RUSHDEN DAYS ARE FOREVER WITH ME
It was criminal how they destroyed a special club
This week, I’m taking a trip down memory lane for a player who was great on the eye with an old-fashioned boot.
ANDY, FIVE YEARS RETIRED... WHAT YOU BEEN UP TO?
I have always been interested in going into coaching once my playing career ended so I started in women’s football. This gave me lots of experience and the opportunity to work with senior players, the likes of Steph Houghton and Sue Smith. Since retiring I have worked through my coaching badges and I am now working as the Foundation Phase Lead Coach at Accrington Stanley Academy.
YOU MADE YOUR NAME AT RUSHDEN & DIAMONDS IN THE BACKEND OF THE 90S. TELL US MORE ABOUT THIS ERA?
The club was phenomenal. I joined at 16 years old as part of the first ever full-time youth team and I will always consider myself very fortunate to have gone on to play 333 first team games and win two promotions with the club. The Conference-winning season was unbelievable. As an 18-year-old, I broke into the team and the following season we lost in the League 2 play-off final. The season after that we won League 2, so in my first full three seasons it was full of highs. The spearhead of it all was Brian Talbot, who was an unbelievable manager and such an incredible character. His planning and organisation was meticulous and as a young player you had trust in him. Alongside him he had great coaches and people in Terry Westley, Cyril Lea, Jeff Vetere, Steve Spooner, Stuart Naylor, Alan Hodgkinson and legendary physio Simon Parsell. The facilities at Nene Park were out of this world and this was all down to the chairman Max Griggs who is a very special man. We had some outstanding players; Paul Underwood was top drawer, Onandi Lowe was unplayable for two seasons and the club’s youth system produced players like David Bell, Lee Tomlin and Simeon Jackson, who all went on to have great careers in the Football League and Premier League.
WITH A BIT OF INTEREST DUE TO PERFORMANCES YOU SIGNED FOR OXFORD UTD IN 2005. HOW DID THIS MOVE COME ABOUT?
When Max stepped down as chairman of Rushden there was about 18 months of speculation of me leaving the club. I was very close to and should have signed for Swansea City (my agent put paid to that move) and then came close to joining Northampton Town, Swindon Town and Southend United. I eventually joined Oxford United, due to the fact Brian Talbot was now their manager. It was a move that in hindsight never really worked out. Brian left the club soon after I joined and Jim Smith took over. We finished second in the Conference, but really should have won it quite comfortably. I publicly attributed our failure to gain promotion that season to Jim Smith and that’s something I stand by to this day. I enjoyed my time at Oxford United though and probably played the best football of my career.
YOU RE-JOINED RUSHDEN WHERE MONEY WAS NO OPTION. WHAT WAS THAT SPELL LIKE?
Jim took me into the office at Oxford’s training ground and told me Rushden wanted to resign me. As it happened, I’d already met Garry Hill, so I immediately agreed to return. Although there was lots of talk about money, I actually took a 50% pay cut to go back to Rushden. Garry was a crazy character. He never took a training session and would only appear on the training pitch now and again usually to ask his assistant Kevin Hayles if he had any loft space for storage or Simeon Jackson if he wanted to buy a car from his show room. But his man management was excellent and I really enjoyed playing under him. The board unfortunately wanted to be more involved and never allowed Garry to do things his way. Whilst there was a good group of lads, such was the lack of care from the club’s board and owners that it was only ever going to end one way. Allowing the club to go under, Kettering Town to move into Nene Park and eventually having the ground demolished completely sums up the type of person who was allowed to own the football club.
YOU’RE ONE OF THE MOST TECHNICALLY GIFTED PLAYERS I’VE EVER PLAYED WITH, WAS THAT DOWN TO THE OLD-FASHIONED ASICS TESTIMONIAL BOOTS YOUR WORE ALL THROUGH YOUR CAREER?
Thanks Russ! I’ve always liked the old-school boots in favour of the thin, plastic numbers that are worn more universally today. Asics Testimonials were an incredible boot, but as I’ve grown older and my feet have grown uglier, the wider fitting Puma Kings have been like wearing slippers! As long as they got me a couple of nutmegs a game, I didn’t mind!
WHO’S BEEN YOUR BIGGEST INFLUENCE IN FOOTBALL?
Brian Talbot and Terry Westley were massive influences over me, especially as a kid at Rushden. I never really excelled through the youth team, but when Terry joined the club, he installed a self-belief and confidence in my own ability and that took me to another level. Brian then gave me the opportunity to play first-team football and improved me as a person and a player. I owe him a lot. David Town was a big influence on me as a person, also. We became good friends when he left Bournemouth to join Rushden and he influenced my personality a lot. Chris Hargreaves also brought me out of my shell at Oxford, he was a good guy and is still a good friend.
BEST FOOTBALL TALE?
When I was at Oxford, we had a Northampton car school and one Christmas, after a midweek game, we decided to have a Christmas night out. We had a few drinks, and in the early hours were walking through town when Rob Duffy decided to borrow a bubble off the top of a taxi. He gave it to me, I put it on my head and was running round town with a conga line of about 30 people shouting taxi. Unfortunately, the driver didn’t see the funny side.. the full story is in Chris Hargreaves’ autobiography!