Where to start? Most would say “From the beginning” so, why not? My Name is Ross Jackson, I am 24 years old and I am the manager of Maidenhead FC. But, to get to know ‘where’ I am coming from we have to dive a little deeper. Picture the scene of Hayes in Middlesex in the very early 90’s, i was a young boy at this stage and my Father and his good friend Ray Fitzgerald created a football team for kids, they named it “Manor Cubs FC” (later named Manor Youths FC in post 2000). I was the first Goalkeeper for the team. We first started to train in the sports hall at Hayes Manner Secondary school, then moved to practising in the fields of Dr.Triplett’s Primary School before eventually acquiring rented land in Harlington in a dilapidated club house with a football pitch, after renovations were completed, the Club house was renamed “The Moat”. Manor Cubs went from a small youth team to one of the biggest youth clubs in the Middlesex area, quite an achievement some would think.
A couple of years had passed; Manor Cubs had won many youth tournament competitions ranging from 5-a-side to 11-a-side competitions. In one entire season I had only conceded 6 goals and I actually scored 4 (1 penalty and 2 headers from corner kicks and 1 free kick). This hadn’t gone totally unnoticed, in fact at a few competitions and league games was the same man, I had no clue who he was but I would soon enough. I soon found out that he was actually a Scout for Charlton Athletic and eventually i was approached for a youth contract for Charlton Athletic. Everything was looking up and i was well on my way, my dreams becoming reality.
A few years had passed an I was now 16, My family had moved to just outside of Reading in Berkshire and my mother would drive me to training. The date was the 12th of April 2002, the day that would change my life. During a training session, a rather hardcore session, I spent the majority of the day practising against free kicks and corners and unfortunately landed awkwardly on my wrists. I had broken both my wrists and my football career was pretty much over as a player. I spent the following months in a depressive state until my wrists had recovered, I tried to continue goalkeeping for Charlton, but my wrists were evidently too weak to continue. I was let go and I returned home, not in the best of moods as one could imagine. Still, this wasn’t the end of my football days, thankfully.
A year or so had passed, i was almost 18 by this time and concentrating on my AS levels at college. I went to the recreation ground after one particularly hard day of college with my football, just to do some practising and have a general kick about. There was another Youth team having a practise session, which i thought was odd as they usually practise on a Saturday or Sunday morning. So i went over and started to talk to one of the coaches and quickly found out it was an emergency practise session due to a youth tournament coming up and they wanted to win it, which is admirable. I told the coach of my credentials and my past experience and he was more than happy to bring me on board as a fellow coach, the team in question being the “Twyford Comets”. Not quite as good as Manor Cubs many years ago.
They had foreign exchange programme with a Dutch team called “R.K.U.V.C.” who were based in Ullestraten near the Belgium border. It was mainly exchange of youth players to gain experience from the other team, as one may expect. This even extended to the Coaching staff and I took full advantage of the situation and moved to Holland for a few months, gaining insight on various tactics and teaching mechanisms. I of course helped them out where I could and I even helped them gain the local league cup. Still, time passed and I had to leave and I returned to Twyford Comets and stayed until I was 21. The years had passed, my live was advancing and football and participating in it was quite quickly drifting away.
June 2009, I was 23 by this time and what a time for me it was! I sat in a pub in Maidenhead with a group of my friends drinking away the Sunday afternoon. One of my friends, who we shall call ‘David’, passed the local news paper and in my less than sober manner, I checked the job section as I had been made redundant a month or so earlier. Low and behold, the Manager spot at Maidenhead FC was vacant and I decided for laugh and being slightly drunk to apply for the job. I thought nothing of it and dismissed it almost instantly. That is, of course, until I got a call on my mobile phone. On the other end was the chairman of the club no less. I thought my friends had pulled some sort of prank on me, but this wasn’t the case. So the interview was set and all I had to do was attend, I would be a fool to turn it down because if I wanted to get back into the football world, this would be the bridge to get me there, irrelevant of the team or their stature, we all have to start from the bottom at some stage, this was no different.
I pulled up in my Vauxhall Vectra, unfortunately it was made in 1997 and not one of the new fancy types, it barely got me there, it barely got me anywhere, it was always on the verge of dying on me. I stepped out of my car, straightened my Tie. I sat just outside the Chairman’s office for a good 15 minutes, which felt like a life time. I answered his questions with confidence and told him of my background and everything that lead up to this moment. He was impressed with my coaching abilities from my youth team coaching experience. But let us not get ahead of ourselves, I knew they were desperate and they knew it too. They hadn’t received many applications for the spot and the other applicants had less experience. It seemed to have been my lucky day, they offered me the job and quite a low salary, but that was to be expected.
This was the beginning ..
{Stay tuned for all the nitty gritty stuff to be posted soon..}
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