Jamie Vardy, Harry Kane, Sergio Agüero, Petr Cech, Riyad Mahrez: the debate as to who should be proclaimed Footballer of the Year this season is as open as the madcap Premier League title race. But when it comes to the season’s Golden Oldie, the argument is already over. Step forward Barry Richardson, who, when he ambled out on to Plymouth Argyle’s pitch last weekend as Wycombe Wanderers’ replacement goalkeeper, emerged a new hero for the chronically middle-aged.
At 46, Richardson became the third-oldest to play a league game in England. Neil McBain holds the record, the then New Brighton manager was 51 in 1948 when an injury crisis obliged him to name himself in goal. In second place is Sir Stanley Matthews, who was 50 when he turned out for the final time for Stoke City in 1965. True, Dave Beasant was 55 when he was a substitute for Stevenage in 2014, but he was not summoned from the bench. Richardson was.
He came on when goalkeeper Alex Lynch hobbled off with an injury after 15 minutes. The man whose career began in 1988, well before several team-mates were born, then presided over the only clean sheet to be recorded by an away side at Home Park this season. His performance was all the more noteworthy given that this was his first outing since 2005, when he broke a leg playing for Doncaster Rovers. “I wasn’t nervous,” he told me when I spoke with him three days after the match, when muscle ache was beginning to ease. “I’m 46, lots of things have happened to me in life, this was just a game of football. I went out there with the attitude that a mistake is not going to finish my career.”
The very fact he was required to dig his gloves out of the attic, however, tells us much about the condition of lower-league football. While the clubs in the Premier League were falling over each other in the January rush to spend the bounty from their impending television deal, at Wycombe money is something everyone else has. They cannot afford to run a reserve side. Lynch had just been recalled from a loan to take over from Matt Ingram, who had been sold to Queens Park Rangers in an attempt to reduce club debt.
“When Matt went, we had a boy lined up to come in as cover, then he broke his thumb in training,” Richardson said. “On Thursday night, I got the call from the manager. I’d sat on the bench before, I just never expected to get on.”
Now he has tasted the adrenaline rush of first-team football, however, the goalkeeping coach is not keen for a speedy return. Unlike an ageing retired boxer making an ill-judged comeback, Richardson does not kid himself that age has left his physical condition unscathed.
“I try to keep myself fit,” he said. “But I couldn’t dive around as much as I used to, my body is not up to it. What I have is experience. And I used that.”
So it is that after the club loaned the Bournemouth keeper Ryan Allsop to cover for Lynch, Richardson will return to a substitute’s role for Wycombe’s game against Luton on Saturday.
“I’m more than happy to see we’d signed another goalkeeper,” he said. “This was never a case of trying to prolong my playing career. That was over long ago.”
Though for us oldies, kidding ourselves we can still cut it, what a delight it would be to see him once again trotting off the bench. Albeit somewhat slowly.
- Telegraph