Stoke striker Lee Gregory on his long road to success
FOOTBALL was once just beer money for Jamie Vardy and Lee Gregory.
They played together as part-timers at FC Halifax, scored a lot of goals, went out and had a drink.
“Jamie wouldn’t do anything for 88 minutes and then all of a sudden, bang, bang, bang he’d score three. It was like ‘this guy is something else’,” says Gregory.
“He would just look not interested and next minute he’s scored three and we’d go into the dressing room and Jamie’s got a beer out and I’m saying ‘Where’d you get that from?’.
“Then it’s ‘It’s Saturday night. I’m going out’. That was the story every week. Jamie would pop up with a goal. Terrific.”
Vardy is now a Premier League winner, England international and household name.
Gregory is new to Stoke this season from Millwall, looking for the goals that will improve the Potters’ terrible start to the season.
Improve
He keeps in touch with Vardy, drops him a text when, as he puts it, Vardy has done something good in a career, like Gregory’s, that has been a success despite rejection.
Gregory listened this week as Stoke announced their plans for the Great Sleep Out to raise funds for the homeless.
Lou Macari, a man with ribbons of medals from Celtic and Manchester United, was there for the charity he runs, The Macari Centre, which houses the homeless sleeping rough on Stoke’s streets.
Macari asked Gregory for a selfie, which took him back a little, but was perhaps recognition of what Gregory, like Vardy, has had to do to turn rejection into history.
Gregory is a qualified electrician and there was a manager of a Non-League club who offered him all the contractual work at the ground if he’d sign for them.
That’s what life was like then, not as tough as life on the street, but hard.
There was Staveley Miners Welfare in the Northern Counties League where Gregory played as a part-timer so he could have a Saturday night out.
There was Sheffield United who let Gregory go at 16 years old, destroying his dreams so badly that he admits he fell out of love with football.
There was the rebuild and a move to Mansfield Town where again Gregory’s future died and he went on loan to Glapwell, a club that no longer exits, and scored six in one game against Willenhall Town in the Central Midlands League North Division.
There was the goodwill of his friend, Shaun Howitt, who was at yesterday’s game with Fulham, in giving Gregory time off from his electrician’s job to talk to MK Dons, Crawley and, finally, Millwall where success, if late, found him.
“I’ll tell you what’s taken me aback,” says Gregory. “It’s what I’ve just seen in this presentation about the homeless.
“Yes, I’ve had setbacks but I’ve always had a roof over my head. I can’t relate to how hard it must be for people on the streets we’ve heard about.
Amazing
“It’s horrible to see but it’s also amazing to see what these guys at the club and at the charities are doing.
“I didn’t know Lou Macari as a player but I know of him of course and here is a man who is giving something back. He’s done his career, looked round and gone, ‘right, I need to start giving back now’.”
The Big Sleep Out is entering its fifth year and Macari has been one of 200 spending a night in the concourse of Stoke’s main stand raising money.
He goes out on the streets in the early hours looking for the estimated 200-300 who don’t have a home and up to 20 at any one time using the street as a bed.
“I didn’t see the point in doing this if I wasn’t prepared to go out and see it for myself,” says Macari. “After I’d spent
night on the a