Soccer: Angus savours his moment in the sun

Nuneaton Borough's seasoned centre-back Terry Angus ponders his professional career, the summit of which was his contribution to the start of Fulham's renaissance 10 years ago.

"My most memorable moment?" With an infectious laugh, he declares: "The night Robbie Fowler near-murdered me.

"I think he got 10 years for that. Yeah, after the game, the police arrested him for The Attempted Murder of Terry Angus."

Sensing that occasion may not be at the forefront of this observer's memory, he adds: "He scored five against me in the League Cup at Liverpool in 1996. The Kop threw tomatoes at us ... that's another story."

Where Angus is concerned, there are other stories and not too many rotten tomatoes. Last weekend's 1-1 draw against Steve McClaren's "Big Borough", 100 places above them in the pyramid, is one. Tomorrow's replay against Middlesbrough at the Riverside will be another. And there was that afternoon at Carlisle the year Fulham got promoted. "They were hot favourites. But we beat them 2-1 and went up. It was the greatest feeling."

Angus works by day as a schools career adviser. Saturdays are for football.

"My work day runs from chatting to someone who wants to talk about their dog's death, to bullying issues," he says. "It can also be very serious: sexual abuse, criminality, drugs; anything a 13 to 19-year-old will go through in their life."

So, what's his case-load today? "Next, I'll be going round to some kid's house. If he's in, he'll be smoking pot, but he'll try to hide it."

Then it's on to an appearance on local TV. It's that kind of week.

He surveys the muddied pitch at Nuneaton where he and his team-mates defied logic and contributed to a treble of West Midland non-League pre-eminence, representing something akin to a Bermuda Triangle for League and Premiership clubs, with Nuneaton, Burton Albion and Tamworth uncannily all within 15 miles of each other.

Angus was born and raised in Coventry, where he lives with his wife, Donna, a BA stewardess, and son Dion, 11, who has been signed up by the Sky Blues' Academy. "My mum and dad made sure I grew up with a sense that 'whatever you get, you've got to work for'. I'm just turning 40 [yesterday] and I'm still playing football when I shouldn't be.

"Maybe I clung on to a dream that I was never going to realise, but I've worked hard in my football career, my personal life and my work life. I left school without a lot of qualifications, but I worked damned hard."

Self-education has been a preoccupation since he began doing a course in "fitness and nutrition, touched with a little bit of psychology" during his final season at Fulham, one which culminated in the Cottagers' promotion to the then Second Division under Micky Adams, but which signalled the conclusion of his own League career.

He had started out a striker. "Then, at 16, I cut my Afro hairstyle, and it all went wrong. I was like Samson." He converted to defence, and things looked more auspicious. He was signed initially by VS Rugby, and from there created a favourable impression at Northampton.

"But what always let me down was my mentality," he confesses. "I don't mean that in terms of work ethic. It's just that I had an 'it's nice to be here' attitude; I didn't have that professional ruthless streak which you see in top-flight players like Owen, Beckham, Lampard and Gerrard.

I did, eventually. If it had been 10 years earlier, I know I would have played a lot higher than I did."

That quality, combined with an almost blind fury whenever he has encountered racism, have occasionally transformed an engaging character into a forbidding one. He speaks of post-match rows with rival spectators who have abused him. Fortunately, few players these days descend to such taunts as one former Cardiff defender whom he "hated with a passion".

"He called me a black nigger something or other. I heard my dad's voice in my head saying to me, 'You're not going to let him get away with that, are you?' I saw the player in the bar and said, 'I'll rip your effing head off' and went to chin him, but I was held back by other players."

Angus arrived in his non-playing career having been involved with the Prince's Trust, helping ex-offenders and working in youth justice. "I'd love to do is work for the Professional Footballers' Association, at lower-League clubs, and giving young players some kind of direction."

He regrets what he perceives as the shift in young people's priorities. "Life now is about bling and drugs," he says.

"That's their way out of a poor upbringing. Sport is maybe secondary now. It's a shame. Now - and I look at it from a black perspective - to get out of the ghetto you've got to hustle. That's why I believe Rio Ferdinand, who came from the inner city and did make it in sport, is a positive role model."

Considering the longevity of his career and his work with children, should not Angus perhaps be similarly regarded? He smiles. "I just want to take all this in now, because this is my moment."

- INDEPENDENT