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Your own football ability - how good are/were you?


Big Geordie

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6 minutes ago, JonBez comesock said:

Jamie is my brother and probably no one knows the full story 

 

Yes - He did get mixed up with the wrong people and should of went onto do better things , higher up in the game 

 

He did recover though and ended up playing professionally for chesterfield and scored some crackers, 

 

He had some great years at youth level for England ,  most notably setting up the winner for Michael own against Brazil / Ronaldinho was playing.

 

I played for Newcastle for 5 years from 94-99, 2 years YTS , 3 years pro 

 

Mostly Reserves , I did make the squad for a Uefa cup game  v Monaco , but was left out as the 17th man. 
 

Biggest Highlight was probably scoring against York reserves , winning 2-1 with John Barnes scoring the other. 

 

Ha, no way! I was at that game. I've still got the programme from when I went down to Wembley with the middle school. Think it's in the loft but IIRC it's Michael Owen, Ronaldinho and Wes Brown in there that ended up pro. 

 

 

Edited by Kid Icarus

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15 minutes ago, JonBez comesock said:

Jamie is my brother and probably no one knows the full story 

 

Yes - He did get mixed up with the wrong people and should of went onto do better things , higher up in the game 

 

He did recover though and ended up playing professionally for chesterfield and scored some crackers, 

 

He had some great years at youth level for England ,  most notably setting up the winner for Michael own against Brazil / Ronaldinho was playing.

 

I played for Newcastle for 5 years from 94-99, 2 years YTS , 3 years pro 

 

Mostly Reserves , I did make the squad for a Uefa cup game  v Monaco , but was left out as the 17th man. 
 

Biggest Highlight was probably scoring against York reserves , winning 2-1 with John Barnes scoring the other. 
 

 

 

 

 

Same youth team as David McMahon, who I've played 7 a side with a few times. Still got it.

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4 hours ago, Doctor Zaius said:

You don't realise how good professional players are until you play against one. We had a lad play for our uni team for a semester who was also playing in the Finnish top tier. He was ridiculously good.

I played 7 aside with Gary Madine a good few summers back. Thought he was a lower league plodder when you see him on TV etc. He just oozed class and his touch was like nowt I've seen. Was probably not even playing at 25% either

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Think some kids being genetic freaks is what separates them at times, like 

 

The mate I mentioned was still class, but he was also naturally built like a brick shithouse and towered above us at the age of 13.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by TBG

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Decidedly average. Started off playing up front as a kid as I was quick. I remember being through on goal frequently and having no idea how to finish. Played for my school mostly on the bench as our PE teacher was a dick. Once made me run the line for the whole game after school. We played the year below us as our last game and I scored two and put on two. Had a season with my village team who were shit and finished top scorer. It has dawned on me that at no point were we ever coached anything at all during school [emoji38]

 

Played Rugby up to 16 and played County at that, was invited to Welsh Exile trials and then tore my hamstring a couple of times which took away all my pace. Net result was quite a break from sport. Got back into football second year of Uni. Moved down the pitch to full-back and then centre-half in my second season. Won player of the season for my pretty rubbish college team as a centre half. Not much ability at all, but able to read the game well, interceptions aplenty and good positional sense.  There were a couple of lads who had done very well who I played a bit with whilst at Uni though only on the same side during a tour to Dublin. One lad was a reserve at Wednesday (then in the championship) before he came to uni, head and shoulders above anyone else. The other played youth football to Chesterfield and was exceptionally fast and strong. He now lives in Sedgfield and some of you may have played against him at some point as he plays Saturday and Sunday league.  

After uni spent about 6 years playing 6 a-side as a sort of Moussa Sissoko (athletic, good at transistioning from defence to attack, not much of a goalscorer). Most of the 6 a-side was with Romanian lads most of whom are really very good footballers. This year we have formed an 11 a-side team which is almost exclusively Romanian. One lad played Futsal at the top level in Romania and is probably the best footballer I have played with. One of the younger players recently represented Romania in European 6 a-side and he is also very good. One of our players was on the books at Galatarasy but a badly broken leg stopped that. A fair few of the lads played 11 a-side at the top end of the Romanian football pyramid. Some of the goals that get scored in training are pheneomenal. I play full-back and sometimes centre-back, im one of our older players, one of our most limited players and seemingly constantly carrying a knock. 

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1 hour ago, JonBez comesock said:

Mostly Reserves , I did make the squad for a Uefa cup game  v Monaco , but was left out as the 17th man. 

 

 

 

Is that the one where we played Rob Lee up front?

 

Amazing post btw.

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2 hours ago, JonBez comesock said:

Jamie is my brother and probably no one knows the full story 

 

Yes - He did get mixed up with the wrong people and should of went onto do better things , higher up in the game 

 

He did recover though and ended up playing professionally for chesterfield and scored some crackers, 

 

He had some great years at youth level for England ,  most notably setting up the winner for Michael own against Brazil / Ronaldinho was playing.

 

I played for Newcastle for 5 years from 94-99, 2 years YTS , 3 years pro 

 

Mostly Reserves , I did make the squad for a Uefa cup game  v Monaco , but was left out as the 17th man. 
 

Biggest Highlight was probably scoring against York reserves , winning 2-1 with John Barnes scoring the other. 
 

 

 

 


Sorry if that came across as having a go, really wasn’t my intention. I was trying to say that even amongst the lads in my peer group who should’ve gone on to bigger and better things, they all say that Jamie was the best they’d ever stepped on a pitch with.

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6 hours ago, Lush Vlad said:


Aye. I have had a flick through just now :lol: 

 

Playing against lads that have played higher is always tough. You just chase shadows for 90 minutes and they’re always 2-3 steps ahead. So frustrating.
 

My Sunday league team was quality. 6-7 semi-pro players and a couple that ‘could’ have gone higher. I know everyone says that, mind. Had a massive cigar on in the middle of the park most the game :lol: easy enough with so many good players around you…


Yeah, that classy CB/sweeper in the final I was talking about played for Orient as a kid IIRC but smoked like a chimney at an early age and liked his drugs and rock’n’roll (probably the sex too but I’d hate to assume). Without that who knows what he’d have been.

 

The guy who missed most of the chances in that game was a case in point too. Lovely guy, decent player, nothing special but could run and run - was a marathon runner and pretty quick. Chatting to him in the pub once and found out he’d been playing semi-pro. He said he was RM and was essentially just asked to do very simple things on the pitch, but because he listened, worked hard and was fit as fuck he was pretty effective. 
 

Played in some good Sunday morning teams but I’ll always remember when I worked for Homebase as a teenager. We were challenged by another store to a game and it was only then that we realized we had me and another guy who played for Middlesex, three semi-pros and some very useful other guys. We went 28-0 up at one point (11-a-side, Astro) and the ref called it - I think we’d just started the second half. Only game we ever played - everyone else refused to play us after that.

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Very good till I tore my quad. 1000 kickups, free kicks, pinging a 60 yard ball(my favorite things to do) speed,everything. Used to play centre back but now I have to play as a 10 because you can just float around and pick your spots. But I miss one on ones, picking up the ball early and then  Pinging a 60 yarder to the attacker. 

 

Hopefully surgery in one year. 

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Scored goals for fun as a kid, with right or left foot.

Highlight was playing both for and against Viv Anderson as a kid at Nottingham Forest. He went on to be the first black guy to play for England and I went the other way. I was fast but when I played against him you knew you were in the presence of someone special at a different level.

Had a long lay off from football after those junior years but eventually returned at an ok level and then wound up in the over 40s league, which I loved, and got the player of the season award one year.

My last ever game of eleven a side was playing for a "European all stars" team (;D) against FC St.Pauli 5te Herren in the Millerntor in Hamburg for an anniversary match. Three St Pauli first teamers guested for us. Scored two in a 5-3 loss, put a header against the crossbar to be denied a hat trick and followed up with a barbecue in the stadium and then a good old session around the Reeperbahn. Without doubt one of the best days of my life :)

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2 hours ago, Lazarus said:

 

Is that the one where we played Rob Lee up front?

 

Amazing post btw.

Yes that’s right , Beardsley also had a smashed cheekbone but declared himself fit enough for the bench 

 

I was gutted 

 

Bazza / Paul Barratt made the bench instead of me

 

Sonny Andersen scored

Thierry Henry played 

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Pretty quick left winger, scored goals, moved to centre forward at around 20. Area trials where I was put at FB with a badly sprained ankle-disaster.

 

Won a few things at school and Saturday side won the North Eastern Premier League (80’s).

 

Played in 5 aside teams with David Robinson when he was at Newcastle and Justin Robson (Bryan’s brother) while he captained Gateshead. Played regularly against Garry, the youngest brother (West Brom). Their mother was a right character, she walked onto the pitch to stop our match in what was a league decider we won at Pelton Fell. She wasn’t happy.

 

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1 hour ago, Ghandis Flip-Flop said:


Sorry if that came across as having a go, really wasn’t my intention. I was trying to say that even amongst the lads in my peer group who should’ve gone on to bigger and better things, they all say that Jamie was the best they’d ever stepped on a pitch with.

Ahh no problem 

 

He did have his issues and could of done a lot more in the game 

 

We had a good rivalry growing up trying to out score each other 

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I had City boys trials but Newcastle were at home that night so I went to the match (Notts County 2-2). Doubt I'd have got in, there were 2 better left backs just in our 8 team league (Westerhope/NBH/Chapel area). Like I said earlier, lack of confidence at that age.

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5 hours ago, JonBez comesock said:

Jamie is my brother and probably no one knows the full story 

 

Yes - He did get mixed up with the wrong people and should of went onto do better things , higher up in the game 

 

He did recover though and ended up playing professionally for chesterfield and scored some crackers, 

 

He had some great years at youth level for England ,  most notably setting up the winner for Michael own against Brazil / Ronaldinho was playing.

 

I played for Newcastle for 5 years from 94-99, 2 years YTS , 3 years pro 

 

Mostly Reserves , I did make the squad for a Uefa cup game  v Monaco , but was left out as the 17th man. 
 

Biggest Highlight was probably scoring against York reserves , winning 2-1 with John Barnes scoring the other. 
 

 

 

 

You’re David Burt?  I remember you as a player.  Excellent winger.  Mind, I probably saw you and your teammates more often than Keegan did … (happily, times seem to have changed re chances for the young players)

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8 hours ago, Doctor Zaius said:

You don't realise how good professional players are until you play against one. We had a lad play for our uni team for a semester who was also playing in the Finnish top tier. He was ridiculously good.

 

Yep. 

I was never any good at football, I had some decent skills, could head the ball well and score goals, but a chronic lack of fitness held me back.

When I was about 16, me and a load of mates spent the school holidays playing 11 a side games on the school field. 

One day Wes Saunders, (who was from the next street to me and nothing special as a schoolboy) and Nick Pickering, both a couple of years older and on the fringe of the first teams at Newcastle and Sunderland, were playing snooker in the Centre next to the school field, so they popped over for a kick about, one on either side.

Some of the lads I played with were decent level, played for the county etc, but those two absolutely took the piss. Saunders I remember dribbling past literally the whole of their side (living in Boldon, it was loosely Newcastle fans v. Sunderland fans) before smashing a twenty yarder in, that took the goalie into the back of the net with it.

Couple of years later and he had his best game for us (ironically, given that his dad is a massive makem fan) against Sunderland in the Beardsley hat trick derby.

 

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