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PoshUnfiltered Ep 2: Harry Leonard - The Ups and Downs of Leading The Line · PoshUnfiltered

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_02: Hello and welcome to episode two of Posh Unfiltered.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_02: My name is Phil Adlam.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_02: Once again, I'm delighted to be joined by Craig McAll Smith.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_02: And of course, Craig, if you ask anybody to name the Holy Trinity, in terms of preference, you are either normally one or two Aaron's last.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_02: That's right.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_02: That's always correct.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_02: And we're also joined today by another striking, well, legend in the making, I like to say.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_02: Harry Leonard.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: Harry, thank you for joining the podcast.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's great to be surrounded by two uh very good strikers and me.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um my goal record was dreadful.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_02: In fact, I think I retired at the age of 16 when I got, you know, you get the Clubman Award for just turning up.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Most improved.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: No, not even that.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't even get improved because the level was so bad to start with.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_02: No, I got Clubman for just turning up, and then I thought, you know what?
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_02: I reckon this probably a different career for me.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_02: So I stopped, I stopped at that point.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: But it's interesting listening to you two chat about obviously your time as a player back in the day and obviously how you were just sort of making your way in the game.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_02: But um, I found it quite interesting in terms of the dynamic of how strikers sort of think and operate.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_02: And you said something that resonated straight away, Craig, about chances and missing chances and forgetting about it straight away.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_02: How easy is that to do, and how do you learn to do that from your point of view?
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_02: And and for you, Harry, obviously um the pressure of of scoring goals is something you have to deal with.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: But how do you learn to to combat those those misses?
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: Craig, start with you.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think it's it's it's practice, is putting yourself in that position, uh, missing, kind of feeling that understanding of what that miss feels like, and then moving on because the game moves so fast.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's in as centre forward, sometimes we can get caught in that habit of shooting, missing, and being stuck in thinking about it previously because it maybe it was a good chance and you're annoyed, but you it you have to kind of quickly in that split second understand what you did and then move straight on to the to the next chance.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: You you can't really take into the next one because then that becomes a bad chance, and then it snowballs, and then you it's it's very hard to get out of that.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_02: Have you have you found that?
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: Because as I say, sometimes as strikers, the the hardest thing is you get into the moment of scoring a goal, right?
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_02: But then if you miss that chance, you might not get another one.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_02: How how do you mentally compart compar compartmentalise missing?
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_02: It's a big word that I didn't know I bet in my locker, to be honest.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_03: It's I think it's something I've got a lot better at.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_03: I think growing up I was really hard on myself.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_03: I think I still am quite hard on myself and I do let things boil over in my head and I do think about missed chances, but like you said, Craig, you've got to, you know, you could miss a chance in the 20th minute, you could miss a sitter, and then five minutes later, 50 minutes later, you're gonna have an upper another opportunity, you've got to be in the right mindset to to slap the next one away.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_03: So it's always, you know, you miss a chance, you've got a clean sweep, and and then go again and and hopefully the next one drops in, I think.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_03: Did you find that quite?
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_02: Because obviously um you played in a a posh team that created a a lot of chances, and you were in a a team that obviously had um a whole different mindset in terms of the the players were in different positions, you had George Boyd feeding you, occasionally Tom Lynn, you had a striker sometimes up with you as well.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, when you were, you know, missing a chance, for example, were other players getting on to you?
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: Did you did you kind of just ignore anything they said to you?
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: Because I'd imagine the banter in that side was was quite high.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, they they always give you a little bit of stick, but like you knew within that team you knew chances were coming, and I think it was always that it's always the expectation of having the next chance, whether obviously our team that created loads or a team that doesn't, you've always got to have the expectation that it's coming and it's coming, and you're gonna be in the right spot, you're gonna uh execute the the right way and it's gonna go in.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: I think that having that mentality, which I kind of learned as I got older, was that expectation it's always something is gonna come, it's gonna come, and then as Harry said, that it's being ready for the opportunity.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: In terms of yourself, Harry, I I mean, obviously, there's been times in games where you've had a number of chances.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_02: There might be a game where you just got the one chance.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um, how do you stay alive in in those kind of moments?
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_03: I think just positionally, you're always in that area of the pitch.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_03: So no matter how the game's going, you I I always get chances to be fair, no matter if the half chances or you know sit as one-on-ones, but I just think you've got to be you've got to be switched on all the time, even you know, and when the ball's on the halfway line or when it's bouncing around the penalty area.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's that position where you've just got to be alive and I think it's instinct.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_03: You you've got to your instinct, you know, takes over and it just happens naturally, I think.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_02: You speak about that instinct, because normally with strikers, they always start as a striker.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_02: You know, when I do questions with players and they're they're a centre half, for example, I say, Oh, what's your first position you played?
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_02: They always say striker or winger and they suddenly end up as a centre-half.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_02: You very rarely ask a striker where they started and they say centre half.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_02: It's there's normally a reason why you're in that particular position.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_02: Just talk about the you talk about instinct there in terms of you know not sniffing out chances.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_02: When you sort of take yourself back to sort of teenage Harry Leonard, when did when did you kind of realise that that element of being able to sniff out a chance was going to give you a career that you you obviously wanted from a young age?
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I think obviously when I was really young, I was I was always a strat, you know, when you're a young kid, you're always up trying to score goals and stuff.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_03: But actually, through my academy age groups from about nine till honestly, I'd say about 15, I was always a centre mid.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_03: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_02: You in a centre mid?
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_02: Why?
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_02: How do you how'd you went with that position?
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_02: Sorry, I'm disrespecting the makes me sound like you can't pass the ball, what's going on here?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: No, but I mean yeah, talking about it.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_03: Um quite often I played like as a six, as like a holding midfielder.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_02: It could have been the answer, but it could have been Harry Leonard.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_03: But I always used to score goals, like even outside the area, I'd be scoring from 20 yards, I'd get on the end of crosses, and then when I got to like about 15, 16, when it starts getting a little bit more serious when you're going into your scholar and stuff, uh, I was playing for the under 18s as like a number 10, and then went into my scholar age group, and that's when I first started playing as a as a number nine.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_03: Um so yeah, it's been a bit bit of a different one for me.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_03: I was a midfielder, and then I think playing midfield also helps.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_03: When I went to striker, I knew what midfielder was seeing, and I think it only helps playing playing that position when I was younger.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think sorry?
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Do you like when you're with the instinct in and around the box?
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like, do you think about what you're gonna do or do you allow your body to put you in the positions when I've got the ball or went, say when the ball is where's in the ball isn't around you?
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um Yeah, I think I've got a a vision in my mind where the ball could drop and then it just it happens so quick, like the ball could drop in front of me, I might have half a second to take a shot.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_03: But I just think in training sometimes when you do finishing drills and stuff, it's it's not real.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_03: Like you take a touch on the edge of the box, have a shot, it's not it it's never actually real to a game scenario, whereas it's kind of off the cuff sometimes in a game, you might get a chance where you've never been in that position before and you've just got to react and and let your instinct take over.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_02: Do you know what, Harry?
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_02: It's funny you should say that because when Craig was at Peterborough United, the amount of people said he was the worst trainer, I the worst trainer ever.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_02: Because you you were like that, weren't you?
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_02: Because you in in terms of those those finishing drills, I suppose that's one of the things I was gonna sort of say because you see some strikers and they'll spend an hour after training just doing the same finish over and over again, repetitive, but there's no one near them.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_02: When you do finishing drills, I'm gonna give you a bit of a prop here in your in terms of check out Craig's Instagram, you can see he's been working with strikers during the summer, but you actually replicate what it's actually like in a game.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_02: So you often use sort of mats in terms of pushing people away, and you do angles that you're gonna get in an actual game because there's no chance in in a game where you're gonna go clean through, there's not gonna be no defender, the goalkeeper's gonna stay on his line.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_02: Just talk us through how you do that in your session and and how it kind of equates to what Harry's talking about.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, I I'm gonna totally agree with you.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: I used to hate finishing for this finishing sake because when you do it, it it's you say it's not under pressure, it's easy, you can find the target like and you can consistently do it.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: But the problem is when you get into a game, you're the the height in this of this nervous system, the crowd, the players shoving you, all these different things, you have to still execute while that's happening.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: So, what I try to do is replicate that so I get involved, I'll like push you, I'll I'll make the ball bounce, I'll I'll put you under pressure how it would be in a real game situation.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you can curl it in the bottom corner with no pressure, but I want you to be able to do exactly the same, curl it in the bottom corner with pressure, and I want you to be able to feel the pressure and still almost kind of um take your the pressure away, even though it's there, you know it's there, but you can still execute without like that because it that's what happens, it the the defender makes your nervous system jump a little and then you execute wrong.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what I why I try and make it as realistic as possible because that's what's going to happen in the game.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_02: Do you find that as well though?
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: Because I I I sometimes think that you look at an average training session, you you are working on maybe possession drills, you might be working on the shape element of it.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um, if strikers go away and do finishing drills, it might only be for five, ten minutes at the end of the session, and sometimes it's replicated, it might be a bounce ball where you're shooting, it might be across from the right or across from the left.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but you can never like replicate heading it in from six yards or movement within a box kind of situation.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_02: So is that something that you just have to learn with experience, or do you are you someone that kind of studies other people in terms of their movement and what they get up to?
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_03: I think going back to the training sessions, when you know lads do finishing at the end of the training and they're on the edge of the box and doing a one-two and then finishing stuff, I might have four times a season if I'm lucky, where I'm gonna have a shot from the edge of the box where I've got a good chance of scoring.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_03: So I I'd honestly I'd rather do ten minutes, just someone on the right, someone on the left, and me just like a bit of movement and just like nailing it across a six-yard box penalty area.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_03: Because a lot of the time, I don't know, me personally as a striker, all my goals are mostly first-time finishes.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_03: So when I'm like in and around the edge of the box and I'm taking a touch and I'm trying to whip it and stuff, it's just not realistic.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_03: And I think you've just got to try and make it as real as possible.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_03: I think.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: We spoke to him as we walk in and said like how hard it's become to be a centre forward now.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like when I played, I was lucky that there wasn't like passing around the back, so he's sent defenders always sit high.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: So there's always one-on-one chances.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: I missed hundreds, Phil would tell you how many I missed.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: But but as you said, like now for you, it is now become more specific.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: You need to be in and around the box, and you need to be able to finish one touch, you need to be able to finish in close in close cores with defenders around you.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, and I think that say those those are the more important things to focus on, as you said, rather than kind of it's good to do those uh the finishes like that because it just gets you in technique and it gets you in the rhythm and hitting the net.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: But as you said, it needs to be focused on you and what's going to be like the best for you in the game.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_02: Do you think as well, like as you said about it's harder to be a centre forward?
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I suppose things go around in picks and troughs.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: Like you when I was growing up, obviously, you look at players like Alan Shearer, who were was a striker that's all scored all types of goals, but he often had a strike partner alongside him.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_02: And I suppose that's the nuances of the game now, whereby formations change, whereby sometimes it's a 10 and they're feeding you know balls through to you.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes it's two kind of wide forwards, they're not really wingers, they're they're more attacking players.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I guess you kind of have to adjust your game, right?
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_02: Because if if you look at the the 4-2-3-1, for example, if you're the nine, you've obviously got two wingers out outside of you who are going to be quick.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_02: But also, I guess as a striker, you you only want to make one run, right?
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_02: You don't really want to be making five or six runs to get across get across the man.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_02: So, how do you is that all about relationships for you?
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_02: Is that someone you have to kind of learn how, say, an Edwards is going to be or say a Bolu is going to be?
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_02: Because ultimately that's going to determine whether or not you find the run that's going to be successful.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I just think you've got to be proactive, you've got to have an idea where the ball's going to go.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_03: I think you've always got to think the ball's going to be flashed across a six-yard box and you're there to score an easy tapping, but that's nine times out of ten, that's not always the case.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_03: The ball might pop out to the penalty spot, and you've got to be.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_03: I just think you've got to be proactive and always on your toes.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_03: Um because you can't read people's minds.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_03: You can have an understanding of where a player wants to pass the ball and an understanding, but I think you've just got to be like go back to instinct, like you've just got to be alive and and ready.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_02: Because I think both of you, in different ways, are quite unselfish strikers.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_02: If you look at Craig's game, obviously a lot of balls were played in the channel whereby most people wouldn't get anywhere near, but he never gave up.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_02: He was a bit like a GSL buddy, he just kept going and going, harassing defenders, getting into areas that the centre arts didn't want to be in, and causing problems for that.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_02: You may not get a goal yourself from it, but Aaron McLean will tell you that he scored loads of goals because Craig did all of his donkey work.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_02: And to a certain extent, you're the same, but in a kind of different way.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_02: Because as a number nine on your own, what you've got to do is be able to bring others into play.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: So you have to do that back-to-goal stuff that I guess you can't really prepare for in a game.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_02: You can't do that kind of work because, as you say, if you're doing your striker sessions, you're going to come up against a six foot six centre half or a five foot nine centre half, someone who's going to pull you, push you.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_02: How how on earth do you get into a frame of mind ahead of a game to to think, right, I'm going to get absolutely battered here, but I might not score?
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's a good question.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_03: I don't I don't know how you know it's just one of them things where you you play that many games, you just get used to it.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_03: You know, every week I'm coming up against a six foot five centre half.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_03: It's just one of them things you get used to, and you've got to you know, they might be big, but you've got to figure out ways to use your body um protect the ball, you know, have an understanding players running off you because I'm I'm not the type of player to be a target man and pin a centre half.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_03: I want to be playing first time passes, spinning, getting in the box.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_03: Um yeah, it's it's a good question because I as a kid you don't want to be getting beat up playing football, but that's basically what I do.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_02: And and and that's the thing, and we'll we'll talk a bit more in part two about that because it's it's an interesting psyche of a footballer because you look at positions on the pitch, and nowadays, you know, again, it's it's it's all wide forwards that get all the acclaim.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_02: There was a period where it was tens, nines don't get the glory anymore, and that's probably why there's a a dearth of them where everyone talks about how on earth England are going to have placed Harry Kane.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_02: But we'll talk about that in in part two of Posh and Filtered with myself, Craig McAlsmith, and Harry Lovett.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: Special thanks to Globalt, Larrington ⁇ Co.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: and Hudson Holmes for allowing us to film Posh Unfiltered in the hospitality box.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: Also, don't forget that you can drop our 26-27 replica home and away and third gear in store and online via the Posh Online store today.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome back to part two of Posh Unfiltered with myself, a former Scotland international in Craig McCowsmith, and joined by current striker Harry Leonard.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_02: And we spoke in the first half about all things strikers, all things finishing, the drills you can do, and we were just talking off camera.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um I suppose, Craig, when you were a player, if I was to try and encapsulate, there you go, big word, um, the kind of finish that you were famous for, um, it's really hard because you were someone who scored all kinds of goals.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_02: We joke about one-on-ones, but actually you got really good at them as as time progressed and repetitive nature of that.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_02: What would you say if you if you were to describe yourself maybe to a Harry Leonard now who's sitting there who's obviously can remember the time where you were scoring goals, you're not that old.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but if you were gonna sum up the the sort of patent Cray McHale Smith finish, what do you think it'd be?
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: I was mine was instinctive.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: I was literally like I just knew where to be, and it was just that that first-time finish, or like for some reason I had a great knack of just shining it in, right?
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: And any aspect I I always thought like any aspect of my leg I can get it on target, it doesn't matter, it doesn't have to come off your foot.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: If I can't get my foot on it, I'm gonna get my shin on it.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_02: Listen, the best goal in a in a Manchester Derby was wearing Rooney's overhead kick rat, and he shinned it.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like it doesn't have to be perfect, you just have to call him when Rooney out just in case you want to look like it doesn't have to be perfect, you just have to be on target.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: So mine was always it was instinct, it was just literally as it came to me.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: How can I get it guide it on there?
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like I think not when we had not to count the here, it came over my shoulder and I just tried to guide it back where it came from.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: That I think those were my best ones, and then as I got you said, the one-on-ones, I could then learn to bend it into the far corners, and I'd probably score a weldy here and there.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: But I did I I practice a lot on all different types of finishing because it is there is never not a point when it's an awkward angle, or it's there is always going to be a need for that finish.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_02: Craig Craig's always has been devastated by this for a long, long time because his best goal was probably hold them away, right?
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_02: And unfortunately, in a time where um yeah, VHS was still there, the internet was just a just a fledgling thing.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_02: There was no pitch side videographers getting different angles, you had one angle, and his goal was obviously scored at on the wrong side to where the camera was.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_02: So, in reality, yeah, it was alright.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but he probably will describe it a little bit different.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_02: How about yourself?
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_02: What how would you if you were describing your kind of finish to someone who's never seen you play, what would you say?
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_03: Tapping.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_02: Tapping.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_02: But but I suppose I suppose that's the thing, isn't it, as a striker?
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_02: Like, if you look at the best strikers, they get loads of goals from tappins.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I just think I go back to the first time finishes.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I'd say 90% of my goals are just first time instincts in around the six-yard box to penalty spot.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_03: Um I'd just go first time finish because last season I scored a few from outside the box, a few tappings, a few headers.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_03: So I'd just say first time finish.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because I suppose that's the thing.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_02: We were talking about one-on-ones and the fact that because of the way the game is these days, the likelihood of being clean thrown goal unless a team is really chasing it and they're leaving space in behind, that's not going to happen very often.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_02: And I suppose a one-on-one finish, particularly if you come in, say you say you've run from just inside the opposition half, you've got so much time to think about it, right?
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_02: I'd imagine as a strike in that situation, and Craig, you can you can dip in here as well.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_02: There are so many things you're thinking about, right?
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_02: Because you've got probably four finishes in front of you.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_02: You've got a dink based on where whether the goalkeeper's gonna come out and close the angle.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_02: If he doesn't, you're probably aiming for corners, you can go round the goalkeeper, or you can draw the goalkeeper out and potentially have a teammate to pass to.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_02: So there's quite a lot you've got to think about.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_02: I suppose when you talk about instinct, there's not much instinct involved in there because I guess you you're asking your mind a question constantly as you're running and trying to keep your first touch good.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: Is that is that probably more difficult than it appears like?
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_02: If I look at a footballer and a striker going clean through and go, I said that's easy.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: Just to go the goal to aim at and one goalkeeper, but probably the hardest.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_03: I'd say I'd say so.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_03: I think you've got a lot of people say the more time you've got to think, like, the more you've got to think about because I'd prefer a like an instinctive finish or something like that.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_03: I don't get many opportunities where I am one-on-one with the keeper, so um I think if I was to go through, I just think you've got to stay as composed as possible, just breathe, because you've got more time than you think, more often than not.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah, just I think you've got to have a look at the keeper, see what the keeper does.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_03: If the keeper comes flying out and don't give you much room, you either gotta take it past him, think it over him.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_03: The keeper's on his line, you just gotta try and slot it either side of him.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_03: It sounds easy, yeah.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's not in the moment, it's like you got a lot of th lot to think about, you gotta be switched on.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: I think you're trying to stay out of your head for me.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you know, you watch me go from awful uh one-on-one to to better, and and that it was trying to stay out of my head.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: He was trying, it was because obviously you you'll know as you're going through, there is loads of things going on because the keeper might come, then he might stop, and then you might see like a defender, and then there's a noise of the crowd.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: So it's almost trying to stay out of your head and allow it to kind of unfold as you get closer, and then hopefully the keeper makes a move, and then you can execute from there.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you said about taking a breath.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_02: It's so hard, isn't it, to to do that because everything's going at 100 miles an hour.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_02: Craig, Craig's spoken before about you know, breathing is such a simple thing, yeah.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_02: Probably the hardest thing to do when you're in a moment of real pressure, right?
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, like I said, it the way when you speak about it, it's easy.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_03: But like when it happens in a game, you're like it happens like that.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_03: It happens so quick, so you've gotta just be you know, gotta get yourself into a rhythm, like like saying in training, if you get in them situations, you've got to see it as a game scenario, and then you've just gotta naturally as a striker, you've been in them positions loads of times, you've just gotta do you get excited going through one on one.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you you your eyes light up, don't you?
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_03: Like your eyes light up and you Yeah, but I think a lot of the time that probably isn't isn't the best thing.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_03: You've just got to stay, got a job to do, and yeah.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: I mean that's as you say, that that's the that excitement is like because you you you're just you and the goalie's there's a there's a goal there, yeah, and then that excitement, and then it you say you can then ruin what you're actually doing.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: So it's kind of you say staying calm, trying to breathe through it.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's just staying as as relaxed as possible in that in that moment and almost like you can only pick one option, yeah.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like picking the option, and if you it goes in, brilliant.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: And if you miss, it's just okay, I learned from from that what that happened, and then the next one you execute.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but it's it's always interesting actually, watching your striker things that you do that you don't have a goalkeeper, you actually have a uh a net with corners.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_02: So, for for example, I was I when I saw I know it's not a new thing, and and you know, I'm not saying it's revolutionary and what have you, but I always think that you know when you see a shooting drill and the second choice goalkeeper goes in, I just think I don't really see the point of it because like the second choice goalkeeper is not necessarily going to be making wordies left, right, and centre because they're the second choice goalkeeper and they probably don't want to get injured doing it.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_02: And I often think that those shooting drills are really replicating the bottom corner finishes or the top corner finishes, and in reality, you don't need someone standing there to do it, right?
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_02: If you've got a square square in each corner, how do you how do you see that?
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_02: Or do you think you need a goalkeeper?
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think you need a goalie.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I use that because I don't have one to bring in at this moment in time, but I think having a goalie makes you have to think differently.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like with the targets, it's just like you you're just guiding it in there, but when you start to to obviously get better and better, you I used to start seeing where the goalie like I couldn't see him, but I could see like his feet and stuff, so you'd under you'd notice where he'd moved.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: So having a goalie in there, even if he's the number two, is still having something in there to that gives you a c uh uh to have to make a decision, and obviously putting the chances in the right areas.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I think having a goalie is important.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'd say the net's great because it's you're hitting targets, and if you hit consistently goalies won't save anyway, but I don't know how you feel with yeah, I think 100%.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_03: I think there's been a number of times in a game where it's you you you can't stare at the goalkeeper because obviously the ball's in front of you or whatever, but it's them little like say keeper takes the tiniest step that way, it'll be off balance, and you can just slot it the other way.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_03: I think you've got to have like just have a little glance at the keeper, see what the keeper's doing, and then react off that.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_03: I think keepers you've got to have a keeper in sessions to make it as as real as possible, yeah.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_02: Do you know what always baffles me?
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_02: Like, um there are probably strikers are the the cleanest striker of the ball because obviously you do it, but it's very rare that strikers are free kick takers.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_02: You didn't I think you take any free kicks back in the day.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: I think I took one and I think I'll put it out of the ground.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, and I think KFC is still one to be back, to be fair.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_02: You you don't take free kicks really either.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_02: Is that because you you don't you don't fancy yourself on them?
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_02: You think there's better options, or what's what's the deal?
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_02: I'd I if I was a striker and there's a free kick anywhere near around the box, I'd be thinking that's mine, surely.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I don't know.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: Is that a different skill?
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: I th I think it is.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think I I just didn't have the the ability to get it up, down and back over.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: That wasn't just in my like toolbox of of finishes.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I and then I think there's there was better players than me on my team.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, don't fancy I think any anything in around the edge of the box, but it's the it's just a different technique.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_03: Um the way I strike the ball, I try to get as clean contact as possible, strike it with my laces more often than not.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's more like uh yeah, the dip there's some players that it's just a different yeah, completely different technique.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_02: When it comes to penalties, Grade, we were talking about this um off camera.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_02: You you didn't actually take that many here at Posh.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_02: Your goal record would be phenomenal if you had taken them.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_02: You obviously you were bullied out of them by Aaron McLean and then Lee Tomlin and uh Boydie took a couple as well.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_02: Crane McCann took a yeah, you I mean you you were unfortunate that you were living in an era whereby there was some decent penalty takers.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_02: Where was your mindset on on the spot kicks?
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_02: Did you did you like them?
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_02: Did you hate them?
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's weird that I didn't enjoy penalties.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like and that's what I I for some reason I just didn't I didn't bet myself.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like I I because I most of the time I'd I'd smash it as hard as I could, and I think I did one where I tried to finesse it and it got saved.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I'd never as much as being a striker and having obviously this it's exciting to get one from 12 yards.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't actually I wasn't really that excited by them.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_03: Do you get excited by him?
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I do, but I think you mentioned there you tried to finesse one.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_03: You you said you came to the looting game last year.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_03: Don't know the the ball's like I put spotted the ball down, looking at the ref, just see, and the ball's like moved.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know if you remember.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_03: The winds took it, and obviously I've had to respot it.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_03: And I was just in my head, it was and then I tried finessing it, and I think since then, like never finessing the penalty again.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_03: I'm just like head down, pick a spot and just lace it.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_02: So those little things like the the wind moving the ball, do they make such a massive impact?
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, massive, because I won't I shouldn't really say this, but I had a spot where I was gonna go and I just completely my head just I just went and I I changed my routine, never never side footed a penalty, and it just took over me.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: Once you get in a zone though, yeah, you say you're you're in the zone ready to take it and then it moves and you're you're out of the zone, yeah.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then then you start second guessing yourself.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_03: And then people could say that oh it's a cop out and stuff, but it actually like just messed my head completely.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_02: Because you said, didn't you, in an interview previously, that the that that miss was something that you kept replaying in your mind because it wasn't necessarily a big game or big, big, big moment within a game.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_02: But I suppose those kind of chances, because I think you'd been you'd been missing, you'd missed a few games at that point, and you'd just come back in and you just wanted to get get a goal, you're probably striving maybe too much to get it.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I think so, and I think like I say I put a lot of pressure on myself.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_03: I think someone says you got a shot from 12 yards, just you and the keeper, they'd think fucking brilliant, but it's not as easy as that.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_03: And like you say, I was I think I missed three games.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_03: I had surgery and I was like jumping at the bit, and then obviously I missed the penalty, and it was like the whole world came down on me.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_03: And I shouldn't have you know, we had a game the next week, and I think I scored, so it I forgot about it, but the whole week I was replaying it, and it just it wasn't good for my head, and my missus was going mad because I want speaking to her.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_03: It's mad.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_02: He he comes home now.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_02: I missed a chance, can't speak to you.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_02: No, it's not did you is there a chance you you missed it you always remember?
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um anything like obviously you had so many opportunities to score, but were you someone that if you miss one, you were able to just actually forget about it, or so one that rankles?
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: I think it took time to like to do that because obviously we have lots of chances and I'd miss three or four good chances.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I think over time I just got to the point where it's like miss, I'm gonna move I'll just move on to the next one because they kept coming.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I always and I said I always believed they would keep coming.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I like like you, Harry, I'd would go home and it would it would annoy me that and then I'd have to kind of I'd let it go and then I'd I'd move on.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: But it is it's such a hard thing because it's you you want to help the team, and if it say you miss a chance and they go and score or you end up losing the game from it, you take a big responsibility on yourself because it's like it's my job, I should, I should do that, and so I can understand why you you took it away because I used to take it away as well, so it's a hard thing to step away from.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: But the more you step away from that way, the more freedom you kind of get, and it and I think then that translates to outside life because you're then not actually kind of taking it with you.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we spoke to Craig actually when we had Luke on for the first episode, and we were like, How do you relax?
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_02: And um, and how do you be able to get through the door and completely forget anything that's happened in the game?
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, Craig, you were talking in episode one about the fact that family played a massive part in that, and you understood that once you walk through the door, you had other responsibilities, you had other things that you needed to do.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, we spoke extensively that Harry loves fishing.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um he's the only footballer, I think, that does.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_02: But um, but but sometimes finding a route away from the game is just as important, right?
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 100%.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: I think the fishing is amazing because that's like just clear, clear your head.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's it's an intense world, isn't it?
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like you're in this intense bubble for a long period of your days, and like I found out, you can't you can't take that home with you and then sit in that intense bubble at home and then come back in and then keep performing.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: So it's important that you have something that's completely away from this world that you can then just say become yourself and relax.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously, fishing how is fishing for you?
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what do you get from fishing?
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_03: Like I say, just take take myself away from you know football really.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_03: I think it is so full on that you know, start of the season now.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_03: I've got another nine, ten months of just constant games, training games.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_03: So I think I just go fishing just to just to chill out.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_03: If I wasn't fishing, I'd just be sat on the couch watching tele.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_03: So at least fishing gives me something where I can take myself away from from everything and just just chill out.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_03: Chill out.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: Is it like meditative?
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because it's obviously peeling.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I know I wanted to throw one in as well.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_03: I won't I won't put it in anything.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_03: Fishing is the longest word that he's got.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: I when when I was at Brighton, I started to meditate to clear my head and to to find like just that quiet zone, and obviously I've I've only been fishing a long time when I was a kid, but to sit at that lake and obviously with the peace in the nature, that must be really medicative to and then actually really like completely relax you totally.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, 100%.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_03: And I think it might might sound a bit mental, but when I go fishing, if I catch a fish, it's a bonus.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_03: I'd honestly I'd just sit there for five, six hours and just I just like being on my own, chilling out, and like you say, just you gotta have something where you you switch off and and take yourself away from everything.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_02: He says if he catches anything, it's a bonus, but it soon appears on his Instagram, then it soon appears doing him standing there with a massive cart.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, we'll continue the conversation in part three here on Posh Unfiltered.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_01: You now purchase your tickets for our next two home matches against Stevenage on Tuesday, the 1st of September, and Shefford Wednesday on Saturday, the 5th of September, via the Posh Ticket Office.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome back to the final part of Posh Unfiltered.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_02: Myself, Phil Adlem, Craig McCall Smith and Harry Leonard.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_02: We've been talking about meditation.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I can say the word as well.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and how you it how it is such an important part.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_02: And you know what?
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_02: I was thinking that a lot of things within football, the pressures of football and and how people deal with it, is often not discussed and talked about at any great length.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_02: And one of the things that people take for granted is not just the mental strain, and we've talked about that as well, but actually the physical strain as well.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_02: And if I ever say to any footballer, how fit do you feel?
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_02: I've never heard anyone say 100%.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: So there isn't 100%.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_02: So talk us about why that phrase is such a stupid phrase to us, because you know, you're obviously training every day, you've got knocks, bruises, you know, Harry Harry would will tell us say the same thing.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_02: So when you were playing, did you how close did you ever feel to being what you describe as fit?
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um I was always close.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like and I think there's like there's there was points in game in like in games that I felt like I was at my my best.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the best I've ever felt was that the season I sort of 35 goals was like I literally I took the pressure away from everything.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like I I wasn't I did the gym, but I didn't have like an expectation of it.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: I went out on the pitch, I didn't expect to score, didn't have an expectation of anything.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: I just went and just was really present in what I was doing.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that was the best I've ever ever felt, like playing football.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then all the other times, because I'm in my head, then you you get that one, like we get niggles and nuts, you're like, Oh my, I've got really tight hamstring today, and then the demands that this the that football has.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's only like an hour and a half, maybe, of training, but it is intense, and then you have gyms, gym sessions on top of that, and nothing is half-assed, is it?
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: No, everything is a hundred percent, like you can't half-ass any of it, so you'll you're going every almost every day, five-six days a week at a hundred percent, like the you always you you can you can never really maintain a hundred percent.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_02: Hmm, because that's the thing, isn't it?
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_02: And the people take that for granted, as you say, they think ah, football is the easiest job in the world, they come in for a couple of hours going on the Xbox on the playing fishing or doing fishing or whatever, and and it's not, and and I and I don't suppose anybody can really know what it's like unless they're they're involved in it.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_02: From you from you as a as your young player, um how intense do you find it and and and how do you keep your body I suppose maintained is is the word to use, isn't it?
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's really tough, especially now the the games and the amount of training we do, playing against big centre halves that want to kick you everywhere.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_03: Um I think I come up come home every week and my missus says you've got another bruise on your leg.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_03: And it's like you just find a way to get through it.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_03: How then?
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_03: How do you get through it?
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_03: I just think you've I just think you've got to.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_03: Like I'll I'll have sessions during the week where I'm like feeling something, I'm like, I saw that.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_03: It's sore all week, and I'll get to a game Saturday and I'm like, can't be so today, you've got to gotta play it a mindset thing, I think it is.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_03: You know, you can't go into a game thinking, you know, if there's something seriously wrong with you and you you're in pain, I I get it, but you do get niggles and bruises where you know it's it's not gonna have much impact on you long term, but in the short term it is painful, and you you've just got to find a way to get through it to to play a game.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_02: Because I think as well, like uh I I I take you back to Toby Celeste's when you had that injury, and you obviously it was a really serious-looking injury that obviously Harry sustained, and it was again you talk about physical centre backs, and and obviously you you were you were in hospital.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um I don't know whether your missus was at that game or whether she found out you know that you were going to hospital.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um how was that for you in terms of the scary nature of it, given the fact that everyone thought you were gonna be out for a long, long time, and also the people around you, in terms of how that affects them, maybe seeing it on Twitter that Harry's been stretched off, for instance?
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_03: To be fair, when when that happened, I was like just in a state of shock because I, you know, watched the video back and it's like it's a really heavy light.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know if you'd seen it.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_03: So then you landed on your neck, yeah.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_03: Like landed on my neck, and obviously I I hurt my neck because I'd land I'd landed on my head and my neck's gone like, and obviously the physio's protocol is to like look, just stay still if there's any soreness in the ramp.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm like that for about three hours back of an ambulance in the hospital, not moving my neck.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_03: So everything just stiffened up.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_03: People, you know, family, missus didn't know what was going on.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_03: So it is scary, yeah.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_03: I think something like that is you've got to take all the right steps because if there was something seriously wrong and I'm like they're testing my neck out, it's not you've just got to go down the right protocols and let the professionals.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: How was your when you came back to play the next like the next game?
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: How did you feel with that?
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: Were you nervous within within coming back?
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_03: So I played I played the weekend after.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_03: It was mad.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_03: I was getting loads of abuse off the lad.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_03: She kept saying you can't get stretched off and then play.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_03: But I was just I was desperate to play.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_03: As soon as I the doctor at the hospital said, no, you don't need any scans, like you take some obviously painkillers and and try to get it moving.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_03: A couple days went by, I was like, no, I actually started starting to feel alright.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_03: And I couldn't I couldn't care if I got abused people saying, Oh, you can't go off and then want to play again because I was just in a mode where I was like, I wanna play, I wanna play.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_03: And if you feel alright, you usually play though, yeah.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_02: So is that is that so but with an injury like that though, my my mindset would be like that first header with the you know, going up for a header is gonna be like really weird, and oh I don't know whether I want to do it because somebody might smash me again.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's like yeah, can you I don't want to say work on penalty again.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_02: So can you forget that though?
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_02: Can you can you forget all of that?
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_03: You just gotta get the first one out of the way.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_03: I think with any injury, you just need someone to come up and just come through the back and just edit, and then you're like, right, wake up now, you're you're good to go, yeah, you're good to go.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_02: Because you had a serious injury, didn't you?
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, um, in your career, and and obviously um the way that you played was always gonna have a bit of an impact.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_02: You actually adapted your game a little bit in terms of what you were famous for was that sort of running and non-stop running.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_02: But actually, you you became more of a not a back-to-goal striker, but the technique that was involved in that you worked really hard on.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_02: Is that just talk us through the injury you had and obviously the time of struggle, but also the time of I don't know, adapting adapting your game to become just as good?
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I ruptured my Achilles and I was out for 13 months.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: So that was yeah, that was really hard.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: I just literally turned to push off, went to run, and it just went pop.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so there was it was a tough kind of thing to hear, like because it's only like I I thought it was a couple of months, yeah, and then it was actually like it ended up being 13 months, so it was a like a real tough period.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_00: And the problem you have, you know, when you're like injured, you can't use your leg, you just go and smash the weight.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I ended up getting way too big muscular-wise.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_02: Should try that, shouldn't I?
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_02: Should get injured away.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, so I I worked really hard through the the the gym, and obviously, then coming back to play was like what you said, it's really it's really nervous because you you you're scared that you're gonna put it, you'll push your foot down and and it's gonna pop again.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a lot of like there is a lot I think for people don't realise with major injuries for players to come back is is really nerve-wracking because you just don't know whether it's gonna happen again.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: That you say that first challenge, that that first push-off, some players have come back and then done the injury again.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: So it is it is really difficult, but I as you say I had to adjust, I had to learn how to play a different way.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: My pace and my sharpness wasn't quite there, so I had to really reinvent my myself and learn because it I could have kind of been disappointed that I'm not the same player again.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_00: But I think you have to evolve with with with with how whatever the situation um uh requires, and yeah, it was tough.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: It I think that it mentally it was I think like for you how you like being in and around the team is is it's a great thing to be around the boys and have that banner, but when you're not for 13 months and I haven't missed all my summer, it was it was a real tough place, and then say to think how I had to come back and learn who I was and I wasn't the same player, so then how do I fit into the team?
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_00: There was there was a lot that went on, so it's it is a tough place to be when you get a major injury.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_02: I always think it's a lonely existence, particularly when you're at the training ground, if you're an injured player, and it's not just about the rehab you're doing, it's the fact you then see the players going out to train.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_02: It's probably the the worst thing, isn't it?
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_02: And that's where I suppose you've got to have that good kind of team spirit around you to to lift you because you know if you if you look at any any injured player that's been out for a prolonged period of time, whether it's here or elsewhere, you know, they often speak about the the massive low.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's not necessarily the physical rehab, is it?
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's the getting the mind adjusted to the fact that you're gonna come back, you're gonna come back stronger.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I suppose you know we we've spoken before, Craig, haven't we?
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_02: That there's there's maybe not certainly we're not in your time, maybe it's changing a little bit now.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_02: There's not those people you can speak to to help you with that because everything's physical, isn't it?
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_02: Everything's on the training pitch, but you know, sometimes as a footballer, that head is far better than your foot, right?
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 100%.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_00: Meaning you're in the right mindset, everything everything flows.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's like a I don't know if you do much do you do much to uh work on your mindset.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_03: I think when not so much like through the week and stuff, but when it comes to game day and day before, you kind of visualize scenarios and try to get yourself in game mode pretty much.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_02: I suppose that's the thing, isn't it?
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_02: As a striker, you you kinda you kind of know where you kind of need to be, and then it's just the others helping you out, right?
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I suppose it's the same, you know.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_02: When you're a striker, you scored over 100 goals for people behind, you'll be the first to say you couldn't do it without your teammates, right?
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um I thought he was gonna say that it's all me.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um but as a striker you are already as good as the people around you, right?
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think you you've got to rely on them.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_00: You kind of make the relationships with your teammates, so hopefully they know you're you're what you're gonna do, then you've just say you've got to be in the right position.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_00: And as we said previously, for you now it's it's having to be probably more clinical now than we were, just because with the amount of chances that you get.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's it is it it's but it takes everyone.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_03: I think that's why sometimes I don't know if it's different for me, but I might only get one chance a game, and if I miss that chance, that's the reason sometimes I take it away and I'm thinking about it, I'm thinking could I have done or even not even I've I've had a chance if a ball's like a couple yards behind me, could I have.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_03: changed my just to get another chance.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_03: Because you're not always don't get me wrong, there's a few games where I get three, four, five chances where they're good chances, but you might get one half chance and you overplay it and overthink it.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_00: I think that we get kind of get lost as a forward so in the chances because there's so much more that we actually do.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's it's well as I said like earlier, it's like it's taking yourself away from scoring the goals because we get so drawn into like that's our job, that's what we've got to do, that's our worth, like how we're going to show our worth to people we've got to score.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_00: But as soon as you step away from that and then focus on how do I bring others into the game?
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like how do I occupy the defenders like how do I make all these different moves to create space the goal then eventually comes because you're not actually trying to get to the goal.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's having that contribution not just scoring it's the contribution you can do because as I say it's more designed now for the wingers.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like how well can you contribute in within the team to get them on the ball and then eventually you'll get your opportunity within that.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_03: I think you've hit the nail on the head there I think last season's a perfect example of what you just said the first seven or eight games we've I've said to you multiple times I didn't score a goal and I think that was because I was in my head at the time I got bought for quite a bit of money and I was like we was down the bottom of the league and I thought oh I've got to get us out of this and I was overthinking it and I was like I've got to score today I've got to score if I don't score today like and every game I was going into I was like I was it was too pumped up in my head and then when the gaffer came in I was just like you know clean clean sweep and just kind of took the pressure off myself and that's when I started started scoring goals.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's amazing how our mindset plays such a massive part and we we spoke earlier on actually about I mentioned Harry Kane and everyone's been talking lately about what happens when Harry Kane retires who's going to be the number nine and there is a a bit of a um a question about where that next nine is coming from now obviously historically in England there's always been good strikers there's always been quite a lot of strikers you go back to say Euro 96 and and even year 2000 we had like six seven eight strikers who were nowhere near it in terms of getting in the squad but scored lots of goals in the Premier League so why is there suddenly everyone questioning where the next one's coming from does the people not want to be nines anymore what's the what's the what's the reason for for that question do you reckon people don't want to be nines anymore they want to they want to be the wide because obviously like when you become a striker it's it in in a way it's the glory position.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's you they score the goals that's why you you want to be there now everyone wants to be out in the what wide because that's where the ball is going that's where people want to get on the the ball and score.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why I think then and the way they said the game has gone because it's it's now dropped so deep it's not how it used to be you that you don't have like the Vardis who can like in behind the Agueros like there isn't those kinds of players anymore.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's more focused on the wingers so England if you I think you look at most national teams now they don't really play with the centre forward they all operate off the wide and they can come in they can interchange I think that's what England will probably have to do I don't think there is many out there that can fulfill that role.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_02: Well there's one there coming you know he's still young he's still got chance you know I mean it's it's they're start rolling out but I suppose but I suppose that's the thing when you when you look at the national game as well like you talk about how formations it's all what's in fashion isn't it it's all what's in you know when I when I first started into football people were just playing 4-4-2 just two winners two strikers two southern midfield players fullbacks just stay where they were so they're off just ahead and kick everything out and then then it goes through the you know the years where you suddenly start seeing more intricate intricate players those every wanted to be a 10 didn't they five to ten years ago it's like they want to be the most skillful player get on the ball make things happen but then there's different types of tens right there's running tens there's skillful tens there's there's tens that that want to link the play and and get in as as number nines I suppose that's just football though isn't it it's it's always going to be that case that's why long throws are back in fashion right yeah it just goes in a cycle doesn't it long throws 442 will come back in in ten years time like I just think I think it's you you mentioned like what what's in fashion at the minute young people aspiring footballers they look at they'll watch the World Cup and they'll see Yamal and and stuff like that.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_03: I think Harry Kane doesn't get as as much credit as he actually deserves I think especially from the younger generation I think people think he's on the eye he's he's not the best mover or but he scores goals better than he scored goals better than anyone in the world last year.
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_03: And I think he's I'd say he's underrated he's a probably the best striker in the world but I don't think it's in fashion to be a Harry Kane.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_02: Interesting just last sort of uh question that I'd like to pose to you Craig what advice would you obviously Craig did it at the highest level played in the Premier League played for Scotland Aaron played in the Premier League then he uh look at you you did play Scotland he did have a Scottish name so that qualified you to play for Scotland um but obviously as someone who scored a lot of goals what advice would you give to young strikers not necessarily Harry but i if if someone's coming through now what would you be saying to them?
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_00: Oh that's a really good question.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you I thought no I think it's like it's as I said it's almost like taking it's taking the goals out of it like that's the thing that we we get so drawn into and we get lost in and I think that's when you get in your head because you said like those seven or eight games you were so desperate to score and then you didn't and it and then it snowballs and then and then and you get tense and every time the shot comes and you miss it then builds up as soon as you let go and relaxed and then focused on everything else the finishing came so I think it's like it's how present can you be on the pitch without worrying about scoring how well can you execute the hold up play how well can you execute your run how well can you execute your finish because goals aren't guaranteed you've got a goalie in there who's trying to stop you you've got defenders who are trying to stop you so you are not guaranteed when you shoot you are not guaranteed to score you don't have any control over the outcome but you have control over every other process that goes on.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_00: So if you can keep your process as tight as it can and then and as good as it can and keep replicating that eventually the goals come and then you stay in that and then the goals come and the goals come and eventually you you don't think about scoring you think how how well can I hold the ball up how well can I like do this today how well can I do that and because you know it's going to come and I mean that's it's just being present with what you do and working on those finishes is as you said like as a centre forward now you have to be more um good at instinctive finishes you have to be good in a good in and around the box um so it's it's practising those those things I mean those are those are the most important things I think that I try and work with people to to be well there you go if Harry Leonard scores a hat trick on Saturday it's all down to Harry Leonard and Craig Gar Smith.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's been fascinating listening to the two of you obviously as someone who scored five career goals before the age of under 16 and two of them were arguably own goals I'll I'll take everything that I've learned today and into next year's staff game I will be prolific.
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for joining us on episode two of Posh and Filtered and we'll be back for episode three very soon