THE SPORTSBEAT YOUNG PLAYER OF THE YEAR – LEE ANGOL (BOREHAM WOOD)
AS LEE Angol clutches his National Game Award, his grip is extra tight around the glass decanter. It was only just over a year ago that he was considering letting his career slip through his fingers.
Fed up with football and fed up with life, he sat his dad Cliff and his girlfriend Rosie down and told them enough's enough. There was no big plan, just an announcement that football wasn't going to play a part in it.
The Wycombe Wanderers' spare part perhaps accepted that it just wasn't going to happen for him. How much do Angol and Boreham Wood both owe the loyal pair's powers of persuasion?
Not only did the striker stick at it, but his life has gone full circle. Signed by Luton Town after impressing their scouts in his first loan spell at Wood, John Still loaned him to the Vanarama Conference South club for the entire campaign. He was the star of the show.
Taking the division's golden boot with 32 goals in all competitions, he also scored in the promotion final –a 2-1 win over Whitehawk which created history for the Hertfordshire club. And with hard work comes reward.
The 20-year-old teased that there is now interest in him from Premier League clubs – as well as a number from the Football League. Now with the Sportsbeat Young Player of the year NGA under his arm, those quit threats already seem a long time ago.
Angol said: “Last year I was going nowhere, I admit I was in a really dark place.
“I spoke to my girlfriend and to my dad and told them I didn't want to play football any more, I had totally fallen out of love with the game. I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life but, at that point, I didn't want to play football.
“I was sulking a lot, the emotion of football was dragging me down. I really didn't think I was going to carry on but the people closest to me told me I couldn't give up so I kept at it. I couldn't do it without their support. They believed in me.”
Angol urges any young pro to do what he did – leave the cushy academy life and get your hands dirty.
He added: “You have to play football every week, real games with real points to play for and league tables to look at. It's an easy lifestyle playing U21 football but you need to be playing –it's fake football in a lot of ways. This is real.
“By the time some realise this, it's already too late, so I will tell anyone in two minds about next season to make something happen as it has worked superbly for me.”
