Greatest Hits? Perry's Journey Is Not Over Yet

Kyle Perry put his creative talents to good use at the start of lockdown. The new Redditch United striker jokes he’s been on the Step 3 merry-go-round in recent seasons but he’s scored some goals down the years.

- Matt Badcock

So the 34-year-old started trawling through YouTube for some of his greatest hits. A searing volley for AFC Telford. A lovely lob for Altrincham. A diving header for Ilkeston.

“I did 50 goals by Kyle Perry!” the effervescent Perry tells The NLP. “The first month of lockdown I sat through YouTube trying to think of games I played in and scored a goal. I managed to find 50. I put them all together, chopped it all up, put some music on it, and it’s something nice to look back on.

“It kind of reminds you why you started in the first place when you were a kid. Nothing beats the exhilaration of scoring a goal. You have an outer body experience no matter what level and in front of how many people. I can remember every single goal.

“There are some special goals on there. I could finish as well! I’d love to get myself super fit and finish like that again.”

Lockdown has helped the well-travelled frontman get really fit with morning runs and evening bike rides.

He wants a crack at management in the coming years but, for now, is still hunting that feeling of finding the back of the net.

“I don’t think it goes away,” he says. “People say to me, ‘You’ll be dropping down to centre back soon’. And I say, ‘I’m still scoring goals!’ I still move around a lot for a big man. The most embarrassing thing is the shirts don’t fit me. I think at Coalville it made the BBC that I had to wear the fans’ shirts for my first couple of games because they couldn’t get me one!

“But that sensation of scoring doesn’t go away. And if you put the ball in the box, nine times out of ten I will put it in the net.