Joe Hart and 21 Others (Part One)

...Or more accurately: Joe Hart, Gerard Piqué and 29 others. After reading Colin Shindler's fantastic book covering the fortunes of George Best and the 21 others who took the field in a City/United Youth Cup game in 1964, I dug out my team sheet from the day Shrewsbury Town Reserves took on Manchester United's second string in the Pontins Reserve League on 15th September 2004. 

On a warm autumnal evening, in front of a rusty Gay Meadow Centre Stand that was riotous for a reserve fixture, ran out 31 youths, journeymen, injured first-teamers and footballballing nomads - a group which in years to come would provide four internationals (including a World Cup winner), several players of varying success through the Football League, a player involved in a multi-million pound court case over the brutally premature ending of his career, and of course a significant number who have drifted helplessly through the nether regions of non-league. There are even two Englishmen who have gone against all known wisdom and taken the gamble of plying their trade abroad... albeit at the same club, presumably to have someone familiar to cuddle up to at night.

The teamsheet that day reads as follows:

Shrewsbury Town: Joe Hart, Henry Goh, Jake Sedgemore, David Ridler, David Walton, Martin O'Connor, Ryan Lowe [Ross Stephens], Jamie Tolley, Robert Eggington, David Edwards, Pedro Matias.
Subs: Damien Stevens, Gavin Cadwallader, Gary Price, Marco Adaggio, Liam Murray.

Manchester United: Tom Heaton, David Poole, Adam Eckersley, Paul McShane, Gerard Pique, Floribert N’Galula, Ramon Calliste, Richard Jones, Colin Heath, Mads Timm, Ben Collett.
Subs: Lee Martin, Lee Crockett, Markus Neumayr, Mark Howard.

From Town’s starting XI, all but Hart, Goh, Eggington, and the trialist Matías were regular first-teamers in the 2004-05 season, but as Hart has become England’s unquestioned number one and one of the first names on a Man City team sheet which looks destined for years of oil-fuelled success, Goh and Eggington have sadly fallen from the radar. Right-back Goh was signed by Aberystwyth Town in 2008 in the League of Shrewsbury Town Rejects (known as the Welsh Premier League for sponsorship reasons), but tellingly my main recollection of Henry is seeing him frequent the same under-age drinking establishments as me. Headline writers nationwide have mourned the loss of such a pun-able name from their arsenal. 

As for the striker Eggington... well... an internet search tells me he was a regular in the reserves and youth teams through that season but after that, even Google is stumped. We can only assume that he is hiding in a cave in the Stretton hills somewhere, taking turns with Richey Edwards and Lord Lucan to go for discreet night-time rides on Shergar.

Still, I can proudly boast that the name Robert Eggington does at least stir my memory, and it has to be said that with my obsession for all things Shrewsbury Town around that time this shouldn’t be surprising. As well as attending every home game and nearly all away, I took full advantage of my season ticket to watch many reserve games, and in fact anything at all that happened to be taking place at the Meadow. The pinnacle of this involved the privilege of watching the famous grudge match between Isle of Man Ladies and Shropshire Ladies, but that’s another story.

I explain this not to boast, as if there is anything to boast about spending literally all my disposable income and free time watching gutter-quality football, but to demonstrate that my failure to recall a single memory, not even a tiny small print in the programme or a mutinous mutter in the Wakeman End about any of Damien Stevens, Liam Murray or Gary Price does not bode well for their particular football careers. However, it turns out that the internet is actually a slightly more effective search tool than my memory, and I can report that Stevens is now Shawbury United’s number one, Price is a rock in Hanwood United’s defence, and Liam Murray is a regular for AFC Telford, the traditional feeder club for the League of Shrewsbury Town Rejects.

As for for Town’s remaining benched starlets: Marco Adaggio (above), who as we all used to sing was better than Baggio, suffered from that long held disease of having a fancy foreign sounding name – we all thought he was a continental wonderkid who had slipped through the net at Barcelona and miraculously ended up at Gay Meadow. Everybody was sure he would dazzle Division Three for a season or so before being sold to AC Milan for £10m. As it happened, he made 10 fruitless appearances, all off the bench, before slinking down the leagues where more fans could get excited about his name before being disappointed. Marco now plays for Stafford Rangers, where he seems quite popular, but as Roberto Baggio was playing in the World Cup by his age (23), this does seem a bit of a letdown.  

 

If the Tolleys are the Kennedys of the Shropshire football scene, the Cadwalladers are definitely the Milibands and the last of our substitutes, Gavin Cadwallader, actually made two underwhelming first team league appearances for Town. More significant however is that at the age of 25, whilst still playing in Wales (obviously), Gavin has become a youth coach for Town, a very sensible and commendable move which will surely prolong his career in the game much further than many of his more successful playing peers. Mark Cadwallader, incidentally, most recently played with the mighty Neil Sorvil for Northwich Victoria. Lucky man.

The trialist on show that night is where the continental connection begins. Pedro Matías actually began his career at Real Madrid, playing three seasons for their B team in the mid 1990s before becoming a journeyman first in the Segunda, and then the lower English leagues, notably becoming a cult hero at Walsall. Pedro must have been slightly peeved that one of the handful of opportunities he had to prove himself at Town before professional retirement pitted him directly against a certain fellow countryman...

Gerard Piqué had just signed for Man United from Barcelona using the same legal loophole that Arsenal used for Cesc Fabregas, amongst many others. As a promising defender he made 23 appearances over four years for United, generally being too good to send out on loan (except to Real Zaragoza in 2006) but too raw to displace Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand. 

An amicable return home followed in 2008 for the now-ridiculously low fee of £5m, and three seasons later Piqué has formed a partnership with Carles Puyol for both club and country, creating the bedrock of arguably the greatest club football team of all time. Piqué has added a World Cup winners’ medal and Shakira to the ten competitions he has won playing for his boyhood heroes, earning in a week what most people earn in three or four years. It’s alright for some. But on one night in 2004, he shared Gay Meadow turf with the mysterious lesser-spotted Robert Eggington.

Part Two, which includes the fortunes of Dave Edwards, Paul McShane and many others across Europe can be found here

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