Cod Almighty | Article

by Mark Wilson

30 July 2010

Tom is a striker born in York on 14 July 1992, making him (currently) 18 years old. He is described as a big lad by the SNOS, and his Facebook picture confirms that he is bigger than the lad he is stood next to. He was signed following a period on trial in Town's under-16 set-up, at the same time as Jerome Free-Kick and Toby Offside.

Information about Tom is distinctly sketchy through official channels so I thought I'd try to contact him via the marvels of t'interweb and that there Facebook thingy that all the young people use. And blow my red socks off if Tom didn't come back to me by return. What a splendid young man.

Much of the Facebook discussion among Tom and his close friends was based on how knackered he was following a couple of pre-season games and the Woods-inspired new training regime. I have to say that I found that comforting; if a professional player is going to get knackered let it be during pre-season! There was much made of the build-up of lactic acid and how much it hurt. I somehow doubt that was a major topic of discussion during the Newell pre-season. Tom assures me it's getting better all the time.

Putting on my hard-hitting investigative journalist hat, I posed Tom some probing questions so that Cod Almighty readers might gain deep insight into the mind of a young footballer.

How do you think the team will do in the Conference?
"I think the team should do well this year. We've got some really good players in now and if they all perform we should have a good chance of doing really well."

When do you think you'll make the first team?
"Not really sure, hopefully as soon as possible haha... I'll just have to work hard and see how it goes."

How many goals are you going to bang in this season?
"I wouldn't like to put a number on goals yet, just concentrating on breaking through and doing well but the more goals the better!"

Thanks Tom, all at CA wish you the very best of luck for the coming season and I think we can all buy into the maxim of the more goals the better. We hope to see you in the first team soon.