Tag: Stadium of Light

Zamora’s wait for England while dad’s Trinidad came knocking

TEN DAYS after Barry Fry’s prediction about Bobby Zamora playing for England, he made his debut for the country’s under 21 side.

It was 16 April 2002 and the Brighton striker went on as a sub for Leeds’ Alan Smith in a 1-0 friendly defeat v Portugal at Stoke’s Britannia Stadium. Paul Konchesky, a fellow graduate of the East London boys’ team Senrab, was left-back that day.

While plenty of observers expected Zamora eventually to step up to the full England side, he had to wait until he was 30 to make his first (and only) start at that level, and not before being wooed to switch allegiance and play for Trinidad and Tobago.

That happened in 2005, when the Caribbean country’s Dutch coach, Leo Beenhakker, wanted him to play in a World Cup qualifier against Guatemala. Zamora told the News of the World: “Trinidad is my dad’s country and to play in the finals would be a dream but West Ham are more important.

“I am only thinking about the club at the moment and do not want to be distracted from that. The club mean everything to me and if I can help us have a good season that is all that matters.”

After an injury-hit 2007-08 season, though, West Ham sold him to Fulham in the summer of 2008. The following year it was reported Zamora and his old Senrab teammate Jloyd Samuel had both obtained Trinidad & Tobago passports in time to play in a 2010 World Cup qualifier.

Injury prevented Zamora from getting involved but Samuel did play twice for the Soca Warriors even though he had won seven England under 21 caps. (Samuel tragically died in a road accident aged 37 in 2018).

Zamora top-scored with 19 goals in Fulham’s memorable 2009-10 season under Roy Hodgson. The south London side finished 12th in the Premier League and made it through to the final of the Europa League (the first season of the revamped competition previously known as the UEFA Cup).

Zamora had been a fitness doubt before the game against Athletico Madrid in the People’s Park Stadium in Hamburg and he had to give way to Clint Dempsey 10 minutes into the second half.

The game went into extra time with the score 1-1 after 90 minutes and agonisingly Fulham succumbed to an extra time winner scored by Diego Forlan. Sergio Aguero, later of Man City fame, beat defender Aaron Hughes and crossed for Forlan to flick the ball home four minutes from the end.

Nevertheless, Zamora’s goalscoring form had caught the attention of England manager Fabio Capello and his deputy Franco Baldini who were keen to call him up for the 2010 World Cup.

Sadly, those hopes were dashed by an achilles injury, and Zamora conceded: “I told Fabio that I was struggling and I knew that, had I gone, I wouldn’t have done myself or England justice.”

The player told The Independent: “It’s been an up and down season because it’s been so good on the pitch and I’ve scored some important goals. To now pick up this injury has kicked me in the teeth.

“It’s come during the last couple of weeks and when there was the possibility of going to the World Cup with England. That’s football, it’s a cruel game.”

He added: “The World Cup’s a massive tournament. It’s not about myself, it’s about England.

“Capello wished me all the best, hoped that I get fit and would be available next season.”

True to his word, Zamora was one of five uncapped players included in Capello’s squad immediately after the disappointment in South Africa.

One of the first people to contact him was former West Ham teammate, Teddy Sheringham, who he said he learnt so much from. “I got a long text message from Teddy. He said I might be nervous beforehand but that I deserved this opportunity, and he said once I’d taken part in my first training session, I would realise that I deserved to be there. He was spot on; after that I did not look out of place and I embraced being part of the squad.”

The call up came in something of a crazy week for Zamora because only days earlier his wife gave birth to twin girls, Gisele and Siena.

“The twins were born last Monday, they came out (of hospital) on Friday, then I had a match on Saturday, was back home for one day and then I was away with England, so I have not seen them as much as I wanted to, but I am sure I will find some time when I get back home,” he said.

“The twins are a massive part of my life now, and with getting the call-up to play for your country is a massive honour. I am lost for words. I am extremely proud to be called up to play for my country.”

Capello sent him on as a second half substitute for Frank Lampard to play up front alongside Wayne Rooney in England’s 2-1 friendly win over Hungary at Wembley on 11 August 2010.

Having made that breakthrough, the day after he signed a new four-year contract with Fulham he agonisingly suffered another setback when he broke a leg (above) and sustained ankle ligament damage during a 2-1 win over Wolves. He was sidelined for five months.

Capello didn’t consign him to history, though, and called him up again in May 2011 (his teammate David Stockdale was in the same squad) to face Switzerland in a Euro 2012 qualifier. But neither were involved in the disappointing 2-2 Wembley draw.

His first start for England finally came six months later in a 1-0 home win over Sweden, the first time in 43 years that England had beaten the Scandinavian country. Zamora’s close friend (and another former Senrab graduate) John Terry was England captain and joining the striker in making first starts were right-back Kyle Walker and Everton’s Jack Rodwell.

Richard Williams in The Guardian clearly felt sorry for the debutant centre forward, though, writing: “Poor Bobby Zamora. Offered the opportunity to score England’s 2,000th goal on Tuesday night, a perennially unfortunate footballer was forced instead to stand and watch as Stewart Downing’s cross glanced off the side of Gareth Barry’s head and then off Daniel Majstorovic’s forehead before evading Andreas Isaksson’s dive as it looped inside the post for the most anticlimactic of own goals.”

Reporting on the narrow victory over the Swedes, Williams added: “Whichever side the ball went, Zamora made sure he was available. A double exchange of passes with Walcott in the 17th minute put Zamora in on goal, but after Isaksson blocked his first effort the follow-up was poked past the post from five yards.

“Any centre forward will ultimately be judged by the goals he scores rather than his total of assists, and Zamora spurned a wonderful chance in the 65th minute when Downing scampered down the left once more before pulling the ball back at precisely the right pace and angle for the striker to meet it with a first‑time connection. Jonas Olsson, however, flew in to deflect the shot for a corner.”

Zamora was subbed off in the 70th minute to be replaced by Darren Bent and the Guardian sports writer concluded: “England – and Zamora in particular – really should have inflicted greater punishment on such humdrum opposition.”

Bent had also replaced Zamora in his first start for England under 21s. That came in February 2003 in a 1-0 defeat to Italy in Carrara.

A month before his move to Spurs, he also started England’s 3-2 friendly win over Serbia and Montenegro at Hull’s Kingston Communications Stadium, on that occasion being replaced by Darren Ambrose. (His future Fulham and Albion teammate Steve Sidwell was in midfield that day).

Eight days later, in a UEFA under 21 championship preliminary match, he went on as a sub for Shola Ameobi as England beat Slovakia at the Stadium of Light, Sunderland.

Zamora showed England quality at an early age

After that under 21s debut against Portugal, he was selected in the squad for the UEFA under 21 championship finals in Switzerland. On 20 May 2002, David Platt sent him on as a sub for Gareth Barry in a 2-1 defeat to Italy in Basle.

Two days later, in the third group match, again a sub, he replaced Jermain Defoe as England lost 3-1 to Portugal and were eliminated from the competition.

On two other occasions Zamora was an unused sub but he didn’t add to his six caps. And, after

Capello quit the England job in February 2012, Zamora didn’t play for the full England side again.

• Ahead of Albion’s new year clash with West Ham, find out why Zamora’s move to the Boleyn Ground was so ideal in the next instalment.

Knock-out stories of Mark ‘The Fizz’ Leather

MARK LEATHER spent six years as the first team physiotherapist at Anfield having previously been Brighton’s physio in the early days of Barry Lloyd’s reign as manager.

Leather tended the injured when Albion were promoted from the old Third Division in 1987-88 and half of the 1988-89 tier two campaign before moving back to his native north west.

Roy Evans added Leather’s specialist knowledge to the backroom team at Anfield in 1994 but the physio was controversially sacked by his successor Gerard Houllier following a row over the then teenage striker Michael Owen’s fitness.

A sign of the way Leather expected to work with managers came in an interview for Albion’s matchday programme. “Barry Lloyd will respect the decision if I say a player needs more time to get back to fitness,” he told interviewer Dave Beckett. “From that point of view, he is sadly in the minority.

“If it was different, I wouldn’t hang around, but it still amazes me that some clubs don’t realise that if we all stick to what we know things will run more smoothly.”

Leather, who’d spent three years studying for a diploma, and gained experience in the National Health Service, added: “We’re getting away from the old ‘bucket-and-sponge’ image.”

Ahead of his arrival at the Goldstone, Leather had combined his studies with helping out Exeter City, Leek Town, Port Vale and Sheffield Wednesday. And during the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in 1986, Leather provided specialist medical support for the weightlifters and wrestlers.

He revealed a funny story against himself in a matchday programme article. Asked to reveal his ‘most embarrassing moment’ he said: “During the Port Vale and Scunthorpe match in 1985, when Port Vale scored, I jumped up out of the bench hitting my head on the dugout roof and needed smelling salts and a cold sponge.”

Perhaps predictably nicknamed ‘The Fizz’, Leather sought to give an insight to his role in his matchday programme interview. “I try to be friends with all of the lads and the management too, but sometimes you really do have to sit on the fence,” he said.

“There’s pressure sometimes from both sides to say a player’s ready to return, but you have to stand back from the situation and give a professional opinion.”

The Albion gave him a regular slot in the matchday programme which he used to give readers updates on the progress of injured players, and in recent times he has become a regular source for the media seeking expert comments on football injuries.

Leather now has his own physiotherapy business and back in the day at Brighton he and his physiotherapist wife Lucy ran a sports injury clinic for the general public two evenings a week.

Born in Bolton on 24 June 1961, Leather left the Seagulls halfway through the 1988-89 season to return to more a familiar part of the country and took a job in the NHS in Chorley, Lancashire.

Leather had been an ardent Bolton Wanderers fan from an early age and his all-time favourite player was Frank Worthington, who had played for the Seagulls during the 1984-85 season.

When Evans stepped up to take charge of Liverpool, Leather was one of his first appointments (along with goalkeeping coach Joe Corrigan, whose playing career had ended with the Seagulls).

Leather and Corrigan together in Liverpool backroom team

An insight into Evans’ decision-making was given in the book Men In White Suits, by Simon Hughes. “With Mark Leather’s arrival, there was an end to the running repair jobs carried out by a succession of unqualified coaches mid game,” he wrote.

“Regularly injured players had long been treated with suspicion at Liverpool. (Bill) Shankly maintained his side were the fittest in the league, with pre-season geared towards building stamina and therefore preventing muscle tears.

“It was a difficult theory to argue against. Liverpool won the 1965-66 title using just 14 players all season. Anyone who suffered an injury was almost bullied into feeling better. ‘Otherwise you really were persona non grata,’ Alan Hansen said.

“Leather’s recruitment meant that (Ronnie) Moran could focus on drilling the first team in the Liverpool way rather than writing what Evans describes as ‘little scribbles’ on an old ledger, charting training patterns.”

Endorsements to Leather’s attributes appear on his website from the likes of Robbie Fowler and Jamie Redknapp, who is quoted as saying: “Mark Leather has been brilliant with me. He has kept me going and it’s because of him really that I’m back to full fitness as soon as I am.”

In 1999 media reports said Houllier was facing “a furious players’ backlash after his escalating row with Liverpool physio Mark Leather took a dramatic twist”.

Leather was left in the UK when Liverpool went to Oslo for pre-season games, a move which was said to be causing disquiet in the dressing room.

Leather clashed with Houllier over the condition of injured Michael Owen

“Leather is one of the game’s top physios and he was publicly praised by Robbie Fowler after helping the striker make a miraculous recovery from a cruciate knee ligament injury last season,” said one report in the Scottish Daily Record. “Other stars, including Michael Owen and skipper Jamie Redknapp, are known to have a close bond with the medic.”

Houllier was angry at the length of time it was taking for Owen to return to full training after a hamstring injury and sent him to a specialist in Germany for a course of treatment.

In 2013, when Owen’s many injuries finally forced him to his retire from the game, he recalled bad decisions in the past that ultimately affected his career.

“I was compromised because I played too much too soon as a youngster at Liverpool. In my opinion, had I been managed differently I would have been at my best for longer as opposed to being a better player,” he said in The Mirror.

“I basically run on two hamstrings on my right leg and three on the other. I lost a third of the power.

“If I hadn’t, 90 per cent of the other injuries wouldn’t have happened and I would have been the all-time leading scorer for England.”

The Mirror article continued: “If there was a defining moment in his career, then it was a snapped hamstring when his then-manager Houllier ignored the advice of his physio and insisted Owen be brought back from injury quickly because he needed his goal threat so desperately.

“The French coach fell out so badly with the physio, Mark Leather, he forced him out, but Houllier later admitted to the mistake, which Owen believes led to the moment that changed his career – on a cold March evening at Elland Road, Leeds, in 1999. ‘My hamstring snapped in two and it was at that point that my ability to perform unimpeded was finished,’ said Owen.

Leather wasn’t finished with football, however, and he moved to his beloved Bolton Wanderers as Sam Allardyce’s physio for a year, before joining former Trotter Peter Reid at the Stadium of Light.

“From a personal point of view, I’ve had the privilege of working with two guys I used to support from the terraces at Burnden,” Leather told the Bolton News ahead of a match between Bolton and the Black Cats in September 2001. “There’s only one team I’ve ever supported and leaving them last year was purely a professional decision,” he said. “Financially and from a facility point of view, it was the right move for me, but I’ll never stop supporting the Wanderers.”

Leather spent four years (2000-2004) as the head physio at Sunderland straddling the managerial reigns of Reid, Howard Wilkinson and Mick McCarthy.

It certainly wasn’t all plain sailing for Leather on Wearside, as the Republic of Ireland winger Kevin Kilbane, now a TV pundit on the BBC, mentioned in his autobiography (Killa: The Autobiography of Kevin Kilbane; Aurum Press Ltd, 2014).

The player was determined to play for his country but the physio obviously didn’t feel he should because he was still trying to recover from an ankle injury.

Leather had already put him through some tough routines to test the strength of his ankle and when they were then on opposing sides in a two-a-side hockey match, Leather caught Kilbane on the tender joint with his hockey stick.

“After a few times and much pain, I finally snapped, and I gave him a left hook and decked him, leaving him with a fat lip and a very surprised look on his face,” Kilbane admitted.

Although he told the assistant manager Bobby Saxton what had happened, nothing more was done about it. Kilbane said: “I later apologised to Mark Leather but was disappointed he didn’t reciprocate. Things were never right between us after that, although we didn’t let it interfere with our professional relationship.”

After Sunderland, Leather switched sports and took on a similar position with Wigan Warriors rugby league side before moving into the world of academia. He spent seven years at Edge Hill University as a senior lecturer in sports therapy and programme leader for the Football Rehabilitation MSc course.

In October 2006,Leather joined Chester City as club physio, with City chairman Stephen Vaughan declaring: “He is a fully qualified physio and has a wealth of experience at Premier League level, so it’s something of a coup to bring him to the Deva Stadium.”

In 2013, he returned to Bolton, spending three years as Head of Sports Performance.

He had also set up his own physiotherapy business in 2008 and, since 2016, has been a senior lecturer and course leader for the Football Science and Rehabilitation MSc course at the University of Central Lancashire.

• Pictures from the Albion matchday programme and various online sources.