Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
MAX From topplin Reds to trag best friend, ace Carl on 10 years acr
CARL WINCHESTER says he carries cherished memories of his best friend James Moore everywhere with him as he tries to be the best footballer and the best person he can be.
The 26-year-old ace, flourishing once again in midfield for League Two promotion hopefuls Forest Green Rovers, lost his closest childhood chum suddenly in the summer of 2017.
In the wake of the tragic passing of Carrick Rangers player and father-ofone Jerry Thompson, another young man who felt there was no way out, Winchester paid a moving tribute to football-mad Moore, a fellow Celtic fanatic who was his and twin brother Jude’s closest friend growing up.
Indeed, his Whatsapp profile is a poignant picture of Moore, digitally altered to show him looking down over his friends and family as they follow his funeral cortege.
The Willowbank man was a hugely popular figure in his west Belfast stomping ground, and like everyone close to him, Winchester was rocked to the core by his death, to the point even where he considered jacking in football and returning home.
But with the support of his nearest and dearest, and acknowledging it would have been the very last thing Moore would have wanted, Winchester resolved to soldier on.
And two-and-a-half years later, with his star on the rise once again, he’s thankful that he did.
“Sometimes my mum has to remind me how well I have done because sometimes I can take it for granted,” said Winchester who has been in England since he was 17.
“When you think of the amount of players who go to England and then go home again and some of them don’t even play football anymore, it’s scary.
“So to still be here, I’m buzzing and you need to be strong mentally. I remember at the start, all my mates were out all weekend and you had to sit in digs but that’s the sacrifice you have to make.
“You’re sitting in digs thinking, ‘Is this going to be worth it if I don’t make it,’ but I had a good family and good friends behind me and they kept pushing me and kept pushing me.
“Don’t get me wrong, there were some breaking points. The worst I ever had was when I lost my best mate when I was at Cheltenham – James, me and our Jude were inseparable.
“That was one of the worst times of my life, I felt like quitting football but then I thought he wouldn’t have wanted that, he definitely wouldn’t have wanted that, so I stuck at it.
“And next season for Cheltenham, I ended up being made captain and flying.
“It’s not always going to be easy, it’s not always plain-sailing, there are ups and downs.”
Winchester was spotted playing for Linfield Swifts against Glentoran by Oldham scout Tony Philliskirk back in 2010 and invited over for a trial, impressing enough to earn a deal where he joined his countrymen Ryan Burns and current Linfield star Kirk
Millar in the youth team.
He made his first team debut that same year in the FA Cup against Accrington Stanley before firmly establishing himself as a fans favourite in the 2014/15 season, a standout campaign for Winchester where he walked off with the player and young player of the season awards.
Since then, as he says, his fortunes have fluctuated, with his seven-year stay at Oldham drawing to a close in 2017, followed by two seasons at Cheltenham, the second one as captain, before he switched last summer to neighbours Forest Green, where he feels he’s been back to his best.
And the stats would appear to bear that out, with Winchester’s 91 per cent pass accuracy this season the best in the division..
“I think I’m playing my best stuff now, as well as that one season I had under Lee Johnson in the 2014/15 season,” explained Winchester.
“At Oldham, I was on the scene really early at 17, made my debut in the FA Cup but changes of management kind of stalled it.
“When I was at Oldham, in seven years I think I had nine managers and you’re not everyone’s cup of tea.
“So I broke in really early and played games here and there, but it was when Lee Johnson came in that I really done well.
“But he ended up leaving at the end of the season, a new manager comes in and you’re just like, ‘Ah no, here we go again,’ and you have to impress a new manager, and then they bring in all new players that they like.
“So it can be kind of hard that way, and that’s when my career sort of stalled.”
Recalling that outstanding season five years ago, Winchester added: “I remember coming back in pre-season and I was thinking about going out on loan to get some playing time.
“But that pre-season, he ( Johnson) called me in and said I’d been playing that well, that he couldn’t drop me and I just took it from there.”
If those personal accolades are among his proudest achievements in the game, undoubtedly his biggest moment arrived when current world and European champions, the multimillionaire football aristocrats of Liverpool were famously cut down to size in the FA Cup by Oldham in 2013, with a certain skinny, fresh-faced teenager from Belfast prominent in the giantkilling.
“Liverpool was definitely a highlight in the FA Cup,” said Winchester, who was called up into the Northern Ireland set-up a couple of times in 2011, gaining his one and only cap against Wales.
“I played against the likes of (Steven)
Gerrard, (Luis) Suarez,
(Raheem) Sterling – he’s flying now, he was playing that day – and Brendan Rodgers was the manager and I’m a big
Celtic fan.
“So that was one of my