Paddy burned rubber... but is now treading route to glory WALLY MEETS
MIKE WALTERS INSIDE FOOTBALL.. & OUTSIDE THE BOX
PADDY MADDEN once scored a wonder goal at Wembley after he accidentally ran over teammate Dan Burn – strange but true.
Now he is at the wheel of Stockport County’s return to the Football League fairways after 11 years in the long rough, one of football’s feelgood stories of the year.
Nine years on, top Hatter Madden can laugh about the unfortunate manoeuvre that left defensive tower Burn’s foot under the front wheel of his car on the countdown to Yeovil Town’s shock League One play-off final win over Brentford.
But for the 6ft 7in centre-back who became a £13million rock in big-spending Newcastle United’s revival last season, it nearly ended in tyres.
“I had only recently passed my driving test and, as you do, you offer your team-mates a lift after training,” said Madden, who is just two goals short of 200 in club football either side of the Irish Sea.
“Unfortunately, I didn’t notice the door was still open. Dan is a big lad and there was a lot of him to fold into the passenger seat, but I thought he was safely on board and started to reverse out of the parking space.
“Next thing I heard was an angry yell, ‘You’ve just driven over my foot’. I was lucky there was no damage done, apart from maybe a tyre mark on one of his trainers.
“Thankfully he was able to play at Wembley and we both scored to help Yeovil win promotion to the Championship. It’s one of those stories where you can laugh about it now, but it could have turned out a lot worse.
“Dan’s a nice, humble lad and he’s been a terrific signing for Newcastle – their results last season improved from the moment he walked through the door. He’s gone on to have a fantastic career.”
As we assume the position and a new campaign kicks off before most people have even been on their summer holidays, 32-yearold Madden’s prolific career is one of the game’s great anomalies.
Good enough to win a Republic of Ireland cap under Giovanni Trapattoni, he has played nearly 500 games in English football – but only nine of them above the lower divisions.
Watch his supreme finish in that 2013 play-off final for Yeovil, an instinctive hit with the outside of his foot into the top corner, and you wonder why he has not appeared on the pyramid’s upper steps more often.
Madden (above left with winners’ medal last season and above celebrating Yeovil’s triumph with Burn and Marek Stech) raised eyebrows when he dipped into the National League to help Stockport bring the good times back to Edgeley Park, but it proved an inspired move by player and club.
To date, he has delivered 32 goals in 64 appearances, and the place will be rocking for today’s return to the mainstream against Barrow.
Owner Mark Stott, who last month wrote off £7.7m owed to him, has restored pride to a club once drowning in neglect, and manager Dave Challinor – promoted into the EFL two years running with Hartlepool and the Hatters – has surfed the wave like a Hawaii bodyboarder.
Madden said: “Sometimes in football, maybe you have to take a step back in order to move forward again and come back stronger. “I think that’s what’s happened at Stockport.
“When we beat Halifax to win promotion back to the EFL, you could feel the pain of 11 years lifting.
“And when I came here from Fleetwood, some people thought I’d lost a bit of hunger if I was dropping two divisions, but I never thought of it as a backward step.
“This is a club on the way up. Our first game back in the League will be a celebration for the fans.
“But, as players, we want to make a statement and show we’re equipped to challenge for back-toback promotions if we approach it the right way.”
‘When we won back promotion to EFL you could feel pain
of 11 years lifting’
‘I’d driven over
Dan Burn’s foot but then we scored to
go up with Yeovil’