Adam, we are stood at Mount Pleasant tonight and recently you marked a very special occasion with your hundredth game for Marske United. Such a good, important milestone, could you just elaborate on your journey you've gone on so far at the club?

I came from Spennymoor and the first season was the COVID season. So I only played...I think it was only a handful of games. Obviously got abandoned.

And second season, we managed to go up, promotion, won the play-off final, and then obviously this year has been a bit up and down.

Really, we started really well. Obviously Carl left. Someone else came in and just didn't seem to work and then hopefully we can get back and manage to stay up in this league now.

And you mentioned initially coming in. I think if I recall the club billed you as ‘The biggest signing in Marske United’s’ history.

And not only did you live up to that really high reputation, and top billing, but arguably exceeded it with over 70 goals, so far.

How do you summarise just kind of like, how that experience has been since you came in?

Well, when Carl… as soon as Carl rang me, the way he spoke about the club, I wanted to come straight away. He didn't actually believe me at first. Because obviously, I was dropping down. I think it was two leagues and I did have chances of playing in the same league I was with Spennymoor.

I think with teams like Darlington, but as soon as I spoke to Carl I was desperate to come here. So yeah, it was, it was obviously a good occasion for me to come here and. I've done like I say, I've done pretty well, to be honest. Probably could have scored a few more this year, but still plenty of games left and hopefully kick on again and start scoring a few more goals.

And recently the club was honoured and recognised for the achievement of last season. The cup run. The promotion, your own goal records. I wonder if you could just think back to last year and touch upon some of those happy memories.

Well, we all we all seem to talk about the Chester away game. It was like we turned up, it's pouring down. We went down like in a mini bus, and it was leaking in the roof and so we had, I think we had like. 13 players.

And we had, like members of staff on the bench and we obviously beat Chester four nil, they were two leagues above us. After drawing from here, nil nil and I think they had thought they had done the job here, when they got a draw, and once we went down there we beat them.

Then I think we had to go to the Gateshead game when we had like 500-600 fans there. It was like wow, this is surreal this, for this level of football. So they were the two highlights from the cup.

Obviously we had a decent FA trophy run, again like I say this year and obviously the league, to beat your rivals Stockton in the playoff final, for me, it was better than winning the league.

I know people say no, it's not. But to beat your rivals, it's full house at Mount Pleasant, in that way, 2 brilliant goals from Gotty and Connor Smith. So I think that was a better way to go up, to be honest.

And as a team, they performed fantastically, but also upfront you were an integral part of that.

The goals we contributed and also the assists as well, but also specifically in the FA Cup where you were not only Marske’s top scorer, but also the top scorer across the entire country going down to Wembley.

What was that experience like?

Fwaaa…Well, to be fair, I wasn't even nervous, because I thought I've achieved something great here. I just went down and enjoyed the day. I went down with my dad and my brother-in-law, my little nephew.

Two of them Live…He's a Liverpool fan my brother-in-law, so he was happy. I wanted Chelsea win to be fair. But yeah, just the way you got looked after down there. You looked like celebrities, really.

So you just get everything brought to you. You had the best seats, you had free food, free drink, free travel down. So yeah, it was brilliant.

You got to go out in front of the millions of people and just to carry the ball and then to get your trophy off Ian Rush, who's obviously a top top player, scored load of goals in the FA Cup.

So yeah, like I say that's an achievement that not many people are ever gonna get and for me to get that was unbelievable.

And it was such a fantastic occasion. I mean you got name checked by Gary Lineker on live TV, so everyone across the country, will know your name and also Marske United as well.

Thinking back to start of this season, obviously the initial step up and your our top scorer in the league, how have you found that transition? Cause it's a big jump, isn't it?

Well, to be fair I have never actually played at that level. I've played higher and lower, so I've never played in this league, which is pretty weird to be honest.

So I expected it to be pretty similar to the one we've come out of, to be fair in this league you've got to be on your on your game, no matter who you play.

If you have an off day you're gonna get beat.

And obviously, lately we've been having quite a few off days, which has not helped and that's the reason we've been.

Picking many points up. So that's what we need to we know, like we've got so many games left, it's in our hands. If we win a handful, like enough games, we should stay up.

So hopefully we can do that.

And recently, in the last few weeks, it's been a very exciting time for the club with Carl's return. And also Macca, Clarkey and everyone coming back on board to assist Wardy as well.

How have you found that, just getting them back on board, and how have you adapted to their old methods, but also what new stuff they brought back in since they've been away?

Obviously some lads who didn't play under Carl the first time, but I knew what Carl Clarkey and Macca were all about, which is they just want to work work really hard. If you do that every game you, you will come out with the results in the end.

Obviously it didn't work under Curtis. Which happens, and it's happened in other clubs where I've been at, where managers have been and gone and that's just that's the life of football.
Same as players. Players come and go, and that's just the way it goes, I'm afraid.

It's probably fair to acknowledge it has been turbulent times, within the last four months. Not only for the club, but also specifically for yourself.

But one of the things that's shone through is the fan support. So those who've been active on social media, or around the ground, you know, chanting your chants, the number 9 song etc.

What message would like to say to them? Those people who've backed you throughout and obviously brought about that change that has transformed the club in recent weeks?

I love the fans here. The fans are brilliant. I've always gotten on well and I'll sit and have a drink with them after games, win, lose or draw, we'll always have a chat and I think that's why.

You get the respect from the fans, to be honest. With Curtis...it, it wasn't really. I wasn't really saying a lot, to be honest.

It was more like him trying to dig me out and I didn't really want to get involved in it. Obviously a few of my mates got involved, but I was never the...I'm not the type to start an argument on social media to be honest,

I'd just rather keep my head down and let whatever happens, happens really.

So it's kind of just looking forward now?

Yeah of course, yeah. Like I say, I like… I love playing under Carl and all the other coaches as well. So they're gonna give us the best chance of staying up, if we do it.

That its a massive plus for the club, hopefully we've got enough time to do it. Carl gets enough players he wants in, and stuff, so that's that's obviously what we need to do on staying in this league.

Yeah. And you mentioned before, some of the players Carl worked with, but also thinking about some of the like new players who you have been working alongside.

So Eddie who has recently come in, Donald as well. That attacking threat. How have you found working with them upfront?

Yeah, I think Eddie just needs a goal, to be honest. He's he's got a lot of ability Eddie, he's technically very good. He grafts, he grafts his arse off, to be fair.

Like I say once he gets one goal, he could go a little bit of a scoring spree. I think Carl did try and sign Eddie a few years ago. I think he was telling me so. He's not a player, he didn't actually want. So obviously that's good for Eddie and good for the club as well.

And Donald? Donald's very exciting. You know what Donald’s like when he gets the ball. He can win games himself, so we just need to get the ball to him a lot more and hopefully pull a bit of magic out for us.

And lastly, what are your hopes or expectations for the rest of the season? Because we've got 12 games left (11 after Morpeth) , a lot of tough ones, but also some potentially winnable games with a bit of a scrap. What are your thoughts going forward?

I think the fact we've got a lot of games at home is a massive plus. I think when you go away, any team in this league, it's tough and the team we need to make sure we teams find it tough coming here like they used to do.

We went on a run where we I don't think we lost at home going for two years and now we've got into that losing spiral. Now we need to get out very quickly cause if you just keep losing. You're gonna go down. That's. That's how it is.

Yeah. Anyway, cheers, Adam. Thank you very much.

See you later mate!