Interview ~ Martin Taylor

Wycombe Wanderers' No 1: Martin Taylor.

WWISC: Martin, you're now one of the 'elder statesmen' of football, can you tell us about your career so far?

Martin: It all started when I left school back in eighty three when I had three months at Aston Villa with Brian Little who was youth team manager at the time. At the end of the third month they'd obviously got Mervyn Day, Nigel Spink and Kevin Poole and a lad in the youth team by that time. So I missed my chances, obviously they were a very big club at that time having just won the European Cup. At the end of my third month there I was offered a job down the coal mines and I took that as I need some money.

WWISC: You of course needed to earn a living.

Martin: Yes! And that was the first opportunity. So I left Villa and started working down the mine. I had two months at Leicester and played in six or seven games for them and then they offered me a contract from that Christmas to the end of the season by which time I would have been eighteen and YTS where at the time I had a job for life down the pit. I would have risked that for a six month contract and on a lot less money so the gamble wasn't worth it. Leicester at that time had Martin Wallington and a lad called Ian Andrews who was at that time supposed to be the next 'hot property' so at that point I signed for my local team. Derby County came to watch me and at the end of the next season which would have been 1984.

WWISC: What division were they in then?

Martin: They were in the old third division which is of course now the second. Anyway I went there on trial and at that point Arthur Cox said to me at the end of the month that he didn't think I was ready. He said that I should go back and have another year at Mile End and I thought at that point there my chance in professional football had gone. From then onwards I went back and we won the Midland Combination that year and we were promoted to the Southern League Midland Division which for a little village team was something un-believable. Things were going well and then Derby came back at the end of the next season which was our first year in the Southern League. I went down and had a few games for them in their reserve side and they took me on in the summer of eighty six.
In the year that Martin Wallington was there they'd got promoted to the second division, so it was Martin in goal and Eric Steele for the first year and then we were promoted to the now Premier League and we bought Peter Shilton in. I was still third choice behind Peter and Martin so I was loaned out to Carlisle and Scunthorpe so I had five great months out on loan which gave me that league experience so I'd achieved something that eighteen months before I'd never have dreamed of, so early in my career it was better than expected.
The next season Martin left and I became reserve team goalkeeper and I had five great years with Peter. Towards the end I thought I'd come on leaps and bounds and at the end he really held me back. I know that he then went to Plymouth but he was still the worlds best goalie and I wouldn't change the five years we had there. He then left and I had the chance of taking over in goal. By this time we'd been relegated and were again going for promotion so Peters last season was back in the old second division which is now the first. We were going for promotion to get into the new Premier League and I was only twenty five at the time and the pressure of taking over from Peter and pushing for promotion caused me to make a few mistakes and I was blamed for a couple of goal that probably weren't my fault and the pressure got to me. We'd already bought Steve Sutton in and I was dropped after four games so I was back in the reserves so I just plugged away again.
The new back pass rule came in the next season which probably made my career as I can kick the ball with either foot. I was confident and Steve Sutton lost his and by then I'd learnt how to handle the pressure. I got back in the team and it was me to start with and I won the fans over and played in the 'Anglo-Italian' cup final at Wembley. I walked away after that game and thought to myself "I could retire now". As a professional footballer you have two dreams, one to play for your country and one to play at Wembley.
I walked away from there thinking, "I've been more then successful". The next season we were in the play-offs and I'd been playing out of my skin but unfortunately we lost in the final to Leicester after we'd dominated the game, we'd had the best chances but on the day they only had a few chances and took two of them where we hadn't and that was the difference. I'd won Player of the year for Derby and I was quite a 'fans favourite' when four months later after a Wembley appearance I was out of the game.

WWISC: I believe it was a horrendous injury.

Martin: Exactly! I broke my leg badly in the October and it change my life, possibly for the better, such as how I learned how to handle it. I don't regret it although I wouldn't want to break my leg again, 'but' its how you learn how to approach things and I'm quite proud of the fact that for the two years that I was out, I buckled down and got on with it. I didn't blame anybody, but it was hard work.

WWISC: How did it happen?

Martin: It was a collision, dived at Dave Ridges feet and he slid in for the ball and his knee slapped my leg in half basically. So from then onwards it’s been different. Even after all this time there are things I can't do with my leg that I could do before. I've learned to play a little bit differently and I think I've learnt to cope with it and if people or managers who come across me understand that then its fine.

WWISC: I heard that at one time you were up for a transfer to Tottenham?

Martin: Yes, they were actually at the game watching when I was injured. Derby had already turned down a bid from Southampton about three weeks before as they wanted to build the team around me, Paul Williams and the centre forward and try to get Derby up into what was now the Premier League. I could understand that but the chairman said that there was a bid on the table and that there was something in the pipeline involving a double deal with me and Paul Williams. At the time Klinsman was at Tottenham and they were a top side at the time. But that is the way things sometime go, it wasn't to be. I'm not bitter about it, I don't have any regrets its just 'what's to be is to be'.

WWISC: It must have been a shock to you when they brought in Martin Poom?

Martin: Well, sort of. I'd got back into the team but I can understand Tim Smith not thinking that my leg could stand up to a whole season in the Premier League week in week out and of course that was his decision. There is not sentiment in football.

WWISC: Did you have second thoughts about coming down to Wycombe on loan? 

Martin: Not at all, I needed to play and Tim had made it obvious that I wouldn't even be on the bench. He'd dropped Russell, I'd got in the team and played well but he brought Martin Poom in and he was going to be the goalie and Russell was only a year into a three year deal and I was out of contract that summer so he made it easy for himself by letting me go out on loan. If I hadn't come here on loan who knows where I'd have gone. The fact is I came to Wycombe and I liked what I'd seen and although I was here only ten days before I was recalled. I'd obviously known John from his Derby days and there were two or three other players here who were at Derby with me so it made it easier for me.

WWISC: Mickey Forsyth was one wasn't he?

Martin: Yes! Mickey Forsyth, Jason Kavanagh and Mark Stallard so it made it easier in that respect that I knew people here but what I did see was a club that had ambition but then within six months of be signing in the summer John left for Aston Villa. We sort of lost our way for a year or so under Neil, no disrespect to Neil but we did. Now Lawrie has come in and he has given the whole team 'self belief' and confidence, we are of course the same bunch of players. We’ve reached the semi-final of the FA Cup on the strength of one signing really and that's Andy Rammell. That's the only difference between now and the team that was almost relegated two seasons ago. Obviously Sean is not there this year who is the gaffers major signing and Andy is the other one. Batesie has come in and he's been the only one of the gaffers signing's who's been playing and in that respect it's a massive achievement. 

WWISC: When I spoke to you a few weeks ago I made a slip of the tongue and asked how you felt about playing in a cup semi-final which seemed to confuse you a little but it seems I was right. Now you never managed this with Derby County so how do you feel about doing it with Wycombe?

Martin: It really is a fairytale and like I said in the build up to the Leicester game "they may be the favourites" but if we play well on the day and we've got to play to our maximum, don't let them play and sneak an eighty ninth minute winner and win one-nil. If everyone plays out of their skin and I have a good game and we take our chances and gat a goal, you know it only takes seconds to score at that in theory is what happens. We played them off the pitch, we were the best team on the day, we didn't allow them to do what they do to other teams and that's why we won the game.

WWISC: It was reported the 'we out Leicestered, Leicester’.

Martin: Exactly, Andy Grey has said that and we did. They took us lightly and we punished them and we are now ninety minutes away from the final. If we do the same again and I watched Liverpool the other night and they are an awesome team, but if we play to our maximum and they've got two big games before us with Manchester Utd and Barcelona on the Thursday and the longer the game goes nil-nil, the better chance we have.

WWISC: Leicester seemed to get a little rattled with nil-nil at half-time with questions and pointed fingers at each other.

Martin: They were the team under pressure, they were expected to beat us and that separates the good teams from the mediocre ones that they do win when they are supposed to win and that's why Manchester Utd win the league every season because they do dispose of the mediocre teams and don't lose to the teams around them and that is the difference. 

WWISC: That seems to be one of our problems, we always seem to struggle against lower placed teams but raise our game against the better teams.

Martin: And that is the difference between where we are and where Millwall is. On our day and we've proved it by beating them there in the league and here in the cup so on the day we're as good as them. Week in-week out that's when you find out who has the stronger team.

WWISC: So Martin, when it came around to the end of you contract here last season did you have any second thoughts about re-signing for Wycombe?

Martin: Not really, no! I didn't want to leave, I had no inkling to leave and I'll be out of contract again at the end of next year. I read on the internet last year that I played better because I was under pressure to play better because I was out of contract. Well to me that's a lot of nonsense because I go out there and give it my best, sometimes things come off and sometimes they don't. I'm in a position where every mistake I make is hi-lighted because it's a goal.

WWISC: That's the same for every keeper, you make a mistake and it’s in the net.

Martin: A lot has been said about the money that I earn but I sit down and discuss it with the manager and if he wants to pay me X amount and I'm happy with that then that's the end of it. I go out there every week and I do my best and some weeks it might not be quite enough.

WWISC: I'll be honest; you've earned us so many points on your own this season.

Martin: That's what I'm there to do.

WWISC: You won Player of the Year last season and must be seriously in the running for it again this year.

Martin: I'd like to think so. Winning Player of the Year is nice and it's good to win it or at least be in the frame for it because then you know that the fans like you but week in week out I'll be as consistent as I possibly can and of course some weeks are better then others. I've learnt that you can't please everybody all of the time.

WWISC: Going back a few weeks to the game at Selhurst Park, now that was some game.

Martin: The actual game itself wasn't the best, I don't think that after we equalized with Dave's goal there wasn't really a lot happening until ten minutes to go. We didn't look like losing but then we didn't look like winning either. When the penalty went against us you'd think that we'd have gone out there. I saved the penalty which sometimes happens, I just went the right way and then extra time had everything. Our fans on the night were magnificent and probably kept the lads going and helped get the equalizer in the last few seconds. The penalties were about who kept their nerve on the night.

WWISC: We read that you were the only player who didn't practice taking penalties...

Martin: Well penalties don't often get down to the goalie. In practice you have to go for the first one as after that you're second guessing them and they're second guessing you. If he puts the first one in the left corner will he put it in the same place again? Penalties are about hero's, if they'd scored the one I saved then he'd have been the hero, no-one would have said "Martin nearly saved it", but he didn't and I had the chance to become the hero but don't get me wrong it WAS a TEAM performance.

WWISC: Again in the quarter-final just after they scored you made a save at the feet of Akinbiyi when it looked as if they were going to score again. I've seen it again on TV and it was a great save. Do you think that he perhaps lacked confidence or did you just get down and get the damned thing?

Martin: I was always taught by Peter Shilton 'Stand Big' and when the lad was clean through I stood big an showed him the corner because that's where I wanted him to put it. I forced him to put it where he did and if he's going to beat me it's going to be right in the corner at the far post. He hadn't and it’s gone wide so its just putting pressure on him to beat me. That was exactly what happened at Leicester, he was through and had a touch and I thought, "yes I've got a chance of getting it" so I just dived at him and it hit me. Sometimes it'll go straight back to them and they'll put it in the net but it went somewhere else and we cleared it and from then onwards it was 'hang on for five minutes and quieten their fans down again' because on the day we were the better team. When Muzzy Izzet got injured Simmo came into the game and we started looking as if we were actually going to win it.

WWISC: I heard that the Leicester player were saying to each other to shut up and hold on for the draw.

Martin: At the end we looked like the team who was going to win it, and we did.

WWISC: I have to say I've seen the pictures of you in the changing room after the game and you looked 'a little' emotional.

Martin: Yes I was, and that's because of what I'd been through. That's losing a play-off final, being badly injured and losing two quarter finals. That game and the one's at Wimbledon and Lincoln were probably the first time I'd won a football where we'd really had to win. The one at Lincoln was a different kind of pressure, things had gone our way and we'd won. So the emotions just came pouring out and that was what happened against Leicester, everything just came flooding back.

WWISC: You're not the only one with emotions; half of our supporters were in floods of tears at the final whistle.

Martin: For Wycombe to be in the Semi-Finals of the FA Cup is unbelievable. Derby hasn't been in a semi-final since 1976, Leicester hasn't since 1982. It doesn't happen very often. Ok! Man Utd are there every other year and Arsenal and Tottenham are there every five or six years but in general there's a lot of big clubs that are in the Premier League that haven't got to the quarter finals let alone the semi's. To be honest it won't really sink until the week before when it all starts to build up.

WWISC: Martin its been great talking to you, and the build up to the semi-final will be something else, it will be so exciting and very emotional and I'm sure you'll play the best you possible can.

Martin: I'll try.

Ted's Note's: Martin proved to be a dream to interview, I hardly needed to ask him any questions he was just prepared to talk. Special thanks to Dave Peters who provided me with spare batteries when my Dictaphone went flat and gave up the ghost.