Nicky Maynard scored freely for Bristol City before joining West Ham United and helping the Irons win promotion to the Premier League in May 2012. Now 37 and still playing local football, the striker spoke to Steve Blowers ahead of Sunday's Emirates FA Cup third-round tie at London Stadium...
Winning with Winsford
After retiring from full-time football at the end of last season, I’m currently ticking over with Winsford Town in the Cheshire Football League.
When I look back upon my career, I started out as a kid with Winsford Junior Blues before joining Crewe Alexandra’s Academy and the area really does have a long history of bringing lads through the system.
Winsford Town gives me the opportunity to give something back to the local community and that’s very important after the professional career I enjoyed across almost 500 matches.
Born in Winsford, I’ve known the owner Steve Entwistle for a long time, while player-manager Rob Hopley is also very good friend. My best mate Danny Fox – a former Scotland international – recently joined too.
I’m told that West Ham United is also deeply involved in the community and it’s been great to witness Winsford Town bringing everyone around them together, too.
I’ve managed to play a handful of games for the recently-formed men’s side but essentially it’s a family club that’s really into grassroots football from the young boys and girls teams all the way up through the various age groups.
It’s all about the luck of the draw and being able to show your ability when an Academy coach is standing there on the touchline waiting to spot you but I’m really hoping that I can help some of the youngsters here at Winsford Town climb onto the ladder and get an opportunity to make it in the professional game.
A bridge too far
Joining Bristol City in summer 2008 as a 21-year-old was a massive move for me because it was the first time that I’d ever had to live away from home.
Having been at Crewe Alexandra from the age of seven, the club had been a massive part of my career and Gresty Road was the place where I grew up as a player.
A record transfer fee had also been paid but the £2.25million price-tag never bothered me because that was purely between the two clubs – City and Crewe.
I was just excited to now find myself playing for a club which had just missed out on promotion to the Premier League after losing to Hull City in the 2008 Championship Play-Off final.
My first season at Ashton Gate started slowly but that can apply to a lot of players when they arrive at a new club because they have to settle into their new surroundings, both on and off the pitch.
That said, the bottom line is that you don’t lose what you’ve always been capable of doing and I eventually ended 2008/09 with eleven goals.
When you go through a difficult spell, you always have to remind yourself exactly why your new club wanted to buy you in the first place and, in my second season, I won the Football League Championship Golden Boot after netting 21 times overall and also collected the 2009/10 Goal of the Season award.
Down at Ashton Gate the fans were brilliant towards me and I was loving my time there. Around the south side of Bristol it was mostly the red of City, while across the River Avon in the north, I’m told that it was mainly the blue of Rovers, albeit we never, ever went over the bridge to find out!
Joining City had given me my first chance to move up a level and to show what I could do but when strikers start to hit good form, they’ll always be wanted by other clubs.
By now, a few offers had started coming in for me and, in January 2012, the club agreed to sell me to West Ham United and the rest is history...
Mayn man
I’d played with both David James and on-loan Jordan Spence at Bristol City and when I got the opportunity to move to West Ham, they both spoke really highly of the Hammers.
They’d no need to tell me that I was about to join a big Club because I already knew that and, with Sam Allardyce’s side sitting at the top of the Championship, I was certain that they were on their way to promotion.
I’m not sure exactly how I came onto Big Sam’s radar but I guess that having scored nearly 50 goals in 130-odd games for City, I now had a good track record at Championship level, where I’d finished top-scorer.
Once I knew that West Ham were interested in signing me on deadline day, I didn’t have to be asked twice.
Joining Bristol City from Crewe had given me the chance to step-up and, hopefully, the fans at Ashton Gate then appreciated that a move to Upton Park would, potentially, now give me the opportunity to play in the Premier League.
Coming on as a second-half substitute, I made my debut in against Southampton (1-1) in mid-February and, seven days later, made my first start up at Blackpool, where I got the type of poacher’s goal that I’m probably renowned for, in our 4-1 win.
I enjoyed playing with the likes of Mark Noble and Jack Collison and soon realised that I was at a massive club that had somehow found itself playing in the Championship.
Certainly, West Ham shouldn’t ever have been in the second-tier in the first place.
Although we didn’t achieve automatic promotion, by May, we’d reached the Play-Off semi-finals and, after winning at Cardiff City (2-0) in the first-leg, I came on as substitute and scored a late-goal in our 3-0 victory in the Boleyn Ground return.
I was also on the bench for the final against Blackpool at Wembley, where our 2-1 victory secured that return to the Premier League.
At all big clubs there’s lots of competition for places. As a player, I always hated it when a carrot that could never be reached was dangled in front of me and, although it was my dream to play in the Premier League, Sam was open and honest with me, when it came to my first-team chances in 2012/13.
Players might not always like what they hear but – for me – it’s better to know the truth.
Sam told me that I could stay and fight for my place but, equally, he explained that I’d now also be up against the likes of Andy Carroll, who he’d just signed on-loan from Liverpool, and Modibo Maiga.
I certainly didn’t want to leave but equally I wasn’t just going to sit on the bench taking West Ham’s money.
In late-August 2012, I made my 17th and final appearance – ironically against Crewe – in the Capital One Cup, when I scored my fourth goal for the Club in our 2-0 victory.
A few days later, I joined Cardiff City and having helped to get the Hammers back where they belonged, it was obviously disappointing that I didn’t get a run of games in the Premier League but at least Big Sam had managed my expectations. I admire that in any manager.
I look at West Ham United today and they’ve now got an even bigger stadium and an even larger following than they had when I was at the Boleyn Ground.
London Stadium has clearly enhanced the Football Club and, having won the UEFA Europa Conference League last June, you can only look at David Moyes team and say that he’s got an outstanding top-eight club these days.
Footie to fashion
Sadly, at Cardiff I sustained an anterior cruciate ligament injury in only my third game and that’s massive for any footballer to deal with – you can either sulk, feel sorry for yourself and drown your sorrows or get your head up and fight your way back to being the person and the player, who you want to be.
Thankfully, I was able to regain my fitness and went on to achieve those 500 career appearances, scoring around 170 goals for a dozen or so clubs, during nearly two decades in the game.
After spending last season helping Macclesfield to get promotion into the Northern Premier League, it felt like it was the right time to retire.
Aged 37, I’m presently enjoying my first season away from the professional football and my priorities now lie with my family. I’m trying to set us all up to enjoy a good life.
Back in the summer, rather doing a pre-season training schedule, for the first-time ever, I was able to spend the six-weeks school holidays with them, while we were also able to go to Lapland just before Christmas, albeit I think I enjoyed it more than them!
We’re hopefully going to Barbados during 2024, too, and these are all things that I couldn’t do as a full-time professional.
Alongside my brother-in-law and my wife Tara, we’re developing and promoting our own clothing brand – Milana Studios – and having taken myself out of football, I’m really enjoying learning all about the fashion industry along the way.
Football now revolves around our two sons – the eldest, Camden, is in the Academy at Manchester United while our youngest, Trey, is at Crewe.
Whenever I’m free, I’ll make myself available for Winsford Town but I do try to watch the boys every weekend, if I can.
Obviously, Camden and Trey have both got a long, long way to go if they’re to get the breaks down the line that will allow them to follow in their father’s footsteps and enjoy a career in the game.
Given their ages right now, though, I just want them to go out there and enjoy playing their football...
