Academy trio relish new challenge

BOOST FOR THISTLE: Fresh from a British football academy with high hopes for the future are (from left) Liam McMenamy, Brandon Josling and Jay Matthews, who add to Thistle’s playing strength for the Pacific Premiership. Picture by Paul Rickard

FOOTBALL

GISBORNE Thistle start their Pacific Premiership campaign next weekend with three imported players signed from a British football academy.

Jay Matthews, Liam McMenamy and Brandon Josling arrived in Gisborne this week.

They were put in touch with Thistle coach Garrett Blair by Pulse football academy director Paul Seaman, who takes squads from New Zealand to England each year to give players a taste of the professional environment.

Nineteen-year-old centreback Matthews, 18-year-old striker McMenamy and 19-year-old rightback Josling have all come from the Pulse Chertsey Football Academy in Surrey.

Pulse Chertsey signs players aged 16 to 18, continues their education and gives them training as players and coaches. Pulse organises football for them, too, at clubs such as Hartley Wintney FC, who play in the Southern League Premier Division South, a semi-professional league in the south of England.

Overseas placements are also arranged — USA, Australia and New Zealand are popular destinations — and the players are encouraged to train local youngsters.

Pulse academy director Seaman already knew the football landscape in Gisborne. In 2017 he picked Campion College student Riley McMenamin for a New Zealand selection who travelled to Britain, and last year Gisborne United’s Josh Adams, Lytton High School’s Matt McVey and former Campion student Ian Cutler made a similar trip.

In his playing days, Englishman Seaman had been a midfielder playing in the New Zealand Football Championship for Auckland City and Waitakere, and had become friends with midfield opponent Matt Hastings, who played for Waikato and Hawke’s Bay United. That connection proved useful when Hastings coached Gisborne Thistle in 2017, and the opportunity arose for a promising player to make the trip to England. McMenamin had been in the Thistle first-team squad that year.

Now the player migration — albeit temporary — is going the other way.

The English trio will stay in Gisborne with Isaac HughesThe English trio will stay in Gisborne with Isaac Hughes, now that his previous lodgers — South African cricketers Graham Hudson, Matt Crampton and Bruce Kerr — have left.

Thistle coach Blair is hoping for a boost from the new players, who could get their first taste of Pacific Premiership football against Maycenvale United in Hastings next weekend.

Central defender Matthews — a Liverpool and Steven Gerrard fan — aims to keep fit, make a big difference to Thistle’s defensive line and play as much as he can during his stay.

Striker McMenamy is an Arsenal fan whose all-time favourite player is Thierry Henry. His aim in Gisborne is to beat Josh Adams’s 2018 tally of 32 league goals and be the “golden boot” of the competition.

Rightback Josling supports Manchester United and his idol is Ryan Giggs. His own aims are to stay fit and be part of a defence keeping a minimum of eight clean sheets.

While in Gisborne, the trio will look to run an academy of football.

They all hope to become professional footballers but if that does not happen, they would like to coach.

While they have only just started their stay in Gisborne — set for seven months — they already say they like the idea of returning to New Zealand every year to play football.