Growing Up

With having a professional in the family, football has always been in my blood. I was born in the same year that Martin joined Arsenal and Arsenal were the club I followed. I went to Barclay Junior School in Leyton and represented the school team as captain. As I got older I moved on to Norlington Secondary School where I continued to make progress with my football. I played for Walford Forest and at the age of 12, Wimbledon expressed an interest in signing me. However I had also promised to play for Redbridge – who played in a Sunday league, and Wimbledon wouldn’t allow it.

At the same time Norwich, who had two scouts based in the South also contacted me. I decided to take a look at the facilities and club, and spent some time up in Norwich during the school holidays. I was impressed, the facilities were good, the people were friendly and relaxed. The club offered me a two-year schoolboy contract and I had little hesitation in signing. A number of group I joined with has since played first team football or are still in the game with other clubs; Jason Shackell (Norwich), Roy Massey, Ian Henderson. Whilst on schoolboy forms the family moved out of London and into Wickford in Essex where I joined Bromfords School. As well as the school team, I also turned out for the Basildon and Brentwood district team – in addition to Norwich.

Although I’d have liked to have made more progress during my Norwich career, I did make a number of youth team appearances whilst I was still at school and Bryan Hamilton, the Norwich manager at the time had one or two good things to say about me.

I signed a three year YT contract in August 2000, and made a number of youth team appearances that season. However, Nigel Worthington came in and replaced Hamilton in December 2000 and obviously had a different opinion of me.

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