Tag: Cheltenham

Goal-getting Chris Iwelumo knew the way to promotion

CHRIS IWELUMO was a promotion-winner with Brighton and Wolves, helping the Seagulls to third tier play-off final success in 2004 and scoring 14 league goals when the Molineux side won the Championship in 2009.

They were two of five promotions he was part of in a remarkable 18-year, 18-club career.

I was at Saltergate on 16 March 2004 when the 6’3” Scot rifled home a 30-yard shot on his debut to extend Albion’s lead to 2-0 over Chesterfield, adding to Guy Butters’ 49th-minute opener.

Iwelumo scores from distance on his Albion debut away to Chesterfield

He’d arrived on loan from Stoke City to replace Leicester loanee Trevor Benjamin, who manager Mark McGhee had hoped to keep until the end of the season, but the terms of his deal didn’t extend to the play-offs.

After that great start against the Spireites, Iwelumo was also on target in home wins over his future employer Colchester United (2-1) and Hartlepool United (2-0) and he got the opener in a 2-0 win at Wrexham.

When Albion did indeed reach the play-offs, it was Danny Coles’ foul on Iwelumo as he charged into the penalty area at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, that earned the penalty from which Leon Knight scored the only goal of the final.

Released by Stoke at the end of the season, his four goals in 13 games for the Seagulls resulted in the offer of a two-year contract to stay in Sussex, but the deal was never signed.

“I loved it there, I absolutely loved it,” Iwelumo told Spencer Vignes, in a matchday programme interview. “I think everyone knew I loved it there and maybe that was used against me contract-wise.

“I was devastated at the time because the whole club was perfect for me,” he said.

The sticking point was Iwelumo’s request for relocation expenses; house prices in Sussex being a lot higher than in the Potteries. Manager McGhee was holidaying in America and not contactable, and, during the impasse, German side Alemannia Aachen steamed in and offered the Scotsman the chance to play UEFA Cup football, which he snapped up.

That adventure didn’t last long, though, and he was back in England lining up for League One Colchester for the 2005-06 season and he top-scored with 19 goals as they were promoted in second place behind Southend United. At the higher level, he bagged 18 before moving on and spending a season at Charlton Athletic, where he scored 10 in a mid-table finish.

Happy days at Colchester United

He remained in the Championship when, as he was about to turn 30, he moved on to Wolves under Mick McCarthy. On signing him, McCarthy said: “I’m delighted. He adds a physical presence and he’s scored goals. His experience will help. He’s a good character and while it’s nice to have youth and desire it’s important to have that experience.”

Iwelumo certainly repaid that faith quickly, scoring 15 goals in his first 16 games. He scored twice on his full debut in the League Cup against Accrington Stanley and twice more on his first league start against Sheffield Wednesday four days later.

But it was a September 2008 game against Preston in which he scored a hat-trick – an overhead kick, a close-range finish and a penalty – but was also sent off that was his favourite Wolves memory.

Enjoying his time with Wolves

The dismissal came after a clash with Sean St Ledger, who he shared an agent with at the time, and even though St Ledger joined him in the ref’s room after the game to say it was all accidental, Iwelumo was banned for three games.

Within a month, an unbelievable miss after he’d gone on a substitute to make his Scotland international debut in a World Cup qualifier on 11 October 2008, went down in footballing history. The Daily Record reported: “On his debut in a 0-0 draw v Norway at Hampden, he missed from two yards out. Manager George Burley turned away in disbelief.”

A reflective Iwelumo told the Terrace Scottish Football podcast years later: “That miss against Norway was a low which ultimately, I like to think, represented a bump in the road of an otherwise successful journey through professional football lasting over two decades.”

Back at Wolves, he only added four more goals after his early season burst and a medial ligament injury curtailed his involvement as the Black Country side went up to the Premier League as champions.

His Premier League appearances for Wolves only amounted to 15 because his start was delayed after breaking his metatarsal on a pre-season tour of Australia, plus competition arrived in the shape of Kevin Doyle, a club record signing.

He had a loan spell at Bristol City looking for game time after another spell out injured, and in June 2010 he was on the move again.

Iwelumo has been asked several times about how things subsequently panned out and in one interview he admitted: “I always go through life saying not to have regrets – only regret the things you don’t do – but my own regret in football is that I left Wolves.”

He was faced with the dilemma of only occasional involvement at Premier League Wolves or a regular playing slot on a three-year contract at then-Championship Burnley under Brian Laws.

On target for Burnley

“The regret is whether I should have stayed and fought for my place at Wolves,” he told Paul Berry, of the Express and Star in April 2022. “Maybe it would have been different, but at the same time I had a family to support and had been offered three years at a good club on the same money as the year I had remaining at Wolves, in a league where I knew I could still do well.

“I loved my time at Wolves though, and the group of players and staff at that time were unbelievable.”

Born in Coatbridge, Scotland, on 1 August 1978 of a Nigerian father and Scottish mother, Iwelumo joined St Mirren as a youngster, and worked his way through the youth ranks before heading to Denmark and spending two years at Aarhus Fremad.

It was from there that he joined Stoke in 2000. His four-year stay on their books was the longest spell at any of his clubs, although he had three loan spells away, as well as his stint at Brighton he’d previously been to York City and Cheltenham Town.

But he was part of the Stoke side who beat Steve Coppell’s Brentford 2-0 in the League One play-off final in Cardiff in 2002. Brentford included Ivar Ingimarsson, Lloyd Owusu and Steve Sidwell, with Mark McCammon a sub.

Proud Preston must have had nightmares facing Iwelumo because after he’d got that Wolves hat-trick against them, he repeated the feat for Burnley in a 4-3 Lancashire derby win in 2010.

A change in management at Turf Moor brought his time there to a premature end; new boss Eddie Howe preferred Martin Paterson and Charlie Austin when they were fit. Next stop for Iwelumo was Watford, managed at the time by subsequent Burnley boss Sean Dyche.

Leaner times at Watford

By then he was 32 and in his first season he played 39 games but managed only three goals, enduring a five-month barren spell in front of goal. The following season he played just eight times for the Hornets and was sent on loan to two League One sides, Notts County and Oldham Athletic, only managing one goal in a total of 14 games at that level.

At Oldham, Iwelumo found himself playing under a manager – and a former Bristol City teammate – who was three years younger. Lee Johnson, at 31, had become the youngest permanent manager in English football in 2013 when he was appointed by the League One Latics.

“Chris actually wanted the job as well when I went to Oldham, so we were having discussions about the job and the club,” Johnson told The Athletic. “One of my first conversations with Chris — remembering he was my friend and helped me get the job — was literally to say: ‘Listen mate, I think your legs have gone, I’m not going to play you’.

“He was saying, ‘This guy has got a bit of b******s to tell me that’. I asked him to effectively be one of my assistants, still come on, still make a difference. He did that fantastically well. That was important. I had to get him onside.”

On his release from Watford, he once again linked up with Brian Laws, who in the 2013-14 season was managing League Two Scunthorpe United. Iwelumo scored twice in 14 games for the Iron in the first half of that season, and looked back on that time in an interview with scunthorpe-united.co.uk, describing how that spell had him making a five-hour round trip from his Midlands home each day.

“There was a lot of things going on at that time, personally as well. I was going through a divorce and that took priority over football to be honest. Understandably, it wasn’t a successful time, or a great time in my career. I was just disappointed that Scunthorpe fans didn’t see the Chris Iwelumo that a lot of other clubs saw. The divorce lasted for about two years and I retired two months after that. “

His last two clubs were Scottish Premiership St Johnstone, where he played eight matches, and English Conference Premier Chester, where he turned out 10 times.

It was some career for a player who’d had an operation at 18 and been told he’d only play football until he was 26 or 27. “I retired when I was 36, but when I signed my contract with Charlton turning 29, I knew I was on borrowed time,” he said. “I had ten operations on my knee in total, and I knew any years beyond that was a blessing.”

Football supporters hadn’t seen or heard the last of him either because he has become a regular pundit on televised football and a familiar voice on talkSPORT.

He earned a Professional Sports Writing and Broadcasting degree at Staffordshire University, set up a property company with a close friend, worked on a weekly podcast with Wolves and also worked with Stoke City.

“It’s been hard, but it’s been great,” he said. “I’m still a little bit envious of those guys who go into jobs and work 9-5 because they know what they’re doing every day. The property portfolio gives me a lot of free time to do what I want to do, including the media stuff. It’s very different week-to-week.”

Nathan Elder needed to knock on boss Wilkins’ door

WHEN I watched Nathan Elder go on as substitute at Boundary Park, Oldham, on 12 January 2008 and score an injury-time equaliser, I remember wondering whether his Brighton career might finally be getting off the ground.

Previous cameo appearances off the bench had indicated Albion might have unearthed a useful rough diamond after picking him up from non-league Billericay, and he’d scored his first goal in the final game of the 2006-07 season: a 1-1 draw at Cheltenham.

But manager Dean Wilkins was somewhat spoilt for choice, especially when experienced Nicky Forster arrived that summer. Alex Revell and Bas Savage tended to be ahead of Elder in the pecking order too.

By the end of January, Albion splashed £300,000 on Glenn Murray and, Elder, still only 20, was deemed surplus to requirements. After only 13 months at Brighton, he was sold to Brentford for £35,000 (Revell left as well, when Southend parted with £150,000).

The Elder deal represented good business for the Seagulls – a £25,000 profit on a player who only made three first team starts during his time with the club. Disappointed with his brief spell at Brighton, Elder reflected some while later that he should have done more to persuade Wilkins to give him more playing time.

“It was my fault,” he told brentfordfc.com. “I trained really well and in the reserve games I was scoring every time, but I never knocked on the manager’s door and asked him why I wasn’t starting. I always thought to myself that I was lucky to be in this position and coming from where I’d come from, I didn’t want to ruffle any feathers.

“As time has gone on, I’ve realised that if you don’t show some hunger and give the manager a reason to start you, he won’t.”

That instinct was almost certainly right, bearing in mind comments Wilkins made in an Argus interview after that Oldham game.

“I know it has not been easy for Nathan,” he said. “He hasn’t had many opportunities but he has gone on and done exactly what we hoped he would do.

“He will probably be banging on my door now for a starting place and of course he has given me a dilemma.”

Elder, though, sat back and waited patiently. “I was sitting there too comfortably and thinking that if I got the call, I’d come in and do my best,” he said. “We went on a losing streak at Brighton of about four or five games where neither of the strikers scored.

“At that point, Dean Wilkins was watching me in training, but I never actually said to him, ‘Gaffer, put me in, give me a chance’.”

As he departed, Elder told the Argus: “I don’t really feel as though I was given enough of a chance to show what I can do, it was more in fits and spurts coming off the bench.

“I just don’t think he (Wilkins) was confident enough in me to start me on a regular basis.

“Even when some other players weren’t performing I don’t think he had that confidence to throw me in. That’s football, it’s not a walk in the park.”

Of the striker’s departure, Wilkins said: “Nathan has found his opportunities limited, he wants to start games but we couldn’t guarantee that and felt it was right to let him move.”

It was an unfortunate ending to his brief time with the Albion, especially after it had begun so well. He scored just 11 minutes into his debut for the reserves, director of football Martin Hinshelwood observing: “Nathan scored with a good finish.”

The striker told the matchday programme: “Going from the level I was at to this level, without playing any games, is a huge jump, but training has been wicked for me. It has really helped me improve: my movement, my touch, my movement without the ball.

“I felt I showed that in the game and that’s how I got my goal, with my movement. I could have had another two or three as well, but I know that I’ll become sharper as I get fitter.”

Born in Hornchurch, Essex, on 5 April 1985, Elder’s first involvement in football was at the town’s Langtons Infant School. He later played for a local Sunday league team, Barns Sports, before stepping up to play for Hornchurch in the lower reaches of the Isthmian League.

He progressed up that league via moves to Barking & East Ham United, Aveley and then Billericay Town. He came to Brighton’s attention when he was playing for Billericay against Worthing.

If nothing else, Elder’s disappointment at Brighton prepared him to seize the chance to shine with the Bees. It was thought he had scored an own goal on his debut for Brentford against Mansfield Town after just 15 minutes (it was later credited to Stags forward Michael Boulding), but he made amends by scoring the winner five minutes from time as Brentford eventually won 3–2, and he went on to be part of their 2009-10 promotion squad under Andy Scott.

Nathan Elder scores on his Brentford debut

Sadly, a shocking facial injury which threatened the sight in one eye put paid to his involvement in the promotion run-in.

It came when he was involved in an aerial collision with Rotherham’s Pablo Mills; the United player’s elbow inflicting a double cheekbone fracture, a fractured eye socket, severe trauma to the eyeball and extensive bleeding in and around the eye.

He described the incident in detail in an interview with Dan Long in 2019. “When the physio came over, I couldn’t see out of my eye, I thought my eyebrow and cheekbone had swollen up. I knew it was serious. The physio held up two fingers with a hand over one eye and asked how many fingers he was holding up. He switched eyes and I couldn’t tell him because it was just black. He could see that my eye was open and he didn’t panic, but his reaction showed that I needed to go to hospital immediately.

“I questioned it but stood up and went into the dressing room. As we got there, I looked in the mirror. Everyone was telling me to sit down but I told them to get off me for five minutes so that I could find out what was going on.

“I could see that both of my eyes were open, but I could only see out of one of them. That was scary and that’s when I started to panic because I immediately thought I’d lost sight in that eye and it was done for.”

Up to that point, Elder had enjoyed a successful partnership with Charlie MacDonald, who he said he learned a lot from. “He was just such a potent goalscorer,” he said. “As a young lad it was brilliant to watch what he was doing and try and emulate it.”

Sadly MacDonald also missed the triumphant end of the season after dislocating a shoulder and the pair didn’t get to feature for the Bees again.

Meanwhile, the incapacitated Elder said: “When they brought in Jordan Rhodes, it was really good to see the success he was bringing, but when you are sitting indoors and you can do literally nothing, that was pretty horrible.”

After Elder’s recovery from the injury, life was never the same at Griffin Park and on 3 August 2009 he signed a three-year contract for League Two Shrewsbury Town.

But only three months later he was transfer listed by manager Paul Simpson who was unhappy with a performance in a 1-0 FA Cup loss at home to non-league Staines Town.

Two months on, he joined Blue Square Premier club AFC Wimbledon on loan until the end of the 2009-10 season. Elder scored on his debut in a 2-0 home win over Mansfield Town and picked up the man of the match award.

He went on to make 18 appearances, and scored three goals, before injury struck again. He suffered a tear of his anterior cruciate ligament in a game against Tamworth. Eventually, on 24 June 2011, he was released by the Shrews.

Next stop was Conference Premier side Hayes and Yeading but he was only there a month before joining League Two Hereford United, initially on loan and then permanently. But he left at the end of the season and joined National League outfit Ebbsfleet United where he scored 16 times in 44 matches.

He spent the 2013-14 season at Conference South Dover Athletic and on 10 May 2014 scored the only goal of the game to win the play-off final against Ebbsfleet securing Dover’s return to the Conference Premier League.

His most prolific scoring came at Isthmian League Premier Division side Tonbridge Angels, who he initially played for on loan before spending three years (2015-18) on a permanent basis. He netted 58 goals in 148 matches for Tonbridge.

Elder moved on to Sittingbourne for the 2018-19 season where he balanced a player-coach role at the Isthmian South East Division side with a career in recruitment in London’s Leadenhall Market. He later became assistant manager at Hythe Town for two years.