01:07:57,900
gone what are you doing you can welcome to your own
1076
01:07:57,900 --> 01:08:01,880
team i think where
1077
01:08:01,880 --> 01:08:08,620
i think again where it worked for myself and lee as it always has done he's
1078
01:08:08,620 --> 01:08:14,440
very close to the players yeah so he picks up on all the little emotions and
1079
01:08:14,440 --> 01:08:18,560
keeps his ear to the ground on what's going on.
1080
01:08:18,700 --> 01:08:23,900
And in football, it can also be a very dangerous game because the person that's
1081
01:08:23,900 --> 01:08:26,640
confronting you is an honest guy. Yep.
1082
01:08:27,530 --> 01:08:30,370
Ones that aren't confronting you they're the ones that
1083
01:08:30,370 --> 01:08:34,330
you got to be wary of because they'll be the ones that talk about you and not
1084
01:08:34,330 --> 01:08:40,470
to you so in that respect when you've got people that want to get the information
1085
01:08:40,470 --> 01:08:44,350
from you that's a good thing because you know where they are it's a fine line
1086
01:08:44,350 --> 01:08:48,850
as a player it's a fine line looking from a player's point of view to have somebody,
1087
01:08:49,350 --> 01:08:52,350
as a coach or a manager that wants to
1088
01:08:52,350 --> 01:08:55,430
be your friend but could also just cut you as also your
1089
01:08:55,430 --> 01:08:58,370
your manager and has to make or coach it has to make the choice
1090
01:08:58,370 --> 01:09:01,170
for the good of the team yeah and i
1091
01:09:01,170 --> 01:09:04,410
think lee was always really good at that he still is good at that he's always wanted
1092
01:09:04,410 --> 01:09:07,350
to he'll be your friend but he'll be honest with you yeah
1093
01:09:07,350 --> 01:09:10,070
and if you're not quite good enough you're not doing it he'll tell you and he's
1094
01:09:10,070 --> 01:09:14,110
always been good at that that is a very fine line to have and i did they worked
1095
01:09:14,110 --> 01:09:18,610
really well together for me i always used to sort of like distance myself when
1096
01:09:18,610 --> 01:09:21,750
the when the players want to go out for a drink or they want to do certain things
1097
01:09:21,750 --> 01:09:27,570
I always distance myself purely on the basis that they could probably drink more than I could.
1098
01:09:27,970 --> 01:09:31,730
And when you've had too much to drink, sometimes you can start talking a load
1099
01:09:31,730 --> 01:09:35,250
of nonsense and the players would remember a load of nonsense.
1100
01:09:35,450 --> 01:09:38,850
Yeah. And you can trip yourself up. So from a management point of view,
1101
01:09:38,890 --> 01:09:43,630
I always used to try and step back from going for a drink with the players and
1102
01:09:43,630 --> 01:09:46,450
things like that. We had lots of hot tub parties at his house and he wasn't
1103
01:09:46,450 --> 01:09:47,630
involved. He wasn't involved.
1104
01:09:48,430 --> 01:09:52,810
I was looking out the window though. Yeah. they're dropped on you.
1105
01:09:53,810 --> 01:09:57,170
Why are they up here on a Friday night they're some
1106
01:09:57,170 --> 01:10:00,350
of my fondest memories is actually we used to have a badminton
1107
01:10:00,350 --> 01:10:03,210
net and we used to play head tennis and all the players
1108
01:10:03,210 --> 01:10:07,290
used to come up and have barbecues and it was very very competitive which we
1109
01:10:07,290 --> 01:10:11,450
wouldn't have it any other way and even down to the ball was in the ball was
1110
01:10:11,450 --> 01:10:14,890
out and all this painting lines on the ground so we did paint plants didn't
1111
01:10:14,890 --> 01:10:19,010
we we painted lines people getting fed up and kicking it into the field with
1112
01:10:19,010 --> 01:10:22,810
the cows and stuff like that so it all went Well done, but again,
1113
01:10:23,210 --> 01:10:25,810
you're building character and you're building...
1114
01:10:26,873 --> 01:10:29,813
Mental strength it's like you know i've heard some
1115
01:10:29,813 --> 01:10:32,593
people talk about you know the per sleep per sleep or
1116
01:10:32,593 --> 01:10:35,653
whatever you call it effect yeah um and then the
1117
01:10:35,653 --> 01:10:38,673
gas work steps the gas work steps doesn't make
1118
01:10:38,673 --> 01:10:41,493
you a better footballer but it sure as hell makes
1119
01:10:41,493 --> 01:10:44,273
you a better team a group of people so if you want
1120
01:10:44,273 --> 01:10:47,113
to go into a game you want to be in that
1121
01:10:47,113 --> 01:10:49,753
game with the same people that you're prepared to stand in the
1122
01:10:49,753 --> 01:10:52,673
trenches with and you'll you know that every
1123
01:10:52,673 --> 01:10:55,453
single player has got your your back regardless of where
1124
01:10:55,453 --> 01:10:58,313
you are on the pitch like johnny said when he did when
1125
01:10:58,313 --> 01:11:01,393
he came on speaking to you the week he said about football the social
1126
01:11:01,393 --> 01:11:04,113
side of football yeah there's that and that is really
1127
01:11:04,113 --> 01:11:07,493
really important to have that social side of it in and out on
1128
01:11:07,493 --> 01:11:10,333
and off the pitch yeah after the game which is gone now
1129
01:11:10,333 --> 01:11:13,033
it's completely gone especially from st george's point
1130
01:11:13,033 --> 01:11:16,013
of view now where we are it's completely gone but there is also that side
1131
01:11:16,013 --> 01:11:18,733
of it when you're training together as well
1132
01:11:18,733 --> 01:11:21,433
and you're working hard and you don't want to do it
1133
01:11:21,433 --> 01:11:24,333
because you know it's going to hurt but he's doing over there he's doing
1134
01:11:24,333 --> 01:11:27,013
it and then he's going to push you and he's going to make you do it
1135
01:11:27,013 --> 01:11:29,633
and then you're all bringing it and you're dragging each other along and you
1136
01:11:29,633 --> 01:11:32,733
know at the end of that session when you're all absolutely flat on you're you're
1137
01:11:32,733 --> 01:11:36,353
dying on the pitch you're looking around and you're going we've all done it
1138
01:11:36,353 --> 01:11:40,793
together and that builds a team and that builds that builds a character within
1139
01:11:40,793 --> 01:11:44,413
your team and we were doing the gas work steps all the time and we would be
1140
01:11:44,413 --> 01:11:48,753
he's not coming to why is he not going to get yourself down and they'd be be there and they'd do it.
1141
01:11:48,853 --> 01:11:53,013
We had, this is, there's a couple of things I can go back and tell you about
1142
01:11:53,013 --> 01:11:58,353
training with Dean Pinnington, with Adam Long, Shane Maxwell, Scout Chetton.
1143
01:11:58,433 --> 01:12:03,073
And I can talk to you about little things like we used to go up and down the
1144
01:12:03,073 --> 01:12:05,973
steps and then we'd go around the keep and they'd go up the hill and down,
1145
01:12:06,053 --> 01:12:09,653
we'd do whatever until, you know, they're all half dead.
1146
01:12:10,593 --> 01:12:14,853
But they were doing all this training. And I noticed that these young 16 year
1147
01:12:14,853 --> 01:12:17,333
old lads that had just come from Union Mills were,
1148
01:12:17,817 --> 01:12:22,577
And they were coming in last, second to last, third from last.
1149
01:12:22,817 --> 01:12:27,257
So they were sat on the bottom of the steps and I laid right into them.
1150
01:12:27,337 --> 01:12:30,257
I said, these people that are beating you are 33 years old.
1151
01:12:30,357 --> 01:12:33,037
There's absolutely no way that you should be coming in here.
1152
01:12:33,157 --> 01:12:35,577
If you want to get in this team, you need to pull yourself together.
1153
01:12:35,977 --> 01:12:42,277
But from that point on, Adam Long, Max Voskantje, because they were good.
1154
01:12:42,457 --> 01:12:46,437
And they were never last again. again. Yeah. And Maxwell Skelcher spent the
1155
01:12:46,437 --> 01:12:51,497
next year or two trying to beat Chris and I think he beat him once going up
1156
01:12:51,497 --> 01:12:52,697
the hill past the Mount Sands.
1157
01:12:52,797 --> 01:12:55,557
I think he beat him just once and that made his whole life.
1158
01:12:55,857 --> 01:13:00,517
But I used to do when Dad played for the Old Boys. Yeah. I used to be a trainer when I was like 12.
1159
01:13:00,837 --> 01:13:04,357
Yeah. Brian Garland didn't like him. Yeah. We'd run across the prom from Summerland
1160
01:13:04,357 --> 01:13:07,317
across the prom and back and back to Summerland for the Fiverr side and I never
1161
01:13:07,317 --> 01:13:08,277
really joined in the Fiverr side.
1162
01:13:08,997 --> 01:13:13,937
It's just because Popeye was in there and I remember Dean doing it, Dean Pennington.
1163
01:13:13,937 --> 01:13:16,997
And we used to train at Ben Mahiga on a Monday night on the AstroTurf and there'd
1164
01:13:16,997 --> 01:13:21,817
be this young lad on his own kicking a football into the goal all night and
1165
01:13:21,817 --> 01:13:24,937
it was like it was half seven, eight o'clock getting towards nine o'clock at
1166
01:13:24,937 --> 01:13:26,537
night and he must have been 10,
1167
01:13:26,737 --> 01:13:32,597
11, 12 on his own just shooting into the goal smashing the ball and we learned,
1168
01:13:33,157 --> 01:13:36,977
who it was eventually because I ended up seeing him play and I thought what?
1169
01:13:37,631 --> 01:13:41,471
The best young player I'd ever seen on the Isle of Man for that age group.
1170
01:13:41,811 --> 01:13:45,671
Ability. Ability wise. And then Dickle knows him and knows his family.
1171
01:13:45,771 --> 01:13:48,331
So he ended up coming and training with us. 12, 13 years old,
1172
01:13:48,371 --> 01:13:51,911
training with our first team, sprinting up Bray Hill, trying to beat us when
1173
01:13:51,911 --> 01:13:53,631
I was senior players and he was sick at the top.
1174
01:13:53,851 --> 01:14:00,191
We used to go do the triangle and you do three laps, but you jog across the
1175
01:14:00,191 --> 01:14:02,111
bottom of the school down the hill to the lights.
1176
01:14:02,131 --> 01:14:06,571
But from the bottom of Bray Hill to the top, it was a sprint.
1177
01:14:06,731 --> 01:14:09,351
It wasn't a jog. It was just a full-out spring.
1178
01:14:09,791 --> 01:14:14,111
And I remember Dean coming this particular time, and he was paired up with Callum,
1179
01:14:14,171 --> 01:14:15,611
and they were going up the hill.
1180
01:14:15,671 --> 01:14:20,631
I used to stand up on the opposite side of the road so I could actually see what's going on.
1181
01:14:20,991 --> 01:14:23,811
And Dean, I think, was about 12 or 13, wasn't he?
1182
01:14:23,891 --> 01:14:27,691
Yeah. And they were going up this hill, and I was like, Callum,
1183
01:14:27,691 --> 01:14:30,191
if he effing beats you, you're finished.
1184
01:14:30,271 --> 01:14:33,611
And Dean, if you don't effing beat him, there's going to be hell to pay.
1185
01:14:33,811 --> 01:14:38,391
And these two were going hammer and toggles up this hill. and Callum ran out
1186
01:14:38,391 --> 01:14:40,631
by about 12, 13 yards in the end.
1187
01:14:40,851 --> 01:14:45,651
Dean got to the top of the hill, went round the corner and started throwing
1188
01:14:45,651 --> 01:14:49,771
up and they're all going, all the lads are going, Bassey, Bassey,
1189
01:14:49,871 --> 01:14:52,171
Mark Pennington, he won't be happy with you.
1190
01:14:52,231 --> 01:14:54,971
Dean's round there throwing up on his new trainers and all that.
1191
01:14:55,051 --> 01:14:57,931
And I said, I tell you what, Mark will be proud.
1192
01:14:59,731 --> 01:15:05,291
He will be proud, not unhappy. He will be extremely proud that his son gave everything.
1193
01:15:05,291 --> 01:15:08,851
Thing and that's the way we work in training so obviously
1194
01:15:08,851 --> 01:15:11,771
we're coming to the end of like you're playing days you're managing
1195
01:15:11,771 --> 01:15:15,631
days everything comes around FCL man has comes to an end they want to go to
1196
01:15:15,631 --> 01:15:21,671
a different direction yeah and they ask you to move on yes how hard do you find
1197
01:15:21,671 --> 01:15:27,371
that as a person oh at the time it was it was it was actually it's probably
1198
01:15:27,371 --> 01:15:29,371
the worst I've felt of football,
1199
01:15:30,492 --> 01:15:34,792
It was, yeah, I don't want to go into the detail too much, but yeah,
1200
01:15:34,852 --> 01:15:39,412
it was probably the worst that I felt in football because I look back at it
1201
01:15:39,412 --> 01:15:41,452
now and I still watch it today.
1202
01:15:41,592 --> 01:15:44,772
I still watch the Newmills final. I watch the cup final.
1203
01:15:44,952 --> 01:15:48,812
And I only mentioned it to Chris, I think it was about two or three days ago and other people.
1204
01:15:49,192 --> 01:15:52,692
To me, it wasn't about winning the trophies.
1205
01:15:53,192 --> 01:15:58,872
It was about seeing the faces in the crowd, knowing that the players had left
1206
01:15:58,872 --> 01:16:00,032
everything on the pitch.
1207
01:16:00,492 --> 01:16:03,532
I mean, I had this ethos at times. It was a bit mental, really,
1208
01:16:03,712 --> 01:16:09,332
because I used to say to them, if you walk off that pitch, you could have done more.
1209
01:16:09,812 --> 01:16:13,132
If you crawl off that pitch, you've given everything.
1210
01:16:13,392 --> 01:16:17,812
And that's the limits where I wanted to take the players. So they actually just
1211
01:16:17,812 --> 01:16:20,252
literally had to crawl off the pitch.
1212
01:16:20,432 --> 01:16:24,992
And if they did and they won, that's great. And if they hadn't won,
1213
01:16:25,212 --> 01:16:26,512
they've given everything.
1214
01:16:26,952 --> 01:16:30,192
And that's where I was all the time. but yeah i
1215
01:16:30,192 --> 01:16:33,272
felt really disappointed i won't what i
1216
01:16:33,272 --> 01:16:37,052
will say is it's an incredibly tough job incredibly
1217
01:16:37,052 --> 01:16:40,752
time consuming mentally physically
1218
01:16:40,752 --> 01:16:47,932
so anyone doing the job will have good days they'll have bad days but overall
1219
01:16:47,932 --> 01:16:54,532
it's it's what we do that's what football is yeah and that's fine and that i
1220
01:16:54,532 --> 01:16:58,052
think that segues nice into like a couple of final questions really just i'll
1221
01:16:58,052 --> 01:16:59,572
just add to Sorry, Dean, I'll add to that.
1222
01:16:59,692 --> 01:17:04,232
At the time, I mean, everybody could see the results weren't going so well.
1223
01:17:04,332 --> 01:17:07,372
And they weren't doing as well as we'd liked in the league table.
1224
01:17:08,172 --> 01:17:11,812
Results just weren't happening. We had a lot of players injured from the previous year.
1225
01:17:11,892 --> 01:17:16,512
And it is the fact of the time, how time-consuming it is.
1226
01:17:16,532 --> 01:17:19,272
And you were training twice a week at six o'clock, half six in the morning.
1227
01:17:19,292 --> 01:17:21,972
You come straight up and you're getting into an intense training session twice
1228
01:17:21,972 --> 01:17:23,532
a week. A lot of the players were getting injured.
1229
01:17:23,572 --> 01:17:27,012
They had a long season, a season that they've never been used to before. Yeah.
1230
01:17:27,621 --> 01:17:29,601
Because you're playing midweek games, which we'd never done before.
1231
01:17:29,761 --> 01:17:32,521
Players have gone from... You're going from playing 24 games a season,
1232
01:17:32,521 --> 01:17:35,861
or let's say 30 games, a cupcake, 46 this year. Yeah, to four to... Yeah.
1233
01:17:36,181 --> 01:17:39,781
So, and we had a lot of injuries. So at the turn and put, at the point that
1234
01:17:39,781 --> 01:17:44,021
it happened, there was players coming back from injury and you think results might pick up.
1235
01:17:44,141 --> 01:17:46,801
And I could see the effects it was having on him anyway.
1236
01:17:47,001 --> 01:17:50,721
Yeah. He was tired. We were getting to airports and it'd be six or seven weeks
1237
01:17:50,721 --> 01:17:53,601
in a row and I couldn't do it all because of my job, my work commitments.
1238
01:17:53,741 --> 01:17:56,761
So I couldn't do it all, but because he's self-employed, he'll do it.
1239
01:17:56,761 --> 01:18:00,301
He'd take time out of work on a Tuesday, go straight to the airport,
1240
01:18:00,421 --> 01:18:04,181
play the game, take time out of work on a Wednesday morning because he's at
1241
01:18:04,181 --> 01:18:06,221
the airport travelling back and go straight back to work.
1242
01:18:06,481 --> 01:18:11,181
And trying to run a business and trying to run a football team for anyone and
1243
01:18:11,181 --> 01:18:14,641
you've got Lee Dixon doing exactly the same as his coach, that is time consuming
1244
01:18:14,641 --> 01:18:16,461
and I could see the effects it was having on him.
1245
01:18:17,461 --> 01:18:20,861
He was mentally drained, he was tired, the results weren't going so well.
1246
01:18:20,921 --> 01:18:22,701
So that weighs on you heavily as well.
1247
01:18:23,001 --> 01:18:27,121
So at that time, I thought during the season, this will probably be without
1248
01:18:27,121 --> 01:18:30,701
even asking him I could see it in him I thought this will probably be his last
1249
01:18:30,701 --> 01:18:34,781
season the results aren't going well things were happening behind the scenes anyway,
1250
01:18:35,501 --> 01:18:40,361
and from my point of view what should have happened is had the discussion,
1251
01:18:41,201 --> 01:18:44,221
let's go to the end of the season see what you can do you've got your players
1252
01:18:44,221 --> 01:18:47,921
coming back let's keep going as we are to the end of the season thanks very
1253
01:18:47,921 --> 01:18:49,461
much for everything that you've done,
1254
01:18:50,041 --> 01:18:53,181
next season we'll go our separate ways and that's what should have happened
1255
01:18:53,181 --> 01:18:55,721
it should have gone to the end of the season kind of like a bit like Jurgen
1256
01:18:55,721 --> 01:19:00,521
Klopp saying look I can see my time's coming up here I'm drained I've had enough,
1257
01:19:01,161 --> 01:19:06,021
I want to just see the season out with you and then I'll go my way you go your
1258
01:19:06,021 --> 01:19:09,961
way but for some reason some reasons or other reasons,
1259
01:19:10,581 --> 01:19:13,741
it didn't happen but that's exactly what should have happened and if they've
1260
01:19:13,741 --> 01:19:17,281
had that conversation instead of trying to take things from underneath them
1261
01:19:17,281 --> 01:19:20,661
from behind the scenes which is what was happening that's what they should have
1262
01:19:20,661 --> 01:19:23,161
done just said to them look thanks very much for all your time and effort but
1263
01:19:23,161 --> 01:19:24,881
everyone appreciates what you've done.
1264
01:19:25,101 --> 01:19:28,381
Let's go to the end of the season. I look back now, like I say,
1265
01:19:28,401 --> 01:19:31,781
I watch those two finals and I just see all those smiling faces and I'm like.
1266
01:19:32,357 --> 01:19:35,477
You know, we went to the World Cup in Sweden. By the way, we played against
1267
01:19:35,477 --> 01:19:38,637
the best football teams that any island team has probably played against.
1268
01:19:38,837 --> 01:19:42,357
You've been playing against professional footballers. Apart from when you played,
1269
01:19:42,417 --> 01:19:45,477
when Kevin played England, Scotland, Ireland, that might be another good level.
1270
01:19:45,777 --> 01:19:52,517
But what we achieved down the bowl, what we brought to the Isle of Man will always live with me.
1271
01:19:52,557 --> 01:19:55,557
The fact that people were talking on a Monday, are you going to the game Saturday?
1272
01:19:55,857 --> 01:19:59,617
Are you going to the game? And there was posters getting put up in shops downtown
1273
01:19:59,617 --> 01:20:04,477
and everybody was over. and you said before we started the interview that somebody's
1274
01:20:04,477 --> 01:20:07,557
trying to sell tickets for 50 quid so what's the next team?
1275
01:20:07,797 --> 01:20:10,457
It's happened to me personally twice when I
1276
01:20:10,457 --> 01:20:13,497
played for the Isle of Man team against Jersey in the NLS final down
1277
01:20:13,497 --> 01:20:16,797
at the boat people asking for tickets all week
1278
01:20:16,797 --> 01:20:19,837
two weeks three weeks I think they were on sale on like Intersport on
1279
01:20:19,837 --> 01:20:22,917
sale in Intersport 3,000 people there then you
1280
01:20:22,917 --> 01:20:25,697
get to a final and a playoff final and the
1281
01:20:25,697 --> 01:20:28,517
cup final for the FC Isle of Man another 3,000 people
1282
01:20:28,517 --> 01:20:31,677
there down the bowl and it's not not necessarily about
1283
01:20:31,677 --> 01:20:34,597
football like he says it's about the people coming together
1284
01:20:34,597 --> 01:20:37,317
and fcl man is an amazing thing for the old
1285
01:20:37,317 --> 01:20:40,117
man it's about bringing the island and getting them
1286
01:20:40,117 --> 01:20:43,757
on the map in the football in terms but also a community coming together and
1287
01:20:43,757 --> 01:20:48,677
for them two or three occasions or even the build up to them finals the semi-final
1288
01:20:48,677 --> 01:20:53,277
as we built up towards the playoffs the the crowds that we were getting and
1289
01:20:53,277 --> 01:20:56,817
you could see people turning up and the excitement was bringing it It was like
1290
01:20:56,817 --> 01:20:57,897
a Saturday night out. Yeah.
1291
01:20:58,157 --> 01:21:01,397
My family were like, we'll meet at the ground at this time and then we'll take,
1292
01:21:01,457 --> 01:21:05,157
the young kids will take the tea and then your kids are there watching you play football.
1293
01:21:05,377 --> 01:21:08,137
And at times it's like at the end of the game, it's emotional when you get around
1294
01:21:08,137 --> 01:21:10,957
and see the amount of people, see what you're doing for the LML.
1295
01:21:11,177 --> 01:21:13,437
And that's why I just, I just felt like it was.
1296
01:21:14,299 --> 01:21:18,179
It was just wrong at the time. It was too soon. Too soon. Let it go until the end of the season.
1297
01:21:18,239 --> 01:21:21,539
But what that has done for the Isle of Man,
1298
01:21:22,019 --> 01:21:24,899
and brought the community together, especially that first season,
1299
01:21:24,939 --> 01:21:27,599
it was a novelty and it was always going to be the case where the bigger crowds
1300
01:21:27,599 --> 01:21:30,679
and the biggest crowds were always going to be in the first season,
1301
01:21:31,159 --> 01:21:35,919
because you base the model, I believe, on Guernsey and their crowds decline
1302
01:21:35,919 --> 01:21:37,219
over the years, which is going to happen.
1303
01:21:37,599 --> 01:21:41,039
But for them, two, three, four, five occasions at the ball when you've packed
1304
01:21:41,039 --> 01:21:44,159
it out, it's just something you'll never forget. Yeah, and you see they come
1305
01:21:44,159 --> 01:21:48,419
back now. It was Monday night there, for example. There was a thousand people down. It's brilliant.
1306
01:21:48,739 --> 01:21:52,459
You know, yes, there is weeks where you get four, four or five hundred people,
1307
01:21:52,559 --> 01:21:56,759
but, you know, it's pissing down on the Isle of Man. They've probably been out in the afternoon.
1308
01:21:57,019 --> 01:21:59,319
You know, the missus has dragged them to town. They've been dragged through
1309
01:21:59,319 --> 01:22:02,719
town or they've had to go, they've been watching local football and it's like,
1310
01:22:02,759 --> 01:22:04,359
I'm so, I just want to stay home and get warm.
1311
01:22:04,879 --> 01:22:07,719
It's understandable that that will fluctuate. But it's nice.
1312
01:22:07,779 --> 01:22:11,379
It was, like I said before, it's for the people. It's to see the kids,
1313
01:22:11,379 --> 01:22:14,659
the smiling faces getting you know autographs and
1314
01:22:14,659 --> 01:22:17,719
buying shirts and buying memorabilia now that's and
1315
01:22:17,719 --> 01:22:20,379
so it's because it's going to be there it's always going to
1316
01:22:20,379 --> 01:22:23,859
have a hardcore following and i
1317
01:22:23,859 --> 01:22:27,499
actually do believe on this year could
1318
01:22:27,499 --> 01:22:31,219
you say have they done well have they done bad my point
1319
01:22:31,219 --> 01:22:33,999
of view is that if you finished in the top eight it's a
1320
01:22:33,999 --> 01:22:36,839
respectable position if you finish in the the top eight
1321
01:22:36,839 --> 01:22:39,679
from finishing 13th last year if you finish
1322
01:22:39,679 --> 01:22:43,399
10th but it's it's marginal improvements
1323
01:22:43,399 --> 01:22:46,059
if any because we talked before if you
1324
01:22:46,059 --> 01:22:48,819
lost two games you're going to be 15th so if you
1325
01:22:48,819 --> 01:22:53,019
win two games you could be you know eighth ninth tenth but the
1326
01:22:53,019 --> 01:22:56,319
point i'm gonna make is they've done so well
1327
01:22:56,319 --> 01:23:03,619
against the top teams where's it all gone wrong against the lesser teams that's
1328
01:23:03,619 --> 01:23:08,679
the questions you've got to ask and this is where we go back to mental strength
1329
01:23:08,679 --> 01:23:14,519
my teams would never have given up on both sides.
1330
01:23:15,299 --> 01:23:20,659
And that's where they are and they need to correct that because they're capable
1331
01:23:20,659 --> 01:23:26,279
of going up they are definitely capable of going up but the question is when
1332
01:23:26,279 --> 01:23:29,939
you get up there because of the level of football you're going to are you going to stay up?
1333
01:23:30,019 --> 01:23:33,299
I just think logistics is one thing that will hold it back with,
1334
01:23:34,248 --> 01:23:39,028
Being in Ireland and whether they can arrange with the league a different arrangement
1335
01:23:39,028 --> 01:23:41,928
where they don't have to play all the midweek games off-island.
1336
01:23:42,108 --> 01:23:46,848
I know it's an agreement they had to get it going, but maybe it's something
1337
01:23:46,848 --> 01:23:48,388
they can revisit because it's difficult.
1338
01:23:49,648 --> 01:23:55,588
The logistics side of it is you can never have your squad available for every game.
1339
01:23:55,728 --> 01:23:58,048
I know there's injuries, but you can't because of work commitments.
1340
01:23:58,288 --> 01:24:01,288
And you're asking these lads to travel off-island. You get the team to come
1341
01:24:01,288 --> 01:24:03,848
here, the wind's like mad because they've got to come to Alamad once.
1342
01:24:04,248 --> 01:24:08,068
And I know it's something that we knew we had to do, but we're going away every
1343
01:24:08,068 --> 01:24:12,268
other week, twice a week sometimes, three times a week.
1344
01:24:12,468 --> 01:24:16,948
They're going to hit. The logistics is going to struggle. They are going to hit a platter.
1345
01:24:17,208 --> 01:24:22,128
Then I think everybody's fully aware of the only way that the Isle of Man FC,
1346
01:24:22,728 --> 01:24:26,808
FC Isle of Man gets up into the echelons of like Wrexham.
1347
01:24:26,928 --> 01:24:31,188
The only way, you need a multimillionaire backer.
1348
01:24:31,188 --> 01:24:33,828
Now the question is if you get a
1349
01:24:33,828 --> 01:24:38,248
multi-millionaire backer what happens to the board because if i'm giving you
1350
01:24:38,248 --> 01:24:42,908
10 million quid i'm telling you what's happening with my money and i'm telling
1351
01:24:42,908 --> 01:24:46,148
you who's going to be the manager and i'm telling you who's going to be this
1352
01:24:46,148 --> 01:24:51,188
this and this so you have the thing are you going to protect what we've got
1353
01:24:51,188 --> 01:24:53,408
and keep it manx and be quite happy to stay,
1354
01:24:53,948 --> 01:24:59,008
where we are or one league higher or are we going to diversify and get somebody
1355
01:24:59,008 --> 01:25:02,388
in with a load of money that's actually going to start paying players.
1356
01:25:02,488 --> 01:25:06,008
And by the way, if you pay, if you bring somebody in from England and you pay them.
1357
01:25:06,962 --> 01:25:10,302
You should be then paying all the local lads that play for you as well.
1358
01:25:10,442 --> 01:25:13,982
So I'm talking about across the board. And the only way you're going to get
1359
01:25:13,982 --> 01:25:21,682
up by introducing that kind of football is to potentially have a better youth system.
1360
01:25:21,982 --> 01:25:25,782
And I'm going to bring you to something that, this is my opinion.
1361
01:25:25,962 --> 01:25:27,362
This is nobody else's opinion.
1362
01:25:27,882 --> 01:25:33,942
I'm looking around now at Manx football and we're not in the same strength of
1363
01:25:33,942 --> 01:25:38,342
league as we were five years ago or 10 years ago or before that.
1364
01:25:38,882 --> 01:25:43,682
I feel that too many clubs don't have youth systems.
1365
01:25:44,582 --> 01:25:50,542
Now, a lot of that can be down to the club, you know, in terms of getting coaches, getting coaches, okay?
1366
01:25:50,902 --> 01:26:00,062
But when you have A, B, and C, and D at particular football clubs,
1367
01:26:00,182 --> 01:26:03,922
no disrespect to the clubs because they feel that they're doing the right thing.
1368
01:26:04,182 --> 01:26:11,642
But what you don't understand is players from B, C and D completely stop playing
1369
01:26:11,642 --> 01:26:15,122
football at 16 because they're never going to get into the first team.
1370
01:26:15,202 --> 01:26:17,402
Yeah, they're never going to be the A team players.
1371
01:26:17,822 --> 01:26:23,942
But C and D are A, B somewhere else or somewhere else.
1372
01:26:24,082 --> 01:26:28,502
So, but again, that's down to the club in terms of having the coaches.
1373
01:26:28,502 --> 01:26:32,082
But the other thing I would like to introduce,
1374
01:26:32,342 --> 01:26:37,482
and this is completely off the wall, and I think if you were to do that and
1375
01:26:37,482 --> 01:26:45,202
said each club was only allowed a squad of 18 players under 14 or under 16,
1376
01:26:45,322 --> 01:26:50,622
or if they had an A and B of under 14, under 16, so the B team players can't
1377
01:26:50,622 --> 01:26:52,202
play for, you can't swap and change.
1378
01:26:52,202 --> 01:26:58,782
But if you had a squad of 18 players, every Saturday or Sunday when they're
1379
01:26:58,782 --> 01:27:06,722
playing, each person in that 18-man squad should be given a minimum of 15 minutes on the pitch.
1380
01:27:07,781 --> 01:27:13,781
So you feel part of the club rather than just being sub, not getting a game, sub, not getting a game.
1381
01:27:14,001 --> 01:27:16,681
Because kids are walking away and going cycling.
1382
01:27:16,981 --> 01:27:19,001
They're going boxing. They're going to go and do gymnastics.
1383
01:27:19,261 --> 01:27:21,461
They're going to go running. They're going to do all these other things.
1384
01:27:21,881 --> 01:27:25,541
So this is where we need to change. We've got rolling subs now.
1385
01:27:25,641 --> 01:27:29,661
And the FA are now talking about introducing four leagues and this sort of thing.
1386
01:27:29,721 --> 01:27:31,741
So they can see it coming down the track.
1387
01:27:32,021 --> 01:27:38,041
But what they're not getting is the actual, when they leave that 15-year-old
1388
01:27:38,041 --> 01:27:39,061
scenario. The play with tension.
1389
01:27:39,401 --> 01:27:43,801
They all move away. Yeah. But you could keep so many more players. Fantastic suggestion.
1390
01:27:44,221 --> 01:27:49,701
You keep so many more players. Playing football, St. George's would have to have a youth team.
1391
01:27:50,701 --> 01:27:54,921
All boys would have a youth team. There's teams out there. Do you know what?
1392
01:27:54,981 --> 01:27:56,021
I think that's a fantastic suggestion.
1393
01:27:56,441 --> 01:28:00,081
But the only stumbling block on that,
1394
01:28:00,821 --> 01:28:04,981
and I'll come to it, and it's a God-given fact, finance clubs
1395
01:28:04,981 --> 01:28:10,381
are making money out of these kids and there's nothing wrong with that because
1396
01:28:10,381 --> 01:28:16,681
it's business but if you want football to survive and thrive in terms producing
1397
01:28:16,681 --> 01:28:22,261
better players for fc island man to pick from yeah you need to expand the youth
1398
01:28:22,261 --> 01:28:24,121
system across the whole island.
1399
01:28:25,642 --> 01:28:27,962
And you know what? I think that segues in nicely, actually, too.
1400
01:28:28,662 --> 01:28:31,582
Obviously, I normally ask people what you think is good and bad about men's football.
1401
01:28:31,802 --> 01:28:34,022
You've just nailed your bit on the head there, I think, Chris,
1402
01:28:34,022 --> 01:28:36,942
with that. What about you, Junior? Is there anything that you'd add to that?
1403
01:28:37,822 --> 01:28:42,882
I would go back, and if anyone's listened to Lee's and Craig's podcast a couple
1404
01:28:42,882 --> 01:28:47,642
of weeks ago, I agree with everything they said about where they're going wrong at the moment.
1405
01:28:47,862 --> 01:28:51,442
And I've said this to loads of people I've spoke to.
1406
01:28:52,022 --> 01:28:55,242
Senior football at the moment, and everybody can see it and say it,
1407
01:28:55,242 --> 01:28:57,142
but nobody's coming up with solutions.
1408
01:28:57,382 --> 01:29:00,122
It's easy to just say that's what's wrong and that's what's wrong with it.
1409
01:29:00,522 --> 01:29:01,582
All this, that and the other.
1410
01:29:02,142 --> 01:29:04,902
I've said it and I've said it to somebody before in the FA.
1411
01:29:05,742 --> 01:29:09,982
I don't think the Masters League should be 35 years old. I'm 39 coming up 40,
1412
01:29:10,742 --> 01:29:13,322
and I'm still trying to play. I'm still playing senior football.
1413
01:29:13,562 --> 01:29:18,382
The amount of players you've lost from this Saturday football because you're...
1414
01:29:18,382 --> 01:29:21,282
And then one rule or another that you're now not allowed to play Sunday if you've
1415
01:29:21,282 --> 01:29:25,802
played the last first team game for a club. so that the veterans or Masters
1416
01:29:25,802 --> 01:29:28,362
football should be 40 at a minimum.
1417
01:29:28,582 --> 01:29:32,562
And I don't know if this is true or not, but I've been told it's because the
1418
01:29:32,562 --> 01:29:38,662
English FA do 35. I know they do a 40 as well, but I don't know if that's true,
1419
01:29:38,702 --> 01:29:42,102
whether we have to have it at 35, but it should be 40.
1420
01:29:42,222 --> 01:29:45,302
We manage our own league rules over here. We've got a rules revision committee.
1421
01:29:45,402 --> 01:29:50,662
We should manage our own rules and it should be 40 for Masters football because you've got that age gap.
1422
01:29:50,702 --> 01:29:53,542
With them five years, five to 40, you've lost
1423
01:29:53,542 --> 01:29:56,362
them and then on the other side of it and i listened to lee about
1424
01:29:56,362 --> 01:29:59,102
it and i've had this suggestion before i played
1425
01:29:59,102 --> 01:30:02,062
at 14 and i know safeguard is completely different now
1426
01:30:02,062 --> 01:30:04,882
look at child protection and i totally agree
1427
01:30:04,882 --> 01:30:09,902
with it but at the same time if you've got kids parents love their kids doing
1428
01:30:09,902 --> 01:30:13,442
sport and wanting to improve all the time they put any money into i do it myself
1429
01:30:13,442 --> 01:30:16,662
for my kids they will put anything into their kids to make them better their
1430
01:30:16,662 --> 01:30:20,682
sport and keep them out of trouble and keep them do it on the right path when
1431
01:30:20,682 --> 01:30:22,862
they get to a certain age at 14, like my dad just said.
1432
01:30:24,049 --> 01:30:27,149
They just seem to stop playing because there's nowhere to go. No.
1433
01:30:27,189 --> 01:30:33,569
And now I think if you've got kids and Lee's suggestion was of a parent giving
1434
01:30:33,569 --> 01:30:35,449
permission. Yeah, yeah.
1435
01:30:35,769 --> 01:30:39,529
And I believe it. I can sense your belief in that. I've suggested this plenty
1436
01:30:39,529 --> 01:30:43,209
of times before and we had an opportunity for St. George.
1437
01:30:43,309 --> 01:30:45,689
We're struggling with players and it's widely known we're struggling with players
1438
01:30:45,689 --> 01:30:46,869
for our senior team this year.
1439
01:30:47,109 --> 01:30:50,989
We've had players train with us through the course of the season that are too
1440
01:30:50,989 --> 01:30:53,609
young to play for our first team and they're good enough to play.
1441
01:30:54,049 --> 01:30:57,909
But they're too young. So, and I've said, one of the dads was playing for us
1442
01:30:57,909 --> 01:31:01,109
and I said, why can't you just sign a form to say I'm happy for him to play?
1443
01:31:01,689 --> 01:31:07,609
He's young enough. He's good enough, Matt. So I think the 35s should be moved
1444
01:31:07,609 --> 01:31:12,089
up to 40 and you get players back there because it's easy to just turn up on a Sunday and play.
1445
01:31:12,169 --> 01:31:15,389
And sometimes we're playing once every three weeks and that game's getting called off.
1446
01:31:15,489 --> 01:31:17,749
And I've spoke to them, spoke to some of the players and they said,
1447
01:31:17,849 --> 01:31:20,229
oh, I don't have to train. I don't have to do anything. Just turn up on a Sunday and play.
1448
01:31:21,029 --> 01:31:25,469
That's fine, but we're losing all that group with players at the top end and
1449
01:31:25,469 --> 01:31:27,089
then at the bottom end, you're losing the 14s.
1450
01:31:27,149 --> 01:31:32,109
If you're big enough, if you're good enough and your parents are happy to sign
1451
01:31:32,109 --> 01:31:35,249
a waiver for maybe insurance reasons, I don't know.
1452
01:31:35,629 --> 01:31:42,409
To safeguard, I'm happy for my son, daughter to play at the age of 14 or 15.
1453
01:31:43,349 --> 01:31:47,709
Before they turn 16, then they should be allowed to because you've lost all that.
1454
01:31:47,849 --> 01:31:53,249
If you go all the way back to where we began and we talked about the fact that
1455
01:31:53,249 --> 01:31:57,929
when our players go across and they go on trial and there's 10 Chris Basses
1456
01:31:57,929 --> 01:31:59,329
or there's 10 Johnny Myers,
1457
01:31:59,569 --> 01:32:06,569
the only way we can get ahead of the game is by having that waiver for the 14-year-old
1458
01:32:06,569 --> 01:32:09,589
because that will take the water out because he's gaining experience.
1459
01:32:10,469 --> 01:32:17,189
If Chris and Johnny had had to wait till they're 16 to play first-team football,
1460
01:32:18,129 --> 01:32:21,189
they were never going to Oldham. They were never going to Stockport. No.
1461
01:32:21,469 --> 01:32:26,869
And that's the fact. I just want to jump in and say I discussed this with somebody
1462
01:32:26,869 --> 01:32:30,129
at work the other day because this young lad plays football and we've talked
1463
01:32:30,129 --> 01:32:31,389
about it recently quite a lot.
1464
01:32:32,439 --> 01:32:34,979
There's a new rule now where you can't, so nobody at the moment,
1465
01:32:35,039 --> 01:32:39,679
nobody from the Isle of Man can sign for a club in the UK.
1466
01:32:40,239 --> 01:32:42,799
That's right. Because they're a certain distance away from the club.
1467
01:32:43,459 --> 01:32:47,419
Yeah. So it's amateur football. So the club, if you're able to play.
1468
01:32:47,419 --> 01:32:50,739
There's a situation where there's a young girl that plays football and she couldn't,
1469
01:32:50,739 --> 01:32:53,499
she was asked to go and sign on for Liverpool school football when she wasn't
1470
01:32:53,499 --> 01:32:54,499
allowed because she's too far away.
1471
01:32:54,619 --> 01:32:58,299
She lives a travel distance away from football club. Could possibly.
1472
01:32:58,359 --> 01:33:01,539
So how is somebody from the Isle
1473
01:33:01,539 --> 01:33:04,699
of Man You're going to have the opportunity to go and play for a club.
1474
01:33:05,159 --> 01:33:09,699
And the Alabama said, okay, that's fine. So where's the opportunities to go
1475
01:33:09,699 --> 01:33:11,499
and play for them clubs and train with them clubs?
1476
01:33:12,119 --> 01:33:14,779
Anyway, because you live on the island, you can only go, say,
1477
01:33:14,899 --> 01:33:16,639
half-term school holidays.
1478
01:33:16,799 --> 01:33:19,579
You train for a week. But the kids you're going to be training with are going
1479
01:33:19,579 --> 01:33:22,539
to be playing with this club twice a week every week.
1480
01:33:22,719 --> 01:33:25,399
You're missing out on that coaching, but you're still now going to miss out
1481
01:33:25,399 --> 01:33:27,659
because you can't train with them for a week at half-term school holidays.
1482
01:33:28,279 --> 01:33:31,199
And I know, because the person I spoke to at work.
1483
01:33:31,859 --> 01:33:34,859
Jersey have agreed that they are now allowed to
1484
01:33:34,859 --> 01:33:37,559
have players go and play for clubs or sign on for
1485
01:33:37,559 --> 01:33:40,619
professional clubs right because they complained about this
1486
01:33:40,619 --> 01:33:43,799
and said how so how are we going to get players professional footballs from
1487
01:33:43,799 --> 01:33:47,359
jersey yeah so they've now agreed that if they live an hour from an airport
1488
01:33:47,359 --> 01:33:52,199
where they live yeah and then they let they then play for a club within an hour
1489
01:33:52,199 --> 01:33:56,299
from the airport they've arrived at they're allowed to go and play that's something
1490
01:33:56,299 --> 01:33:57,819
that the other man needs to be looking at as well.
1491
01:33:57,879 --> 01:34:04,379
Well, I think, well, from an FA point of view, have we stagnated or are we being proactive?
1492
01:34:04,939 --> 01:34:08,599
Because by the way, the best things about Mags football is the minute is FC Alleman.
1493
01:34:08,799 --> 01:34:13,559
Yeah. And the junior, the junior, the amount of people involved in junior football.
1494
01:34:13,659 --> 01:34:18,259
Rather than just saying this, oh, it's the English FA, it's the English FA, it's the English FA.
1495
01:34:19,197 --> 01:34:22,717
Why don't they do a form with the questionnaire?
1496
01:34:23,037 --> 01:34:25,777
They've actually got one out in a minute. Well, that's good.
1497
01:34:26,037 --> 01:34:30,017
And it's to drive their strategy for the next five years. Well, that is fantastic.
1498
01:34:30,297 --> 01:34:33,537
And it's out. It's an email. I actually, I put it, I shared it yesterday.
1499
01:34:34,117 --> 01:34:36,777
It's been out for a week. I think it closes at the end of this month.
1500
01:34:36,897 --> 01:34:39,177
That should be a suggestion. And it is. It's fantastic.
1501
01:34:39,337 --> 01:34:42,337
There's loads of things in there. It's a great suggestion that we go to the
1502
01:34:42,337 --> 01:34:45,757
English FA and say, look, can we have this? The same as Jersey, what they've agreed.
1503
01:34:46,037 --> 01:34:49,197
We've got some fantastic young footballers in the LMA. can we not agree in the
1504
01:34:49,197 --> 01:34:52,877
same system where they live they always live less than an hour away from the
1505
01:34:52,877 --> 01:34:56,597
airport in the Alamance wherever they live can they then not have a play for
1506
01:34:56,597 --> 01:34:59,877
club an hour away from the airport realistically.
1507
01:35:01,237 --> 01:35:04,877
Why can't they it's only 50 minutes on a flight to London of course it is so
1508
01:35:04,877 --> 01:35:08,797
you could fly to Gatwick Airport or fly to London City I think it's,
1509
01:35:09,337 --> 01:35:14,397
if we're going to go to Cornwall this year I think it's an hour from the airport that you land at
1510
01:35:14,817 --> 01:35:19,297
or wherever the club is so Ryan you've got training soon Chris so we're going
1511
01:35:19,297 --> 01:35:22,877
to have to move this on a little bit I've got a couple of questions so just
1512
01:35:22,877 --> 01:35:24,597
want some quick fire answers from these,
1513
01:35:25,137 --> 01:35:30,717
seeing in the first one is from your mate and my mate Andy Birchall and he says,
1514
01:35:31,297 --> 01:35:35,777
what would you differently you do differently if you could start again would
1515
01:35:35,777 --> 01:35:37,237
it be Manitou-Allemagne national team,
1516
01:35:38,138 --> 01:35:41,358
Well, I was never given the opportunity. I'm pretty sure if I'd have been asked
1517
01:35:41,358 --> 01:35:43,718
to do that, I would have managed the national team.
1518
01:35:44,238 --> 01:35:48,358
What would I do differently? I would probably listen to my instincts more in
1519
01:35:48,358 --> 01:35:50,898
terms of the way we went about training.
1520
01:35:50,898 --> 01:35:54,518
Training i think i i listened to people
1521
01:35:54,518 --> 01:35:57,538
that you know they've been involved in certain
1522
01:35:57,538 --> 01:36:00,578
level of clubs but then i i always
1523
01:36:00,578 --> 01:36:06,238
believed that if you did a really solid pre-season then that's injury prevention
1524
01:36:06,238 --> 01:36:10,498
to me rather than stress load scientifically i don't know whether i'm right
1525
01:36:10,498 --> 01:36:14,578
or wrong but that's just my opinion i would probably listen to my own instincts
1526
01:36:14,578 --> 01:36:20,078
more and that's fair enough chris this is coming from three people it's all the same question you.
1527
01:36:20,518 --> 01:36:26,458
Andy Birtle's asked it, Cam Avery's asked it, and Craig Cowan also asked it.
1528
01:36:27,338 --> 01:36:29,038
Are you going to follow your dad into management?
1529
01:36:30,358 --> 01:36:34,958
I think everyone thinks I am. I haven't got any plans to at the moment. I don't know.
1530
01:36:35,378 --> 01:36:39,858
So the situation at the moment with St George's, I've helped Johnny because I've been injured.
1531
01:36:40,078 --> 01:36:43,118
For the first five months of the season I was injured, so I enjoyed helping
1532
01:36:43,118 --> 01:36:47,898
Johnny coach whenever I could. I was helping him on the sidelines because he was playing as well.
1533
01:36:48,018 --> 01:36:51,738
So I've enjoyed it. I've looked at it I've started coaching,
1534
01:36:52,578 --> 01:36:55,338
with Johnny Fee and others involved at George we've started
1535
01:36:55,338 --> 01:36:58,238
up in under six under eight because we had no youth so
1536
01:36:58,238 --> 01:37:01,338
we've started that up that's gone fantastically well at the minute there's so
1537
01:37:01,338 --> 01:37:06,438
many young kids come through I've really enjoyed that I do like coaching I probably
1538
01:37:06,438 --> 01:37:10,338
will do management at some point but work commitments will probably dictate
1539
01:37:10,338 --> 01:37:16,278
to me that so at the moment I don't know It's a fair enough answer final question
1540
01:37:16,278 --> 01:37:17,818
before we go into your seven aside teams,
1541
01:37:18,278 --> 01:37:23,158
comes from Sean Doyle FC Alleman player played under you Bassey played with
1542
01:37:23,158 --> 01:37:28,198
you Junior have you scored a better and more important brace than the goals
1543
01:37:28,198 --> 01:37:30,138
you scored in the playoff final for FC Alleman,
1544
01:37:30,938 --> 01:37:34,518
important wise probably not so there's the
1545
01:37:34,518 --> 01:37:39,638
playoff final and then there's the game we played which we had every single
1546
01:37:39,638 --> 01:37:42,898
weather condition in one game against Liverpool County down at the bowl when
1547
01:37:42,898 --> 01:37:48,578
we were 3-0 down at half time we won 5-3 I scored 2 in that game I scored the
1548
01:37:48,578 --> 01:37:52,138
winner directly from a corner and then there's this famous picture of Morrissey,
1549
01:37:52,678 --> 01:37:56,638
when he scored he's like with all the kids on the pitch it was snowing because he scored the fifth one.
1550
01:37:57,298 --> 01:38:03,538
My best goal obviously FC Alba Man that playoff final but one of my best goals
1551
01:38:03,538 --> 01:38:07,378
was the one I remember the most probably is one of my first ones when I was
1552
01:38:07,378 --> 01:38:10,778
14 and my first start for St.
1553
01:38:10,858 --> 01:38:12,758
George when my dad said right you start and you're playing against St.
1554
01:38:12,798 --> 01:38:16,078
Mary's Dan the Bold who were the best team in the league at the time I scored
1555
01:38:16,078 --> 01:38:19,978
a header from the edge of the box against against, like I say,
1556
01:38:19,998 --> 01:38:20,818
the best team in the league.
1557
01:38:21,058 --> 01:38:23,858
I'll probably say about 12 yards from the edge of the ball of his grey head.
1558
01:38:24,258 --> 01:38:27,198
It went into the top corner. Colin McMullen never moved.
1559
01:38:27,378 --> 01:38:31,678
It went into the top corner and I turned around and I had my mates on the bench at the time too.
1560
01:38:31,738 --> 01:38:34,938
And then we went to training on the Wednesday, School of Excellence on the Wednesday.
1561
01:38:35,118 --> 01:38:37,198
Dick was my coach and he played for St Mary's.
1562
01:38:37,814 --> 01:38:41,054
In that Saturday we trained down here at the School of Excellence on the Wednesday
1563
01:38:41,054 --> 01:38:44,634
crossed and finishing someone crossed it in and I headed into the top corner
1564
01:38:44,634 --> 01:38:48,534
I remember me coxing and Johnny Myers going Dicko you remember that one on Saturday
1565
01:38:48,534 --> 01:38:53,194
I really enjoyed that one but yeah to play a final in that game against Liverpool
1566
01:38:53,194 --> 01:38:55,874
in terms of brace yeah it was brilliant so.
1567
01:38:56,514 --> 01:39:01,274
We'll move on right select seven so you've both you've both know the rules yeah
1568
01:39:01,274 --> 01:39:04,514
seven aside teams Junior I'll start with you okay,
1569
01:39:05,094 --> 01:39:09,374
seven aside team ultimate Manx football team right this team just so you're
1570
01:39:09,374 --> 01:39:13,774
aware just so you know seeing you because I had this out with Dicko this is
1571
01:39:13,774 --> 01:39:22,034
a seven a side team that play in the old St John's seven a side tournament full pitch ok junior,
1572
01:39:22,634 --> 01:39:27,454
three retired players three current players your keeper can be from any era
1573
01:39:27,454 --> 01:39:32,314
and you can have any manager start with your keeper mine's easy my goalkeeper.
1574
01:39:33,114 --> 01:39:37,974
Wardy John Ward growing up watching John Ward play for the Allman playing for for all boys.
1575
01:39:38,994 --> 01:39:41,754
Yeah, and Colin McBowen, you couldn't separate them.
1576
01:39:41,834 --> 01:39:45,574
But then I've played with great goalkeepers, Blair, Wadey, Max Thomas,
1577
01:39:45,814 --> 01:39:47,134
played some really good goalkeepers.
1578
01:39:48,254 --> 01:39:51,894
And this isn't a cop-out. People will probably say it is a bit of a cop-out,
1579
01:39:51,934 --> 01:39:56,714
but my team, my three that are still playing, I have to think about this because
1580
01:39:56,714 --> 01:39:58,354
some of them are dipping in and out at the moment.
1581
01:39:58,914 --> 01:40:06,194
Sean Quay, Julian Ringham, who I feel like, for me, is probably one of the most
1582
01:40:06,194 --> 01:40:08,994
underrated players Not by the players that played with him, but other players.
1583
01:40:10,514 --> 01:40:13,634
Spent most of his career for St. George's playing left-back,
1584
01:40:13,654 --> 01:40:14,474
and he's all right-footed.
1585
01:40:14,894 --> 01:40:18,834
Matt, nobody ever spotted it. You wouldn't. One instance, we played a cut far
1586
01:40:18,834 --> 01:40:21,494
down the ball against Russia, and I think we won 7-1.
1587
01:40:21,874 --> 01:40:25,174
And I know from that, someone's told me since their team, so it was probably
1588
01:40:25,174 --> 01:40:27,234
on Julian Ringham, because he's there with that link.
1589
01:40:27,874 --> 01:40:30,834
And we won 7-1. Matt, who was that coach, Chris?
1590
01:40:31,154 --> 01:40:33,354
I can't remember now, can't see. He wasn't very good, was he?
1591
01:40:33,354 --> 01:40:38,814
So yes Sean Quay Julian Ringham and Johnny Myers and then my three retired players,
1592
01:40:39,414 --> 01:40:46,574
are Calum Morrissey Kieran McNulty and my dad there's going to be goals in that,
1593
01:40:47,114 --> 01:40:50,174
there's loads of goals my dad was probably one of the best goals I've ever seen
1594
01:40:50,174 --> 01:40:55,994
and you've got Peck who scored over 400 goals Premier League goals so it's not
1595
01:40:55,994 --> 01:40:59,614
that they're my mates and family obviously people look at it as a bit of a cop
1596
01:40:59,614 --> 01:41:03,794
out it might be but all the things I've achieved in men's football ball I've
1597
01:41:03,794 --> 01:41:04,994
achieved with them. Yeah.
1598
01:41:05,274 --> 01:41:09,714
And that's my, and that's me missing out like fantastic players.
1599
01:41:10,134 --> 01:41:14,654
Like I played with Rob Wigginshaw. I've played with, and you've got Lee Gale,
1600
01:41:14,694 --> 01:41:16,254
Frank Jones, Nick Hurt and.
1601
01:41:17,236 --> 01:41:23,436
Macca, McState, and... You can't pick one, but all them players,
1602
01:41:24,236 --> 01:41:26,716
I've grown up with all these lads, and everything I've achieved in Manx football
1603
01:41:26,716 --> 01:41:29,816
is with them, and my mates and family, and I felt like it was quite easy.
1604
01:41:29,996 --> 01:41:31,896
People go, that's cop-out, but it's not.
1605
01:41:32,236 --> 01:41:35,336
I could justify every single one of them being in that team. So who manages it?
1606
01:41:35,896 --> 01:41:39,896
Kev Manning. And because he's the only person I know that in Manx football would
1607
01:41:39,896 --> 01:41:41,816
be able to stop him and Karl Morrissey arguing.
1608
01:41:43,416 --> 01:41:46,996
And I got to play, and I probably could have a special mention with Kev,
1609
01:41:46,996 --> 01:41:49,816
because Kev, bless him now, obviously he's passed away.
1610
01:41:50,296 --> 01:41:56,816
I grew up being coached by Kev from the School of Accents on the 12s all the way through.
1611
01:41:57,036 --> 01:41:58,816
He gave him my debut for the All-Ireland
1612
01:41:58,816 --> 01:42:03,736
team at 16 and I spent most of my All-Ireland career playing for Kev.
1613
01:42:04,196 --> 01:42:08,096
And what a person, what an unbelievable person he is and what a man for Manx football.
1614
01:42:08,716 --> 01:42:12,856
Mad, mad, and he was. He was mad as well. Yeah. He was, but what a great guy Kev was.
1615
01:42:12,976 --> 01:42:19,116
So senior, your team, This is really difficult for me because I would find it
1616
01:42:19,116 --> 01:42:24,836
incredibly hard just to pick a seven-a-side team from the players that have
1617
01:42:24,836 --> 01:42:28,336
played for me in 20 years of management at St. George's.
1618
01:42:28,476 --> 01:42:33,576
So I've had to give it a lot of deliberation, no disrespect to anyone else.
1619
01:42:33,616 --> 01:42:38,916
I've actually gone for when you consider players at their ultimate prime.
1620
01:42:38,916 --> 01:42:46,616
So I've gone for John Ward in goal, just edging out Daniel Wade for me.
1621
01:42:46,616 --> 01:42:52,996
I've put John Ward in goal and then I've played two across the back.
1622
01:42:53,536 --> 01:42:58,436
One's a little bit, well, it's pretty obvious that this guy was probably the
1623
01:42:58,436 --> 01:43:02,256
best centre half, centre midfielder, centre forward that was played in the Isle
1624
01:43:02,256 --> 01:43:04,816
of Man, he's not from the Isle of Man and that's Rob Wakeenshaw.
1625
01:43:05,556 --> 01:43:06,936
I would play him in the back.
1626
01:43:07,522 --> 01:43:11,662
Back see how competitive he is he's picking a team to win this not just to play
1627
01:43:11,662 --> 01:43:18,322
in it he's picking it to win listen listen listen my team is smashing dick at seven,
1628
01:43:19,002 --> 01:43:25,822
let's just get that right so I've gone for Rob Wakenshaw and Johnny Myers and
1629
01:43:25,822 --> 01:43:29,382
the two players that just missed out are,
1630
01:43:30,022 --> 01:43:33,062
Nigel Shimon and Sean Quake
1631
01:43:33,062 --> 01:43:36,382
Solangor Solangor hey listen they might
1632
01:43:36,382 --> 01:43:41,622
make me you sunday dinner on that so going across the middle of the park i've
1633
01:43:41,622 --> 01:43:45,582
got sam kenny who i believe to be one of the most intelligent footballers that
1634
01:43:45,582 --> 01:43:50,342
has played on the isle of man on the right hand side of him i've got nick hurt
1635
01:43:50,342 --> 01:43:53,642
again incredible footballer yeah and,
1636
01:43:55,222 --> 01:43:59,622
reputedly some would say one of the best footballers ever to play football in
1637
01:43:59,622 --> 01:44:03,942
the isle of man certainly the best winger the isle of man's ever seen i put
1638
01:44:03,942 --> 01:44:07,282
chris out on the left hand side and then up front,
1639
01:44:07,402 --> 01:44:12,362
I know Pekka and I know Callum and I know they're great footballers,
1640
01:44:12,982 --> 01:44:17,762
but I've purely just gone for out-and-out pace and that is...
1641
01:44:18,502 --> 01:44:20,542
Oh, for Christ's sake, I've got to sit in now.
1642
01:44:22,142 --> 01:44:25,642
This is good, John Palmer. Yeah, John Palmer it was. It was John Palmer.
1643
01:44:25,862 --> 01:44:28,862
That's what I have. I have memory problems now.
1644
01:44:28,982 --> 01:44:33,522
So, yeah, so it was John Palmer and he's edging out like Pekka and Callum.
1645
01:44:33,522 --> 01:44:36,422
He must be pretty good. Everyone's seen John Palmer.
1646
01:44:36,562 --> 01:44:42,482
But I think when you look at that, and you've got to look at the seven-a-side
1647
01:44:42,482 --> 01:44:45,702
pitch, because we won the seven-a-sides when Chris got to play at the tournament.
1648
01:44:46,482 --> 01:44:49,742
It's all about fitness and open spaces.
1649
01:44:51,122 --> 01:44:57,362
And Johnny Myers and Wakey and Sam and you and Nick, they're all very,
1650
01:44:57,502 --> 01:44:58,622
very quick footballers.
1651
01:44:58,642 --> 01:45:00,562
They're all very gifted footballers.
1652
01:45:00,782 --> 01:45:04,702
John Ward at the back could probably throw the ball, pinpoint it halfway line
1653
01:45:04,702 --> 01:45:10,722
just by throwing it so yeah i think i think that's the ultimate seven-a-side
1654
01:45:10,722 --> 01:45:15,122
team for me that's that's brilliant and i've got actually who manages your team.
1655
01:45:16,219 --> 01:45:21,119
I would also have a joint management, but if I can only have one edging between
1656
01:45:21,119 --> 01:45:24,939
Kevin Manning and Andy Lodge, because Chris has gone for Kevin.
1657
01:45:25,179 --> 01:45:30,699
I think I'm going to go for Andy Lodge because when I started managing,
1658
01:45:30,959 --> 01:45:36,119
I based a lot of what I did on Kevin Manning and Andy Lodge,
1659
01:45:36,279 --> 01:45:40,859
because one was just a mental strength and no nonsense character.
1660
01:45:40,999 --> 01:45:43,859
Kevin, he would run through walls to get what he wanted.
1661
01:45:43,859 --> 01:45:49,639
Andy Lodge great man management person when you look he's a bank manager he's
1662
01:45:49,639 --> 01:45:55,099
a qualified referee he's a qualified top coach that guy's got everything and
1663
01:45:55,099 --> 01:45:55,999
it's better makes Neil Warner,
1664
01:45:56,739 --> 01:45:59,699
he's got some great stories but do you know what it's so
1665
01:45:59,699 --> 01:46:05,619
disappointing that he can't give more time to football because if he did then
1666
01:46:05,619 --> 01:46:10,919
I'm pretty sure he would have got the FC job before me and then if he didn't
1667
01:46:10,919 --> 01:46:14,599
get it before me he would have took it after me maybe you could get Neil Warnock
1668
01:46:14,599 --> 01:46:18,019
to do it never know that would be good wouldn't it Audrey and Warnock
1669
01:46:18,419 --> 01:46:22,419
maybe some interviews wouldn't it some interviews yeah.
1670
01:46:23,559 --> 01:46:29,239
But yeah so it's yeah I've had a fantastic time in football and you know I'll
1671
01:46:29,239 --> 01:46:32,619
talk all day about football and it's just do you know what it's been a brilliant
1672
01:46:32,619 --> 01:46:36,079
chat lads I think it's a great time to end it it's a great point to end it on
1673
01:46:36,079 --> 01:46:39,599
so thank you both for your time thanks very much yeah and obviously Chris,
1674
01:46:40,339 --> 01:46:43,699
hopefully St George's do well stay up enjoy the rest of your season to say hopefully
1675
01:46:43,699 --> 01:46:47,779
senior you enjoy watching football yeah it's going to be some game isn't it
1676
01:46:47,779 --> 01:46:51,859
Union Mills St George's the winner stays up wow history repeating itself 25
1677
01:46:51,859 --> 01:46:56,579
years ago 25 years brilliant all right boys cheers for your time thank you very
1678
01:46:56,579 --> 01:46:58,299
much cheers thank you bye.