OLD’S MISSION
Defender Steven Old on Morecambe’s fight to prove the doubters wrong
STEVEN Old doesn’t mind that Morecambe aren’t one of the first names on supporters’ lips.
Admittedly, the Lancashire seaside town was not really an outpost where the globe-trotting former New Zealand international expected his career to take him, but he’s revelling in being a part of Jim Bentley’s underdog army.
For the second season in a row, the Shrimps find themselves scrapping to maintain their League Two status. But, with plenty of games yet to come, the 32-year-old believes you write off he and his teammates as small fry at your peril.
“We don’t talk about it (being underdogs) at all really, but you hear interviews from other people, especially on TV, and we’re not the ones that are talked about first and foremost in the league, are we?” said the defender.
“From a lot of people that I’ve talked to, I believe they get the feeling that Morecambe shouldn’t be in the Football League in some ways.
“We’re a team that sticks together and, inside the dressing room, in all the players’ minds, we should be a lot higher than we are currently sitting.
“There are so many easy points I can think of that we’ve dropped. I’m talking about lastminute penalties that we’ve missed, conceding late equalisers.
“We’re in the position we are in but we can do a lot, lot, better. We know we can.
“I enjoy playing at Morecambe. We’re the underdogs going into pretty much every game and we’ve got something to prove every week.”
Experience
In keeping with his surname, Old has plenty of experience behind him, having played in the Australian ALeague and the Scottish Premier League with Kilmarnock, as well as having spells in China and Sweden.
Internationally, he has 17 caps for New Zealand and was in the All Whites’ squad for both the 2008 Olympics and the 2009 Commonwealth Games.
Despite all that, the current campaign with Morecambe, whom he joined last summer, is his first in the EFL.
“It’s a bit of an eyeopener for me. I knew it was going to physical and tough,” said Old. “Players that I’d played with before who have played in the league said, ‘it’s going to be tough and there are a lot of games’ but until you’ve played in it you don’t really know.
“You don’t understand how strenuous it is on the body over the Christmas period as well, but I enjoy every minute of it. I like the challenge of it every week. “It’s a physical league, which has probably suited my game better than most other players because I’m a bigger, taller player. “I’ve got teammates in the Morecambe team that have played their whole career in the league and have got 400 appearances – and that’s an amazing accomplishment in itself.” Old’s willingness to travel is summed up by the fact that he has lived in Newbury with his wife Kim since 2012 and now commutes multiple times a week to the north west.
The defender, who has an infant son named Forrest, also has plenty of sporting pedigree in the family.
His father, Geoff a former rugby international played 17 matches, including three Tests, for the All Blacks between 1980 and 1983.
A round ball, not an oval one, proved to be his calling, however.
“At the time, he wasn’t fully professional, but there was a little bit of money,” he added. “It’s one of those things where you’re from a sporting family. I could have played rugby but I wasn’t good enough!
“It’s nice to be in sport and follow in his footsteps in a different way.”