GARY ALEXANDER
Ex-Leyton Orient and Millwall striker looks back on a goal-laden career
WHEN it comes to a footballing education, veteran striker Gary Alexander couldn’t have had it much better.
A scholar at West Ham in the late nineties, his peers were Frank Lampard and Joe Cole, Rio Ferdinand and Michael Carrick.
And even though he never made the grade at Upton Park, the 35-year-old put his training to good use over an 18-year career that garnered three promotions, four Wembley appearances and 184 goals in 570 starts.
Loved by fans at Millwall and Leyton Orient, the striker is now playing part-time for Greenwich Borough while running a property development business.
But he can still remember how it felt to seal a dramatic promotion with the O’s – and connect with one of Paul Robinson’s razor sharp elbows!
FIRST CLUB
I did my YTS at West Ham, then signed pro at 17. I’m a South London boy originally and Charlton was my local club. But they’d only offered me non-contract while West Ham fronted up with the full YTS. It wasn’t even a choice.
Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard were the year above and I had Joe Cole, Michael Carrick, Grant McCann and Richard Garcia in my team. We won the very first Premier League academy league which looking back is no surprise – eight or nine of us went on to have professional careers.
It made getting into the first team tough, though. I was sub three or four times but I never managed to get on and they sold me to Swindon when I was 20.
BEST MANAGER
I’ve been very lucky with managers. In my early days at Hull I had Brian Little. He was very chilled and had a great manner with people.
Kenny Jackett at Millwall is cut from the same cloth, very calm and methodical. Recently I’ve had Richie Barker at Crawley, who I think is a very promising young coach – some of his sessions and methods were really interesting.
But the most thorough was Uwe Rosler at Brentford.You could just tell he’d played in the Premier League.
He wanted every single aspect of the club to be spot on, from the training ground to the warmdown after a match. He’d study the other team for hours and by the time you went onto the pitch you felt you knew everything about them – their strengths, their weakness, how they liked to play.
I got on really well with him, even if we did have to fall out for me to leave. But we’ve seen each other since, shaken hands and he’s been a player so he knows it’s all part and parcel of the game.
BEST TEAM-MATE
I’ve got to go back to my youth team days and say Joe Cole. Back then nobody knows what’s going to happen, whether you’ll even make it pro, but it was obvious to everyone that Joe would.
He had pace, skills and tricks to get him out of trouble. Even at 17 he could do things with the ball that would embarrass senior pros. Since then he’s won almost everything in the game and played for England, so it’s an obvious choice.
FIRST PROMOTION
Leyton Orient in 2005-06. We went to Oxford on the last day needing to better Grimsby’s result to nick the final automatic promotion spot in League Two.
At the same time, Oxford needed to win to stay in the League, so it was a massive game.
It was well into stoppage time.We were drawing 2-2 and Grimsby were 1-0. It was looking bad.
Then our fans started going crazy – they’d heard on the radio that Northampton had equalised against Grimsby. At the very same time we broke forward and scored to make it 3-2. It was the best feeling you can imagine – and the worst for Oxford.
FUNNIEST PLAYER
It has to be big John Dempster. I spent a bit of time with him at Crawley and even managed to wangle an end-ofseason trip to Magaluf with him as well.
When you’re around him you just do not stop laughing – practical jokes, oneliners, some of the things he does and says. If you ask this question to anybody who has played with him, I bet they’ll all say John.
FUNNIEST INCIDENT
This one comes from Millwall. A few of us had arranged to go and see the boxing at The O2 Arena – I think it was David Haye v Enzo Maccarinelli.
We invited Preston Edwards, who is now the Ebbsfleet United goalkeeper, but we said ‘Listen Preston, we’ve got ringside seats and they won’t let you in unless you wear a full tux.’
He was moaning about it all day, saying how he didn’t have one. But he eventually went out to a tailor and got one on his way home from training.
Sure enough, he turned up at a bar next to The O2 dressed like James Bond and we’re all sitting there in jeans and normal clothes – he’d even persuaded his pal to come along and the pair of them were dressed up to the nines. He felt like a right wally.
He was only a young lad so he saw the funny side but I don’t think he was too pleased – he’d spent his win bonus on the tux! He still hasn’t forgiven me for that one.
BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT
Just becoming a professional footballer. When you’re YTS you get to know all the young lads, whether they’re at Arsenal, Tottenham, West Ham or wherever.
You’d see someone play and go ‘Wow, he’s a good player’ – then never see them again. They’d do a couple of years then drift away.
It’s a combination of so many things to become a pro and to have stayed in the game for 18 years is something I’m incredibly proud of.
LOWEST MOMENT
I’ve lost a couple of play-offs and none of them are nice. But the worst was undoubtedly losing 3-2 to Scunthorpe with Millwall in 2008-09.
I’d scored twice to give us a 2-1 lead, only for them to equalise. Then in the last ten minutes I somehow missed a free header from six yards out – an open goal for a Wembley hat-trick that would have taken Millwall into the Championship.
It was pretty painful, and when Scunthorpe scored the winner a couple of minutes later I was incon- solable. Thankfully we went back the next year and won promotion against Swindon.
TOUGHEST PLACE TO GO
I never much liked Lincoln, but I probably liked Macclesfield even less. It’s a tight little ground with a hostile atmosphere. Every time I ever played there it seemed to be a cold Tues- day night and I don’t think I’ve ever had a good game there.
TOUGHEST OPPONENT
I played Everton in the FA Cup and came up against Phil Jagielka and Sylvain Distin. They didn’t even give you half a chance.
But if I’m going on scars, it has to be Paul Robinson, my old captain at Millwall. He used to smash me to bits and I’ve probably got more marks on my head from him than any other player around.
It didn’t matter whether it was training with him at Millwall or playing against him elsewhere, he loved to leave one on me.
He’s headbutted me a few times and elbowed me plenty more. Whenever we talk to each other, we always have a laugh about who will get the first dig in.
There’s a mutual understanding that one of us is going to come off with a stitch.
FAVOURITE PLACE TO GO
It isn’t my happiest hunting ground – I’ve lost on three of my four visits – but it still has to be Wembley.
As a kid it’s the place you dream of playing. So to do that and score goals there is the pinnacle of my career. I’m very lucky – most players don’t get to play there in their career but I went there four times in five years.
I lost and won a League One play-off final with Milwall, then captained Brentford in the JPT trophy before losing the League Two play-off final with Burton last year.
I wish things had gone better, but it doesn’t tarnish the experience of playing at the home of football.
AMBITION
I’ve played football for 18 years. I’ve done my coaching badges. But we all know how hard it is to get back into the game.
Even so, I’d love to one day have a manager’s job at some level. I did the U12s at Millwall for a year and had a little caretaker stint at Crawley where I had the job for a week. Even though I knew I was never going to get the job, it felt like something I wanted to do.
I’ve played in enough big games to have the knowledge of League One and Two, and just to have a chance to manage a men’s team at any level would be fantastic.