Reeves right on target to bounce back
Football may have changed since the 1960s when Damian Reeves’ father Gordon went for a schoolboy trial at Doncaster Rovers with his best friend Kevin Keegan, but the margin between stardom and relative obscurity remains as fine as ever.
Doncaster signed Gordon and rejected Keegan and from then on their career paths went in very different directions.
For Damian, that moment arrived at the age of 20 when he left leeds and had to say goodbye to James Milner, Aaron lennon and Scott Carson, his team-mates at the club he had joined nine years earlier.
Reeves (below) had a spell at Barnsley before disappearing into non-league football and learning his trade as a plasterer, but a determination to play professionally never left him. Nor, it would seem, did his eye for goal. Now 26 and playing for Altrincham in the Blue Square North, Reeves will almost certainly finish this season as the highest scorer in English football. His 43 goals — more than half Altrincham’s total — have all come in the league. Even lionel behind him and dragged it a yard in front with one movement during Saturday’s 1-1 draw with FC Halifax Town at Moss lane, there was no doubt in his mind that goal 43 from 40 appearances was about to arrive as he slotted it past Simon Eastwood.
‘once I’ve got the keeper in front of me in the middle of the goal and both sides to aim at, I’m never going to miss,’ said Reeves. ‘Maybe one in a thousand. That’s just me being confident in my own ability.
‘I try to play in a similar way to Robbie Fowler. I idolised him. He knew how to score goals. That was his type of game and that’s my game. It’s just instinctive. You’ve either got it or you haven’t. You can improve on it but it has to be there in the first place.
‘ This season has been surreal. I’ve averaged a goal a game now even if I don’t score again. People ask me how many of them are league goals and it’s nice to turn round and say they all are.
‘If I don’t do it at this level, I’m not going to get a chance to play at the next level. If you put me a level or two above, I’m sure you’d still get a return.’
A record of 19 goals from 21 starts as Altrincham headed for relegation from the Blue Square Premier in his first season at the club would suggest Reeves has a point.
The prolific striker will continue to juggle football with his plastering work in Doncaster where he lives with his girlfriend lauren, who is expecting their first child. But by the time he becomes a father, Reeves could also be a professional footballer again.
‘At some point there are going to be offers coming in that I’m going to have to think about,’ he said. ‘If I do play professionally again, it will just make it that little bit better that I’ve had something to overcome and got back into it.’