redmatchday interview

For Josh Magennis, whether he be on the field or off it, at right-back or playing up front, these are heady times indeed. He’s played 28 games for the Dons this season, and this after there were rumours aplenty that he would be on his way in the 2012 January transfer window. He’s knocked in four goals for the club and stands just nine games shy of 100 for the Dons in all competitions. His form has been strong enough to win him a call up to the senior Northern Ireland squad that travelled out to Malta in midweek. And if that weren’t enough, then when the working day is over, he goes home to his newborn son. This is stacking up to be a pretty good year in the life of Josh Magennis, all things considered.

Life hasn’t always been quite so rosy for Magennis and inevitably, the arrival of his own child has given him pause for reflection over his own upbringing in what were pretty tough circumstances back in a Northern Ireland that was still gingerly picking its way towards the peace process and the dividends that have come with that over the last few years. It’s a period that was, to say the least,character building.

“I had a tough upbringing in Northern Ireland. It was not the best, I always had to graft for things. I did not really have a father figure in my life so when I was growing up, I had to depend on my mum and my nan. It was pretty hard a lot of the time and I saw some things that I maybe should not have seen at that age. I got myself into quite a lot of trouble. In the end, thankfully football and my faith kept me on the straight and narrow. Eventually, I got taken out of that environment, which was definitely for the best.

“Back home, when I was growing up, I had five close friends and three of them are dead. If you grow up in the wrong environment with the wrong things surrounding you it can be difficult to get out. Hopefully people in Northern Ireland with the way things are now will not have to experience what went on back in the day”.

Having grown up without a father figure has certainly given Josh a determination to ensure that his son experiences a very different set of circumstances over the coming years.

“If you are child who does not have a mum or dad, then you know what you missed out on and so I know what I can bring to the table for my son. I know what needs to be done. I swore to myself that my son would never go without, but at the same time, I will not bring him up with a golden dummy in his mouth. He will understand discipline but he will be looked after. I am just looking forward to those father son bonding experiences that I never got to enjoy as a boy.

“The birth and everything that surrounded it, it is hard to put into words. It was so stressful. You go from one extreme to the other. It so stressful but at the end of it the joy and the love is ridiculous. I certainly have a lot of respect for women now how have to go through labour! The most important thing is that my son is here and he is healthy, so from here, I am just looking forward to settling down with the family and getting into a routine and hopefully getting some sleep!

“Honestly, nothing can prepare you for becoming a dad. A lot of people will say they are not ready for kids, but to be honest, I don’t think anyone can be fully prepared for it. You can be ready financially and be ready with the family support, but what happens in that labour ward when you go through the doors is something you can’t be ready for.

“Although it is still early days for us, it is life changing, although I am still learning the body signals for when he is wanting to be fed or wanting changing. Knowing that there is someone so innocent that is relying on you for everything is a great privilege and honour, and I am blessed that he is healthy and I can now enjoy the rest of my life with him.

“It is nice that so many of the boys in the dressing room are also becoming fathers and that we are all doing it at the same time. We all have some good banter but on a serious side, there are guys who you can speak to, guys who are going through the same thing and we can give each other advice and pass on tips.

“Becoming a father does put things into perspective. Sometimes we do take football too seriously. Supporters have the right to do that because they pay their hard earned money to watch games, but sometimes people overstep the boundaries. Sometimes you have to take a step back and revaluate things.

“I did that when I had a quiet few moments by myself before the birth of my son. Although football is my life, it is not the be all and end all. I have now got something to take my mind off things. It is a distraction but it is a good distraction. After a defeat or a bad performance, when you are down, you come home and see his little face and you soon pick yourself up again”.

Josh would be the first to admit that the upturn in his professional life has very much been down to his move to Pittodrie in July 2010, so much so that he now professes himself to be a fully adopted Aberdonian.

“This is my second home. When I go back to Northern Ireland now, it feels like I am going on holiday! I have settled into life in the North East of Scotland very well and that is due to everyone at the club and also the warmth I have received from the fans. When you have a happy life, it makes it a lot easier to be happy on the football field and you play better.

“The fans have been brilliant towards me. I think that is because I am an honest player. After a game, if someone asks me my opinion when we’ve had a bad result, I will not just say it was not good enough, onto the next one. The fans pay their money and deserve an explanation. What you see is what you get from me, on and off the pitch. I just hope I can continue my good relationship with everyone involved with AFC”.

That honesty has extended to an open presence on twitter, a form of social media that doesn’t always get the best press when it comes to footballers and the way they use it to express themselves in one way or another. The likes of Leigh Griffiths, Joey Barton and Peter Odemwingie have all fallen foul of it since just the turn of the year, adding to plenty of other high profile problems prior to that. It does seem a really good way of getting yourself into a load of trouble without really trying, but Josh is something of an evangelist for the positive spin offs that can be had from it.

“Although there is a lot of negative publicity with twitter, there are some good things you can do with it. It allows fans the opportunity to interact with people in a social way. At the end of the day, it is not practical to have fans knocking on your door every five minutes asking questions, so twitter allows fans to ask you things without invading your space.

“In the English Premier League, when you are brought up with that state of mind when you are 16, 17 and you are on £30, £40k, a week you lose that sense of reality. You don’t know anything else apart from being a millionaire. Everything and anything is available to buy. You think you are bigger and better than the “ordinary” people and do not have to interact with fans, and I think that is a bit sad really. When you have had a bad result fans want an answer and if they have a decent question to ask I think they are entitled to ask it. Anyone that is abusive, you just have to blank them and bite your tongue.

“Quite often though, you have some good debates. Some people say that fans don’t know anything about the game, but that isn’t true. There are a lot of supporters out there who do know what they are on about. The points that they bring up and that we talk about are relevant to the club or to them.

“Anyway, whether you like twitter or not, it is here to stay and, regardless of whether it was here or not, supporters will always find a way to voice their opinions!”

Josh is a pretty unusual character, so it’s no surprise that he has had a famously unusual career too, as he points out. “It is not often you hear of players who started out as a goalkeeper, move to being a striker and then go to being a right-back and still have a career in the profession!

“If the gaffer decides you are not in his starting XI at the start of the campaign you just have to take it on the chin. After a good preseason, I was left out against Celtic and then did not play in the other opening games but I knew that I would get my opportunity at some point and you just have to be patient. You have to be mentally strong so that you are ready when you do get the opportunity.

“It does not bother me if the manager wants me to fill in for a full-back or a striker or play as a wide player in midfield, or wants me to come off the bench and score a last minute goal! As a footballer, you want to be playing football and thankfully over the past two seasons I have been able to do that and have been involved”.

It was with Cardiff City that Josh donned the goalkeeping gloves many years ago, before being moved outfield, a spell that coincided with a couple of Wembley visits and some big disappointments as he recalls.

“When I was with Cardiff, I did not play at Wembley but I did travel with the team. The first time was the FA Cup final in 2008 when we played Portsmouth and I travelled with the youth team. The next year I was a professional with the first team squad when we got to the play-off final. That was an incredible day. Half the stadium was covered in tangerine for Blackpool and the other half was covered in blue for Cardiff. It was an experience I will never forget and hopefully one I can pass on to people. I loved every minute of it.

“Cardiff are going really well at the moment and I do keep an eye on their results. I am still not sure they will go up automatically so I would say they will make the play-offs at the moment. I think Fraizer Campbell is a big signing and he will be the one that makes or breaks their chances of promotion. He has the ability to score the goals to get them promoted. But if he does not get the goals, I think they could still struggle to get up automatically. So many seasons, they have come so close, but never made it. I think they will go up but, as I say, I think it will be through the play-offs”.

If they do, it will require a trip to Wembley, a destination soon to be graced by former Aberdeen man Rory McArdle, still a colleague of Josh’s on the international scene.

“I have spoken to Rory and congratulated him on his recent success with Bradford City. It is a great achievement for them, getting through to the League Cup final, especially beating three Premier League teams on the way. He is on cloud nine at the moment and I don’t think he can take in what has happened. But that is what happens in football. On minute you are on the bench in a far flung place on a freezing Tuesday night and the next moment you are playing in a major cup final.

“That is why you can never be complacent in football and also why you should never get too down if things are not going well. Rory McArdle is the perfect example of that. It might not work out with you and one manager, but it might be completely different with another one and you might be flying.

“It is some achievement for him to be playing at Wembley for the second time and his career still has a long way to go yet – in the past, he played there with Rochdale and he scored the winner as well. People can only dream about that and he is getting the chance to do it for a second time. He is a great lad and I wish him and his team all the best”.

A cup final is something that the Dons can only dream about once again after our hopes were dashed at Easter Road last Sunday afternoon. Josh didn’t need twitter to make it clear just how devastated he was by that defeat to Hibernian.

“Sunday was a massive disappointment. The three years I have been at Aberdeen, I have been at Hampden three times and we have got beat every single time and everyone was desperate to put that right. Unfortunately, it will have to wait another year now. For us, we have to put it behind us and start getting the right results in the SPL, get back to the form we showed in that long unbeaten run at the start of the season. If we can do that, the top three isn’t out of reach”.