Chris Wood’s old coach on his junior years and best EPL season to date

Chris Wood playing for Nottingham Forest, and as a junior coming through the ranks in New Zealand. Photo / Photosport

One of Chris Wood’s former coaches says he is not at all surprised by the Kiwi striker’s career-best form this season, and remembers his early years in Cambridge and Hamilton “scoring goals just for fun”.

Wood, 33, became Nottingham Forest’s leading goal-scorer in the English Premier League (which has been running since 1992) this month, has also been in stellar form for the All Whites, and has been nominated for the Sportsman of the Year at the Halbergs.

The fan favourite is on track to record his best season yet in England football’s top flight, having scored 10 goals from 17 games for Forest, including at Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge.

Napier-based football coach Norm Rose coached Wood for a short period at the Hamilton Wanderers reserve team when he was a teenager.

Rose was also involved with him as a junior, as Wood played in the same academy sides as his son.

He said he was a “seagull” in front of goal from a young age and had a knack for finding the back of the net.

Rose said his first memory of Wood was in the junior ranks playing for Cambridge, when he’d go up against his son Jono’s team, from Hamilton.

“Every time we played against Chris I said ‘look guys, he is just going to stand around the penalty area and wait for the ball to come to him and he’ll score, every time he gets the ball he’ll score'.”

In 2004, the Mike Groom-coached Alegria football academy took two teams from Waikato to Auckland to play in an international junior tournament.

Chris Wood (right), aged about 13, with Jono Rose at the Auckland-based Wyners Academy. Photo / Supplied

Rose helped manage the “red team”, who included his son and future All Whites Wood and Marco Rojas.

Wood was injured in the first game and ended up on crutches, but still had to be convinced he could not play because he was eager to get back on the pitch, Rose recalled.

Rose said a couple of years later, while coaching the reserve team at Hamilton Wanderers, fellow club coach Roger Wilkinson identified Wood to come to the club (from Cambridge FC).

Rose approached Wood’s dad, Grant, because he had got to know him and his wife, Julie, through football over the years and he said they were a really good family.

“I just went and asked his dad if he would like to play at a better level,” Rose said.

“Grant said ‘yeah, I’ll talk to him' and Chris jumped at it, he wanted to go, and said ‘I’ll play in a big team like that'.”

Chris Wood in action for the All Whites. Photo / Photosport

Rose said he performed well in the men’s reserve side to start the 2007 season despite being only 15, and soon earned call-ups to the first team.

“He went really good, he was scoring goals just for fun,” Rose said.

“He had a real uncanny knack of when a defender came for him he did a little hop – he’d hop that way, hop against the defender, then hop away again.

“He’d do this quite a few times. He’d just hop and this bloody defender would just get sick of him.

“Things like that stick in your mind.”

Football coach Norm Rose has recalled what Chris Wood was like as a young player. Photo / Gary Hamilton-Irvine

Rose said he could still recall when Wood came off the bench for the Wanderers' first team with about 30 minutes to go, against Te Atatu, and shook off a defender before getting on the end of a free kick.

“He did that little dart, dart, dart that he does, and he came inside the fullback,” he said.

“[The ball was played] in and Chris just stepped across it with his left foot and put it in the bottom corner straight in the back of the net, at 15 years old. It was an amazing game.”

Wood went to England soon after to pursue a trial with West Bromwich Albion (with a brief return to New Zealand) – and the rest is history.

Rose said he was not at all surprised by his terrific form this season and wished him well.

He said as a teenager, Wood was quiet, non-aggressive and intelligent, and it would be interesting to see what he did after his playing days.

“I can see him becoming a technical director somewhere because he has vision and I think he will be one of the mainstays at some big club.”

Gary Hamilton-Irvine is a Hawke’s Bay-based reporter who covers a range of news topics including business, councils, breaking news and cyclone recovery. He formerly worked at News Corp Australia.