Spectacular goals, lots of red cards and plenty of fights are littered throughout Shane Kelsey’s Non League Football career.
The new Athersley Rec manager has retired at least twice, but Non League Football has always lured back the attacker, who openly admits he was a loose cannon in his early doors with Worsbrough Bridge.
But he evolved into one of Barnsley’s top Non League footballers, with his goals for Ossett Albion during Eric Gilchrist’s glory days establishing his credentials.
He’s won titles with Shaw Lane Aquaforce and Hemsworth Miners Welfare and at the age of 37 he’s still delivering on the field – with his extraordinary comeback appearance for Athersley last season when he scored a hat-trick after coming on as half-time substitute at Bottesford being the prime example. Kelsey had not played for three years.
He’s played under some of the greatest managers of the last 20 years from Gilchrist, Pete Goodlad, Wayne Benn and Non League Yorkshire’s manager of the decade Craig Elliott – all of whom Kelsey has huge praise for.
Speaking to Non League Yorkshire, Kelsey recalls his finest moments and favourite memories and goals.
Kelsey comes clean on certain past indiscretions such as being responsible for introducing one of Non League’s most popular, yet marmite(!) characters to the game.
He may also expect a call from the FA’s ‘cold case squad’ after finally admitting he was a member of a now-defunct clandestine hosepipe wielding duo whose illicit activities wrecked havoc for NCEL fixture planners.
This is the Shane Kelsey story:
A 16-year-old at Worsbrough Bridge and playing for Mark Grundy’s famous third-placed finishing side in 2001
“The first time I played for Worsbrough was unofficially under someone else’s name as I was 15 and still at school. I then flitted in and out of the youth and first teams. Mark Grundy gave me a few minutes here and there, but it wasn’t until the (2001/02) season we finished third that I played more regularly.
“There were three of us, me Craig Johnson, David Hoyle, we also played for the local pub side and me Dave Hoyle scored over a 100 goals between us one season so Grundy told us to go down to training.
“I went down to go on the bench and I just expected to have a few minutes here and there. Dunc Bray and Phil Taylor were two great players and they were obviously upfront and they were on fire. I can’t remember who it was against because I was a bit of a rogue at the time and I wasn’t too bothered about football, but I came on with 20 minutes to go and I scored with my first touch in men’s football. I used to just turn up to play with my mates and I was just happy to be there.
“They had a great side with Brett Renshaw, Craig Robinson in defence, Andy Brooke in goal and we were potent in attack – it was deadly. We should have got promoted. Two of the final three games were against Winterton and Pontefract and we drew them both. Pontefract had finished rock bottom as well and had we won them both we would have been promoted ahead of Billy Heath’s Bridlington. It is unbelievable how close Worsbrough came to getting promoted.
“Grundy left afterwards as I believe he went to be Eric’s assistant at Ossett Albion and I think he took a lot of the side with him. Dunc left, Brett left. Worsbrough couldn’t compete because you only got a couple of quid as a win bonus if anything in those days. We used to have a standing joke with everyone where’d we say if we had a Worsbrough team of just Barnsley lads, ‘we’d have reyt team’. There were some brilliant players from Barnsley, but they were all playing out of the area for other teams picking up good money.”
Turning down crazy money and blowing Sheffield United chance
“I was playing for the youngsters at Worsbrough and I got a message saying that a scout from Sheffield United was coming to watch me with a view to offering me a trial. In both games that he came to watch I got sent off. So I got sent off in two consecutive games. In one of those games Scarborough came and they took my mate Craig Johnson for a trial.
“Of course I could have gone further, quite easily. But I was a dirty player and my disciplinary record was shocking. I was also loyal because I wanted to keep playing with my mates. I got offered some crazy money early on, but I never took it. I was always happy where I was. That theme continued throughout my career. I got offers from a lot of places, but I stayed local and loyal. I only ever changed teams during season three times. One of them was at Ossett Albion when there was a bit of financial trouble and I went to Curzon Ashton on silly money. I only lasted five games there because of the travelling and the fact I was missing my mates. The other times were when I left Sheffield FC, again because of the travelling and when I joined Shaw Lane from Worsbrough.
“When I was at Garforth, Simon Clifford turned a big bid from Farsley who were in the Conference North. I’ve had some crackers offers, but a lot of them I took with a pinch of salt.
“I was never greedy. I always undersold myself in terms of finances. At Shaw Lane because I had played every game and scored a lot of goals so people thought I was on a fortune. I wasn’t. I was one of the lowest paid players there. I wasn’t doing it for the money.”
An early red at Worsbrough
“I got a 126-day when playing for Worsbrough at Gedling at the beginning of the (2003/04) season. Their centre-half had been nipping and standing on back of my feet. I showed the lads at half-time and they said that there were loads of cut marks on my back. After half-time he was at it again and I scored a header from a corner. I ran up to the centre-back and celebrated in his face. He grabbed my testicles and started digging his nails in before he let go. We ended up scuffling and I got sent off for it. I did punch him or something. As I went in the changing room I kicked the door and put a hole in it. My foot went straight through and it got stuck and I couldn’t get it out. I couldn’t play Saturdays and Sundays for four months because of the ban.”
The Rise of Doddo
“I’m technically responsible for unleashing Jason Dodsworth on the unsuspecting Non League world! I’d blame pup (Anthony Smith) a bit more than me, but without us he wouldn’t be anywhere! I’d like to take the opportunity to apologise to all the referees he has shouted at over the years!
“My best mate around the time (2003) was Anthony Smith (pup) and we went out drinking for a lot of years. He played for Athersley for a long time along with his brother Alan who is of course Athersley’s record goal-scorer. I had a bit of time out of Non League so I used to play for Athersley on a Saturday so me and pup used to up to the Ashfield pub for a game of Snooker and then go straight to the game. Jase had one day asked if he could come with us so we let him and it went from there with Athersley for him.
“I look back and think if only me and pup had never gone to play snooker, there’d no Doddo in the Non League world!”
Trademark Celebration
“It is push-up belly. It is where you put your arms through your sleeve and push it up through your belly like something is coming out of your belly. It is something we’ve always done for donkeys years. We used to do at school and it was something that was funny.”
Seeing Simon Clifford’s madcap psychological methods at first hand at Garforth
“Brett’s (Renshaw) step-dad Alan Billingham was the person who took me down to Garforth. Brett is obviously a mate as well. I don’t think I lasted the season at Garforth because it all went crazy. I had been on fire because I was scoring some ‘reyt goals’, but I got a message from Simon one day saying ‘I don’t want you around the squad because we’ve been told you have been giving the opposition the starting line-ups along with other bits of inside information’. It was crackers so I ended up leaving. The problem was I was on contract and they wouldn’t cancel it. Ossett Albion were hoping to sign me and I had to wait until the following season to play for them. I loved it at Garforth too. Simon’s pre-season training was the best I have ever seen. It was hard, but it got you fit and it was brilliant.
“Me and Brett used to work full-time for Simon and me and Brett used to get called ‘The Groundsmen’. When people were injured; to get games off, me and Brett were asked to water the pitch to get it waterlogged. We used to get a hosepipe and water-log it. I dread to think what the water bill was like. The pitch would be knackered and then on the Monday, we’d be told to go to Simon’s office in Leeds and he’d ask us to make sure the following game was played. We’d be like ‘there’s no chance now, the pitch is knackered’. No word of a lie we’d go and buy some rolls of turf. We’d dig the bad areas out and relay turf.
“We should have played Sheffield FC once at home and someone was suspended and another injured. It wasn’t us, but someone went round all the sockets in the away changing room and smashed them with a hammer so there was no electric. The match got called off.
“It is a shame how things we worked out because we had a great team. We could have been a real force with the lads we had. Some brilliant players came to Garforth.”
Happy times in Eric Gilchrist’s finest Ossett Albion side
“Playing for Eric was one of my most happiest times. I ended up meeting some of my best mates like Daz Utley. He’s still one of my best mates now and he was one of the best centre-halves I’ve ever played. I knew him sort of because he lived near me, but I hadn’t realised he had played professional football. He once got the FA Cup goal of the round for Doncaster at Cardiff with a 40-yard strike and we used to wind him up about it because he never scored. We used to shout ‘shoot’.
“It was fantastic at Ossett and we had a great side. Playing for Ossett remains me of where I am now with Athersley. We had one of the smallest budgets in the league, but we used local lads – myself, Daz Utley, Kyle Cook, Mark Ryan, Ryan White and then young lads like Joe Thornton. We were all Barnsley lads living five minutes away. Then you had your Wakefield lads.
“We had a great side and we were so unlucky two years on the trot not to finish in the play-offs. We finished just outside both times. But we were shocking with the discipline and that’s probably what cost us those points which would have got us in the play-offs. I remember playing Chorley at home and they had a bit of reputation because Matt Jansen was playing for them. Gary Filtcroft was their manager. After about ten minutes, Daz Utley got sent off for braying Matt Jansen as he’d been giving him a bit of ‘chelp’.
“We knew how to play that pitch and teams hated coming. There were teams like FC United, Halifax, Chester. They had massive budgets, but they’d come down to Ossett and we used to scare them to death because we used to kick seven bells out of them and more times than not we’d win.
“The balance to the side was perfect. You had Ry White who was just a wrecker in the middle of the park playing alongside Micky Senior who was absolutely brilliant and a great player. He’d made his debut for Huddersfield when Steve Bruce was the manager. Then you had young Dave Syers who could break lines and get you ten or 15 goals a season. You should have seen Dave Syers when he first came. We used to make fun of him, but he took it and grew into our group and look what he went onto do. There was me hogging the left wing and a bit later down the line they brought in a man who was totally underrated to a lot of people, but made the side as good as it was – that’s Gareth Hamlet. You could just play off him and a perfect foil basically. Your leader was your Daz Utley. He was immense.
“A goal I scored at Gigg Lane against FC United is one of my memorable. It was some kind of record at the time like after seven or eight seconds. There were three or four thousand there and FC kicked off. I don’t know what happened, but Micky Senior played it through and I dinked the goalie. I just remember running round the net doing my stupid celebration and 1000 FC fans started running to the front of the stand. There was one steward there with his arms out and I thought ‘that’s not going to do much good mate’.
“I’ve always got on with Eric and he was a straight-talker. He could blow his top and he was very full-on before sending us out for a game. He kept training interesting and it was a good. Before a match every man knew his job. He’s up there with the best managers I had, top three easily.
“I had been playing for him for about six weeks and I went to training and said ‘ey up Eric, I saw thee today at work’. Eric went ‘what your mean’? I told him it was at the WDH (Wakefield and District Housing) offices and asked him if he was visiting for a meeting? He just went ‘what are you on about you idiot, I’m your boss’. I had played football for him for six weeks and I didn’t realise he was the boss of my department at work!
“There were some funny moments at Ossett. There was the Salford incident, that was funny. We beat them 5-0 and I scored two or three. It was when Ash Berry was the manager and I got hacked down in the first half by the centre-back and we got a penalty. People were going barmy and this kid said to me ‘I’m going to do thee, you diving whatever’. The half-time whistle went and the lad walked up to me and dropped his nut on me in front of the referee. He got sent off and I got a yellow card.
“It was quite tight Ossett’s tunnel and you had to walk past the away changing room. So at the end of the game I thought something wasn’t right and two kids blocked me going past their changing room and I looked behind and there were two others and they started on me, kicking seven bells out of me. Next thing I know Gaz Hamlet comes running over with a chair and starts hitting them. They then tried to get into our changing room and it was funny. Daz Utley kicked the door from our side and he got his foot stuck so he was on the floor and these lads from Salford were ragging the door open. Daz was moving all over the place. Through the crack in the door, Gaz is still hitting them with a chair. Next thing we know, there’s someone with a goalie glove going barmy punching them.
“It all calms down and Eric comes in. He was fuming and he was going berserk with us. He started laying into Benno (Neil Bennett) saying ‘thee causing all the trouble, throwing punches Benno, what are you doing’? Benno was like ‘it wasn’t me throwing punches’, but Eric insisted it was him saying ‘it wasn’t you, you’re only one with goalie gloves’. Eric hadn’t seen the whole incident, he only saw Benno throwing punches’.
“Eric never got involved in the incidents. He was quite calm and he’d sit back and watch it all and then go barmy with us. At Lancaster, it was minus three so it was freezing. At half-time I took my shoes and socks off and put my feet in the shower because they were that cold. We’d had a shocking half and Eric let rip and he went to me ‘you’re more interested in warming yee feet in the shower than you are playing football’. Nobody would dare laugh because he was steaming.
The Battle of Dimple Wells
“The other funny one was the Halifax game at home. Halifax came with the big entourage and I think four players got sent off in the first half. For us Ry White got sent off and so did Micky Senior and his brother Phil was in the net for Halifax.
“As Mick was going down the tunnel some Halifax fans swarmed the tunnel and one punched him. All I saw was his brother, the Halifax goalie go and punch one of the Halifax fans. He never got sent off though.
“The referee had lost the plot at this point. He was giving out yellow cards to everyone. At one point he told the Halifax goalie to get on with it and he kicked the ball right up in the air as the referee ran up the field. As it came down it hit the referee straight on the head!
“After the game the Police came in and told us that we had to stop in the ground until they allowed us to. We looked over to the cricket pitch and there were four or five Black Maria’s on the cricket pitch and there was about 500 Halifax fans fighting with each other. The Police Helicopter was whizzing round too. The Police kept us in the ground until about 7pm. Eric was alright about it because he could stay in the bar and get hammered!”
Missing out on playing in a cup final for Athersley’s Sunday Side
“I also broke my leg one time and the Athersley Sunday side got to the Sheffield FA Junior Cup final and I couldn’t play. It played at the side of the Keepmoat at Doncaster Rovers had got to the play-offs. We won 1-0 against The Joker and Rich Patterson scored an own goal from the halfway line.”
Curzon, Sheffield FC Ossett Town and first retired
“So after Ossett Albion I went briefly to Curzon. That didn’t work out. Neither did playing for Sheffield FC (in 2011).
“I only played three games at the start of the season (2011/2012) for Sheffield. We played Kidsgrove away in Stoke on a Tuesday night. Mark Shaw rang me and said ‘we’re meeting at our ground at 4.30pm’. It is in Dronfield and it was an hour away from my home in Barnsley and I didn’t finish work until 4.30pm.
“I had to leave early to get to J28 instead and I didn’t get home until 1.30pm and I just said I wasn’t doing it again. There was a slope at Kidsgrove and I was arguing with the referee for some reason and the ball was on the halfway line. I was angry and I just kicked it away. I didn’t realise the ball was still in play. I caught it sweet and it went over the goalkeeper and put us 1-0 up. We ended up losing 3-1.
“I went to Ossett Town then when Phil Sharpe was the manager. Eric was his assistant. Sharpey left later in the season and Eric took over temporarily.
“In the summer (2012) it was when I first came across Craig Elliott as he took over. He got rid of entire squad apart from me and Luke Richardson
“We had a good side and and we got to the first round of the FA Trophy and we played Stockport County at Edgeley Park. We got there and because they were bottom of the Conference we thought we had a chance. I think we were 4-0 down after five minutes!
“One of the most stupid things I have ever been involved with which involved referees was that game. Before the game Craig and his assistant Daz Smith were on the pitch and we told Craig that we needed Daz quickly. So he comes back to the dressing room and we told him that the referee needed to see him urgently to confirm various things with him. Like a kipper Daz ran into the referee’s room after knocking and he came back calling us all sorts of names. They obviously didn’t need him and they were looking at him like an idiot when he was reeling off the colours we were wearing. The referee said ‘what are you on about’?
“I scored my best hat-trick when I was playing for Ossett Town. It was against Wakefield and it was timed at seven minutes either side of half-time. I scored from the halfway line over Neil Bennett. Jimmy Eyles also scored two. All five were absolute worldie’s and Benno said afterwards ‘you’ve done nothing, you have just hit five worldie’s and they’ve all gone in’.
Kelsey’s Shaw Lane calling
“We had a great season (2012/13) there at Ossett under Craig and I packed in because I wanted to be closer to home. I signed for Worsbrough, but only to help out if needed so I had more-or-less packed in football.
“When Craig got the Shaw Lane job I went to play in the last 11 games to help them get promoted out of NCEL Division One. I hadn’t really been playing. I was signed on for Worsbrough, but I think I only played one game which was against Shaw Lane earlier in the season as it happens.
“The first players Craig signed when he took over was myself, Gary Stohrer and Danny Patterson and we played in every game of the last 11 matches and we won promotion. It shows the trust he had in us. We were lucky to get over the line. I remember the (eventual champions) Cleethorpes game at home (March 2014) and we absolutely battered them and their goalkeeper was unbelievable. He pulled off five or six outstanding saves. They got a goal to go 1-0 up and in the last minute we got a corner and their goalkeeper tried to make a fancy save from John Cyrus’ header and threw it in his own net.
“You laugh now, but we also got out of jail in that Hemsworth game when the ball hit (Andy Hart) Harty on the top of his head and went over their goalie to make it 3-3. We scored a lot of late goals and people say it was luck, but it was the mentality and work rate of the lads.
“Obviously we got over the line and I had another season with him.”
High praise for Craig Elliott
“The only reason I went to Shaw Lane was because of Craig. I’ve lots of time for him and I think he’s a right bloke. A lot of people haven’t got good things to say about him, but it is more out of jealously than anything.
“If it had been five years earlier, I may have fallen out with him, but when you get older and wiser you understand things better. People get the monk on about how many players he goes through, but at the end of the day it is a job and everyone has a gaffer to answer if you’re not doing your job.
“It is like having a bit of equipment, it is nothing personal. if it doesn’t work you don’t persevere with it or you’ll end up out. I think how he manages is good. The proof is in the pudding, look at his success.
“You know where they are with him because if you’re not performing you’re out.”
Winning the 2015 Toolstation NCEL Premier Division with Shaw Lane
“The second Shaw Lane season was one of the best I ever had. I had the best left-side partnership of my life. Luke O’Brien and myself knew each other’s games and we looked after each other. Everyone had trust in each other. Although Craig went through a lot of players, if you look at the actual starting elevens from the beginning of the season to the end, generally it was the same side with a few changes here and there. The bits around the outside seemed to change a lot and I think Craig does it to keep people on their toes. You then find out who wants to step up to the mark and who can keep their place.
“I’m still blocked from following Worksop’s twitter account to this day and their manager was playing mind games after we lost to them (in March 2015). Luckily we had players who could stand up to it. Worksop made a lot of noise and said we’d run out of steam and we were only there for the money. But we had too many big characters and we won it in the end and the mind games backfired on Worksop.
“Craig added quality at the beginning of the season and during it, but not quality in individual qualities. People might say ‘they have loads of money and they are flash’, but we weren’t. We had grafters. He brought in people with team qualities who could work hard. There was James Cotteril, Ian Deakin the goalkeeper with great experience, Lee Morris, Stevie Istead, Anton Foster, Luke O’Brien, Stef Holt, Sam Denton. Gary Stohrer was an unbelievable lad on the field. You had your touch of quality in your Matty Thornhill’s. Put him on the ball and you could see why he had played league football. It was the same with Stevie Istead. There was more than one captain. We had a team of captains and absolute leaders.
“One of the key games that people forget was the Tadcaster game in January. It was a big one. It got called off a few times, but we got it on, on a Tuesday night. The pitch was shocking and everyone thought Tadcaster were going to do us. The pitch was so heavy with sand it was unreal. You couldn’t play football on it and Tadcaster struggled and maybe got their tactics wrong. Lee Morris scored the winner for us.
“It was really proud moment when we won the league and it was fully deserved as well. It is easy for people from the outside to say ‘you’ve bought it, you should be winning it’. Well that’s an ignorant comment. Other teams were spending a lot of money and I bet they were on an even keel to us. Because we were the new kids on the block, we were easy targets. People said things like ‘oh he’s got to be on a fortune’. But we weren’t. I could show you wage slips now and you’d tell me where to go and say ‘that’s not yours’. A few people would have egg on the face.”
FA Vase heartbreak with Shaw Lane
“It was an absolute travesty that we didn’t get to Wembley. I feel we got cheated, there’s no sugar-coating it because it was ridiculous. Ten minutes into the quarter-final against Glossop and Kelvin Lugsden pulled Lee Morris down on the penalty spot. He got a yellow card, but he should have been sent off and ironically I think that referee referees in the Championship now. In the second half the same player palmed a corner I had taken away. That was the second penalty and he didn’t get a second yellow for it. He then went and popped up with the equaliser to take it to a replay. In the second game, we were two minutes away and we thought we had done it. But cruelly they equalised and we lost in extra-time.
“Every round we played we drew the favourites. The first one was Runcorn Linnets on a Sunday and we beat them 4-1. I scored in it.
“West Auckland was next away and they had been to the final twice in the previous three years and the bookie’s favourites. They hadn’t lost at home for a while and we won 3-0.
“One of my best ever goals was in the West Auckland game. Nobody had given us a chance and the pitch was horrendous, shocking. It was a freezing day and there was snow at home and we thought it would be off. We got there and it was pretty much alright.
“West Auckland were trying to kick us and there was a bit of a scuffle around the centre circle. Someone said something to Anton Foster and he slapped them around the face in front of the referee. He gave us the free kick and booked them both. Anyway when they were messing about, I said to the ref, ‘is it our free kick, can we get on with it’? The ref wanted to get the started again so he said yes. It was inside our own half and I hit it first time. It didn’t even bounce, it just hit the back of the net. All I remember is their goalkeeper running after the ref saying he was going to kill him.
“I scored in the Shildon game at Oakwell with a free kick that was going 16 days wide, but it took a deflection and went in. They weren’t a bad side to be fair, but our fitness and the big pitch helped us because we had pace in wide areas.”
‘A last hurrah’ to help Hemsworth win the Division One title
“I had finished. I told Craig after we won the title that we were back up to where (NPL) I didn’t want to be because of the travelling and we parted on great terms.
“It was (Lee Swift) Swifty who rang me as I had ‘laked’ with him at Shaw Lane and he said ‘(Wayne Benn) Benno wants your number’. I gave him a ring and the only reason I went for it is because he had a team of young lads. I knew they were a decent season and I just said I’d give him one season. In the previous few years I had played in teams who could get whoever they wanted and I thought it would be a good chance to give something back. They were a cracking side and I really enjoyed. The club has my sort of people.
“Benno is one of the best managers I’ve played for. He tells it straight. You know where you are and you appreciate it.
“There was a big hoo-ha ‘Kelsey’s signed’ and then things went pear-shaped. I missed a lot of pre-season maybe because of work, I maybe went to one season pre-season training session. There was a friendly and Benno told me to come and do a few minutes. After about five minutes, a massive fella fell down on my foot. It hurt and I had to go off. It turned out that I had broke my foot so I missed the first six weeks of the season!
“Without me the young lads got off to a good start, but they probably needed people like myself and Rob Tonks. They may have won the league without us, but we kept them encouraging them and nudging them along. It was about putting confidence in them.
“It is a season that is up there with my best, pure and simply down to the feel-good factor around the club and how everything was run – not just the team, but the whole club. How well the squad got on together was unreal.”
Retirement and his ‘Roy of the Rovers’ return to football after scoring a 15-minute hat-trick (including the last minute winner) for Athersley in his first game in three years after coming on as a half-time substitute
“I hadn’t intended on playing (after joining Rec as a coach), but in my opinion we were underprepared for the season and for whatever season we had a small squad.
“We played Bottesford away at the end of September and we had lost every game so far. We were short for the game so I told them to put my name on the bench just in case.
“Bottesford had a man sent off after 15 minutes and I thought we had a chance to get some points on the board. We went in 2-0 down at half-time so I absolutely let rip. I went barmy. I whipped someone off and I said to Kevan Locke ‘right I’m going on’. I hadn’t properly played since retiring at Hemsworth so people were looking and thinking ‘what’s he doing’?
“It was still 2-0 until there was 15 minutes to go and they were three good goals. One was a left-foot volley and the second one was a dink over the goalkeeper. The last one was during injury-time and the ball was near the halfway line. It came into me and everyone were screaming ‘keep it, keep it’. But I knew the goalkeeper was off his line on the edge of the area. It wasn’t really a good touch, but it went inside and I just thought ‘it is the last minute, I’m just hitting it’. It just dropped in the net from the halfway without bouncing. It was perfect and one of my best ever goals and the scenes after were absolutely crackers.
“It is one of the best hat-tricks I have ever scored and I actually scored another hat-trick a few weeks later when we played Barton. Stats-wise I played 19, 15 of them I started and I scored 12. It is not bad for someone who packed in three years ago and for a team who were bottom of the league.”
Memorable Red Cards
“One of my most memorable red cards was against Farsley for Ossett Town in a 3-3 draw on New Year’s Day (2013). It is on YouTube and it was never a red card. It is funny because it leads onto a red card I got for Athersley a few months ago. But the one with Farsley; I went to go round the goalkeeper and he came out and legitimately hit me to win the ball. There was a right crack to the extent that one of my shin-pads was snapped in half. The linesman starts flagging and the goalie went berserk and threw the ball at him shouting ‘its never a penalty’ which it wasn’t because it was a great tackle – he even held onto the ball in the tackle. I thought I had broke my ankle. The referee comes over to me after talking to the linesman and the other funny thing is, I worked with referee’s mum. He says ‘get up Kels, you need to stand up’. I was like ‘I can’t take the penalty anyway, I’ve broke my ankle’. The ref replied ‘it isn’t a penalty’ and I looked up and there was the red card. I couldn’t believe it. After the game in the bar Farsley’s goalie came up to me and said ‘I’ll send a letter in because it was ridiculous’.
“Then this season I got sent off at Silsden. When I was about to shoot into an open net when it was 0-0, the goalie leathered the back of my legs and sent me flying. The referee gave me a second yellow for diving. It was ridiculous. The goalie ran over and says ‘what is it about you when I lake against you’? I didn’t know what he was on about. He went ‘you always get sent off’ and it was that Farsley goalkeeper from seven years ago. He’s called Ben Higginson. I hadn’t seen him since the Farsley-Ossett match. I started laughing and we had a good laugh about it in the bar afterwards because he went ‘do you need me to send a report in this week’?”
Role models for new career as Athersley’s manager
“The managers I have played under I have stood me in good stead for managing Athersley. You try to take bits from them whilst remembering that you need to be your own person.
“We have all done it and it is easy to criticise from the outside by saying ‘I’d have done this and that’. Well have a go then. It is not a bad list of managers to put down is it? You’ve got Craig Elliott, Wayne Benn, Eric Gilchrist. Even Simon Clifford because he ran the best pre-season I have ever seen. I take things from them all.
“I played on a Sunday for Athersley and Pete (Goodlad) is probably the best motivator you can think of. In terms of motivation he made sure you knew what you were doing.”
Summing up
“My career cost me some money in fines, but I have loved playing Non League football and making a lots of friends. I never made the mistake of playing where I wasn’t comfortable. Two places I shouldn’t have gone to were Curzon Ashton and Sheffield FC because of the travelling, but I left them fairly quickly.”
Shane Kelsey was interviewed by James Grayson