TIME TO TURNER HEADS AGAIN
PERCHED on his bed, Ben Turner is logged into Zoom talking the virtually assembled media through his goal at Wembley – a one-yard goalmouth scramble that pulled Cardiff City level with Liverpool in the League Cup final in 2012.
“It came to the back post, I fouled Dirk Kuyt, got away with it and then nutmegged Pep Reina with my right foot – they’re the facts of it!” Turner laughs.
The 31-year-old Notts County defender is great value for the entertaining hour-long press conference ahead of today’s game under the arch against Harrogate Town.
Among the many topics, Turner talks about the importance of not being fazed about playing at Wembley “just look at the grass, not up”, how the Magpies have galvanised their hurting support, the danger of Harrogate’s high-intensity pressing game, and how he’s neglecting the barbers until after the final.
Turner won promotion to the Championship with Cardiff City and played more than 30 times in the Premier League for the Bluebirds.
And he says helping Notts back into the Football League will mean just as much as that promotion.
“The best place to be in football is to be with a group of people and at a club where everyone is pulling in the same direction,” Turner says.
“I can fully, 100 per cent say, that’s where I’m at. It’s great to go into work every day to that environment because that is what we have. It’s all about the club and the group and can we move forward?
“Then personally, what has become apparent as I’ve become an older player is, I have to put in more work now off the training pitch with recovery, lots of stretching, seeing different people to keep myself able to compete with the lads who are ten years younger than me.
“So I’m doing more than I’ve ever done for less money, less returns, at a lower level. But, do you know what? I love it.
“When you’re young and everything comes naturally and flows, it’s great. But it doesn’t matter it’s not at the level it was because I love being at this place. I love the lads I’m playing with and I believe in the project.
“If that could all come together it would mean as much as when
I got promoted from the Championship to the Premier League. I’ve put more into this than I did to do that. I’d love to do it.”
Turner was the first signing last summer after the club, reeling from relegation out of League Two, were saved at the 11th hour when the only other option was extinction.
Turner says their renaissance started with a tight-knit dressing room under the guidance of boss Neal Ardley, who was a big factor in his signing when he had other options in the League.
Turner hadn’t kicked a ball since December before he returned for last Saturday’s impressive 2-0 semi-final win against Barnet. A hamstring injury had him sidelined for a chunk of the campaign but he slipped back into the back four seamlessly. And getting on his bike in lockdown helped lay the foundation.
“My best friend, Ryan Lynch, from when I came through the academy at Coventry, is mad into road biking,” Turner says. “He said, ‘Get a road bike, we’ll go out, it’s brilliant for burning calories and staying in shape’. So I started going out on that – I’ll tell you what, it’s different riding a road bike from playing centre-back! He’s so good, I was digging in the whole time. It probably helped me out!
Momentum
“We did 65 miles one Sunday morning and I said, ‘This isn’t normal, you can’t be doing this for a laugh’.
“But it was good. It all helped. If we win I’m sure he’ll be texting me saying, ‘That was the road bike’.”
the fans will have to watch from home, the squad know they will have thousands cheering them on.
And he’s proud to be playing his part in the recovery of one of English football’s most famous names.
“When I first signed, we weren’t anywhere near where we needed to be for a football club to move forward,” Turner says. “But at the same time, when I signed, I hadn’t had to endure what Doyler (Michael Doyle) endured, Jim O’Brien endured. I was lucky – I came, I’d heard it was bad, but I knew these lads, I knew the manager and it sounded good. I caught the back end of the shambles, if you like, and was on board straightaway for the rebuild. Other than the first three or four games where it wasn’t happening for us for various reasons – lads hadn’t had pre-seasons, including myself – from that point onwards we’ve steadily gone in the correct direction.
“It’s like the gaffer has said, ‘No one expected you to be here’. It’s very difficult to get promoted back into the League because momentum is huge in football.
“Our momentum was absoWhile
lutely nothing, that much I do know. Because when I walked through the door, the club was on the floor waiting to get up. Now we’re off the floor and moving in the right direction.
“It’s alright saying, ‘Oh if we don’t win, we’ll go again next season’. If we don’t win we will be absolutely gutted because we know how much we’ve put into it and we know how much it means to everyone.
“We’re not going into the game with that, ‘Oh we’ve done well to get here’. We fully know we can win. But so can Harrogate.”