KING ROB IS A TRUE KS LEGEND
WHAT does loyalty mean to Rob Tolfrey? “Kingstonian,” comes the instant reply from the club’s new record appearance holder, who played his 558th game last Saturday to make Ks history. “They’ve been loyal to me whether it be the managers that have come in, they’ve all given me a chance. They’ve been loyal to me through tough times as have the supporters so I show it back.
“It’s just worked. Me and the club have just worked for a long time and long may it continue.”
The 34-year-old goalkeeper has an appetite for the game of an 18-year-old, says Kingstonian manager Hayden Bird, which has helped keep him going for so long.
Tolfrey has been the Ks number one ever since Alan Dowson signed him back in 2009 and that season is largely why he’s still at the club.
“They were struggling and Dowse signed seven or eight players around the time I came in and we ended up getting in the play-offs,” Tolfrey says. “We lost to Boreham Wood in the final and ever since then it stuck with me that you want to put it right.
Opportunities
“A few years later we got to the play-offs again and lost to Hornchurch. That was another one that made me want more. “Sometimes I wonder should I have gone and tried a higher level? I’ve had opportunities but I couldn’t pull myself away from the club. Unfinished business is the phrase I used a few years ago and I still feel that now.” Bird is Tolfrey’s seventh different manager during his 12 years at the club which has had its fair share of false dawns, turmoil and a ground move. The one constant has been the dependable goalkeeper in lime green that’s barely missed a game, is meticulous with his preparation and very rarely falls below his standards.
“If anything you want it more now because your time is running out,” says Tolfrey, a roofer by day. “I still love it. I still love being a goalkeeper. I still love the grind although sometimes it’s hard going training twice a week, I love being around football, talking about it, watching it. “After having two seasons of the pandemic I had to make a decision, do I carry on giving everything to football or do I concentrate on my career out of it?
“All the time my body
allows it, all the time I’m hitting the levels I want to be, all the time I’ve still got the hunger to want to go and train, giving up every Saturday, that’s the next test within myself, how much can I push myself ? I enjoy playing with this manager and this team I don’t see why anything changes now.”
Tolfrey is well-respected by his current and former teammates whose opinions of him range from legend
to “absolute gent”. Before his record-breaking appearance, Bird played a video made up of messages from the likes of Dowson and others congratulating him on his achievement before the team warmed up in t-shirts with his face on. Non-League goalkeeping legends Alan Julian and Lee Worgan also sent their wishes on the morning of the game which meant the world to Tolfrey.
One moment, though, back in 2015, was out-of-character when he jumped into the terraces to confront an opposition supporter which made national headlines.
“A lot of things were said at the time that weren’t true,” he said of the incident which led to a seven-game ban. “It was one of them where you find the strength within yourself to keep playing football or you walk away because of the all the bad press I got about it.
“I just listened to people around me who said stay quiet. Myself and my family know what happened and that’s all that really matters.
“You have to be mentally strong sometimes, it can be a lonely place, sometimes you feel like you’re letting people down a lot.
Strength
“Not long after we played Margate and I remember making a few saves. I thought that showed a little bit of strength inside me to go again, I was pleased with that.” Tolfrey looks back fondly on reaching the FA Cup second round in the first curtailed season and Kingstonian have now translated that form to set the pace in the Isthmian League Premier.
It would be a fitting time for Tolfrey to finally achieve his promotion dream, but his aim for the club, though, is more long-term, for it to keep on improving and find a home of its own. “Sometimes it hasn’t been easy,” he admits. “When you haven’t got your own ground it’s very hard for a club to be settled. One thing that hasn’t changed is the board has stuck together and with the manager now they’re all going in the right direction.
“I know how my brain will work: we’d get promoted and I’ll want more, I’ve given it 13 years why am I going to stop now?”