Mccrory is extending his career close by at Nuneaton
DAMIEN DESCRIBES ALBION TIME AS HIS BEST IN GAME
IT IS more than two years since Damien Mccrory’s time with Burton Albion ended but the fact that he is still remembered with great fondness by supporters is a measure of the man.
Given that current incumbent Tom Hamer is first and foremost a right-back, Mccrory is still regarded as the last Brewer to really make the left-back position his own.
The 31-year-old Irishman, signed by Gary Rowett, had seven years with Albion and endured failed playoff campaigns in League Two twice before being part of the squad promoted first to League One and then the Championship.
Following two injury-hit seasons with Notts County after his departure from Burton, Mccrory is now playing locally again, having signed for Southern League Premier Central side Nuneaton Borough.
Once fierce nonleague rivals of Burton’s, Nuneaton are now battling back after several brushes with financial ruin and current manager Jimmy Ginnelly is also now the owner of the club.
Not surprisingly, Mccrory, who came to England from Limerick in Ireland as a 16-year-old in 2006, regards his time at Burton, during which he made 226 appearances, as his happiest in football.
In an interview with nonleague daily.com, Mccrory says the three managers he worked for – Rowett,
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Nigel Clough – all got the best out of him.
“They were very different managers but definitely did get the best out of me and I looked up to them,” he said.
“Gary Rowett took me to Burton in 2012 and he moved on to bigger and better things but he definitely set the foundation at Burton.
“Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink came in, inherited a very decent squad and definitely pushed us on even further, with training regimes, with fitness.
“Everyone knew exactly what they were doing, what position they were playing.
“Then you’ve got Nigel Clough, who’s very old-school but he knows exactly how to get the best out of each individual and the team.
“Every player reacts to different things differently but, for me, it was a case of I knew when I played well, so I didn’t really need to be told.
“Other people might have needed that ‘well done, you were brilliant’ and that arm around them but I felt like I needed to be told more when I wasn’t doing it.
“If I had a run of games starting and I didn’t get told I was doing well, I wouldn’t mind, because I knew I was doing something right by staying in the team.”
He remembers his partnership with winger Jacques Maghoma on Burton’s left with fondness.
“There was a time at Burton where I was playing left-back and Jacques
They were three very different managers but definitely did get the best out of me and I looked up to them. Damien Mccrory
Maghoma was playing left-wing,” he said.
“The amount of times we destroyed right-hand sides, we linked very well, we knew what each other was going to do and what we wanted.
“He’s predominantly right-footed, so he’d cut in, which used to allow me to bomb on. I thought, those couple of seasons, we really linked up well.”
Asked which opposing wingers gave him the most problems, Mccrory is candid.
“Adama Traoré – when he was in the Championship with Middlesbrough, the strength and speed of him was just ridiculous.
“I knew he was getting past me and I remember trying to just take him out and he just went past me as if I didn’t even touch him.
“I ended up even hurting myself trying to bring him down!
“Another winger, at Bournemouth, Marc Pugh, he wasn’t rapidly fast but he was so tricky and used to chop the life out of people.
“I just never really liked coming up against him, because as a fullback, you’ve got to try and stop the cross at all times and he used to just chop and chop and chop.
“The toughest one I’ve come up against is Sadio Mané at Liverpool.
“We played them in a cup game at Burton at the Pirelli (Liverpool won 5-0 in the Carabao Cup in 2016|).
“He had just signed from Southampton, so no-one really knew what to expect of him.
“Let’s just say it was a game that I don’t really want to look back on and watch. He did twist me inside out a few times but when I saw him doing it to all the Premier League defenders, it did soften the blow a bit!”
Having settled in the area, although he met his wife while playing for Plymouth Argyle, Mccrory is happy that his career has stayed relatively local since joining Burton.
“I’ve been quite lucky and blessed, because I was at Burton for seven years and then went to Notts, so I’ve been around the same area for nearly 10 years, which is rare in professional football,” he said.
“I’m quite settled where I am with my family, my kids are going to school now, so I didn’t really want to move anywhere (after his release from Notts).
“I had quite a few options but they were up north and some down south, London way.
“I weighed it up and I was never going to move there, I was just going to commute, but you were probably talking about 500 miles a week, which I didn’t really fancy.
“When the gaffer at Nuneaton spoke to me and I went and met him, it just fit in with what I was looking for, really.
“With it only being 25 minutes down the road, it was a no-brainer in terms of staying local and being with my family all the time.”
At Notts, knee injuries kept him from playing as much as he would have liked and, with lockdown thrown in, he had a difficult time.
“When I first signed, it was great, and then the first lockdown happened and stopped the season,” he said.
“From that moment, I was working really hard with our captain at the time (Michael Doyle).
“We lived quite close so we were going out and running together and doing fitness, because we knew we had a chance of going back and being in the (National League) playoffs.
“From doing the training, I did something to my knee, eventually had an MRI scan and needed surgery on that.
“Ever since that first lockdown, I would say the last year-and-a-bit has been a bit of a nightmare injurywise.
“There have been dark times where I’ve been in that gym and doing rehab by myself and I’m thinking ‘what am I going to do, is this the end, is my knee ever going to be right again?’
“I would say the last year-and-ahalf has probably been the most difficult time in my career but I did stick at it, worked extremely hard rehabbing, and the physios at Notts County were absolutely brilliant with me. They kept me going on a daily basis.
“I managed to come out the other side.
“I was pretty much fit for the last five or six games of last season and it was nice to come on as a sub (against Wrexham in May).
“I ended up doing pre-season with them as well and the gaffer (Ian Burchnall) there was really good, looked after me and gave me the platform to play some pre-season games.
“I believe Nuneaton came and watched a couple of them, so I’ll be grateful for that for a long time.
“The manager spoke highly of the club. He did say when he first joined and took over that they were in real trouble financially and it took him two years to stabilise it.
“By the sounds of it, he’s done a fantastic job there but this season, he said ‘I’ve kept the club afloat, it’s financially OK now and I really want to kick on this season.’
“The aim from the start of the season was to get into the play-offs and have the chance to go up a division.
“He told me about the signings that he’d made and the lads who were already there and it just seemed like the environment that I wanted to be around.
“There was a push to go further up the leagues and, as a player just coming out of pro football, I’ve still got that hunger and bite to do well and have success.
“I was just excited to get involved and be part of it.”