JAMIE WELCOMES NEW GENERATION

JAMIE Cureton is under strict instructions to keep his boots locked away following Enfield FC’s promotion from the Essex Senior League.

- Chris Dunlavy

“The chairman has pretty much retired me!” laughs the former Reading and Bristol Rovers striker, who remains on the club’s books as player-manager at the grand old age of 47.

“He made it very clear last summer that he thinks I’m more use managing the team and I can’t really argue – it’s the first year I’ve hardly played and we won the league.

“To be fair, the forwards were doing so well that I had no reason to play myself. As much as I want to play, the group is more important and everything was working so well.

“Don’t get me wrong, it’s tough. I still feel like I could do a job. And my son Roma, who is seven, always wants to see me on the pitch.

“He watched me play last season and I scored a hat-trick so every week it’s ‘Why don’t you play?’.

“I feel a bit bad for him because my two grown-up sons saw me play in my prime, so maybe I’ll just send him to the owner and play the sympathy card!”

Cureton’s prime was prolific indeed, featuring 20-goal seasons at every level of the EFL and the Championship Golden Boot with Colchester in 2006-07.

He subsequently featured in Non-League for the likes of Farnborough, Eastleigh and Bishop’s Stortford before joining Enfield FC as player-manager in 2020 and has now clocked up 376 goals in 1,066 appearances.

Domestic bliss

But if this is to be the end of Cureton’s remarkable 29-year playing career, the family legend could yet live on.