Revitalised Searle keen to take his big chance

Charlie Searle is back loving his football again and ready to seize his ‘unbelievable’ opportunity.

The former Pompey Academy prospect swapped Wessex League Premier Division outfit Baffins Milton Rovers earlier this summer for National League South side Hawks.

Searle is currently settling into life at the club where he played earlier in his career and becoming accustomed to three training sessions per week.

As well as battling Ross Worner for the number one jersey this season, the 25-yearold, below, has taken on the role of goalkeeper coach for Paul Doswell’s side.

Indeed, it’s quite the turnaround for someone who had stopped playing completely prior to last season having lost his love for the game.

In fact, Searle has twice taken the decision to step away from football – first in the summer of 2019 after a spell at AFC Portchester and then again having returned to the game with Bognor.

But it was a call from Baffins assistant boss Danny Thompson last summer which persuaded Searle to get the gloves back on.

Shortly after joining, he was appointed club captain by manager Shaun Wilkinson, featuring 14 times for Rovers in last season’s coronavirusblighted campaign, and he’s now aiming to become a regular for Hawks as they bid to push to reach the National League again this term.

Searle said: ‘I had a bit of a bad time playing-wise and I stopped playing completely and that’s when I went to Baffins at the start of the last lockdown.

‘I was enjoying it (at Baffins) but just for other personal reasons it suits me what I’m doing now.

‘In terms of coaching now, working with Ross Worner is just unbelievable because he’s been there and done it and he’s a great lad as well – we got on really well.

‘In the long run I want to get my badges and do all that, but we work really well together. There are some other keepers who come in and we just give each other ideas and put on sessions. It’s really working well at the moment.

‘You’ve got to enjoy what you do and it just makes it so much easier because there’s such a good group of lads at Havant now and the gaffer has been fantastic for me and supporting me.

‘Working with Ross every day is something you can’t turn down if you’re 25 years old and still want to do a bit.’