Striker Adebayo Akinfenwa, 32, of AFC Wimbledon, comes to mind.
"If you're up against players like him you just have to stand your ground," Gould says, adding the Mark Yates-coached Cheltenham Town were playing well but not getting the results they deserve. The club is in 13th place in the 24-team league with six wins, four draws and six losses.
Northern Irish international Trevor Carson is the club's No1 gloveman.
"He's very, very good. He's a bit of a burglar," he says of the 26-year-old who is a product of the Sunderland academy as well as representing Bury and Portsmouth.
"Trevor can play until he's 38 or 40 so if you get a chance you have to play really well," says Gould who has played four games for the club reserve team who have a win, two draws and a loss record.
It doesn't get any easier in the reserve grades because players often drop from the first team to accumulate game time.
It's a far cry from the ASB Premiership in New Zealand but the former Hawke's Bay United player reckons his stepping stones all add up, including his stint in the National Premier League in Western Australia.
"Hawke's Bay United were very good last summer so I have to thank Chrissy G [ex-coach Chris Greatholder] for the number of games I did," he says of the national summer league that kicked off last weekend under new coach Brett Angel who will lead his team out at Park island for the first time this Sunday.
He emphasises ex-Bay United defender Aaron Jones, with Greatholder's help, had signed a professional contract in Norway.
"He's deserved that success as well through Chrissy G's good work ethics last summer."
Gould, who has lived in the Bay for nine years, lauds coach Yates who signed him after Gould's grandfather, Bobby, a former EPL player/coach, contacted the club for a trial.
"From there he liked what he saw ... he's a very good manager so, hopefully, we'll perform for him and the club this season," Matthew Gould says.
Although he was visiting England sporadically over the years, Gould still finds it hard to adjust to a metropolitan existence.
"I'm not used to the traffic in a big country. You don't have the road to yourself with a 104-car traffic jam."
Nevertheless, returning to England was always on the agenda.
He was close to signing last year but his physique wasn't quite there although in the multiple of three-year plans making it professionally at 23 was the goal.
He salutes City Fitness instructor Brendon Campbell for helping him put on 10kg in a bid to become a better goalkeeper.
He's found the last six weeks physically demanding, having to do the "extras of a second goalkeeper".
"I was a little tired but I'm getting a lot better.
"I'm always ready to take the next step so I'm waiting for my time.
"I've got a start now so I'll just have to push on," says Gould, who hits the motorway with a club mate at 7am for gym sessions, general training with the squad before specific ones with the goalkeeping coach until 2pm.
It's back to another gym of his own volition in the four-day training schedule with Wednesdays off.
It's no different with human traffic on game days when crowds of up to 5000 is a buzz and a far cry from the smattering of fans at Bluewater Stadium in Park Island or Kiwitea St.
"I left school a year earlier for this and I'm loving every single minute of it.
"Mum and dad are the reason where I am today."
Whether he'll reach the giddy heights of his father and grandfather, only time will tell.
To put things in perspective, he points out his younger sister, Louise, who is studying media/broadcasting there, recounts a visit to a school as part of her course.
"She asked 6-year-olds what they want to be when they grow up and they said they wanted to be like Beckham and Ronaldo."
The $1 billion football industry, he hastens to add, is a cut-throat one.
"The lower leagues are spending big on foreign players here so football is very different to Australia and New Zealand."
