The FA Cup offers lower-division players a chance to grab the attention of a national – and sometimes international – audience. Often the interest fades away as quickly as it arrived but the memories will last forever
He’s 25 now and feels his moment has passed. Born and raised in West Bromwich, Geddes works for a local engineering firm and plays semi-professionally. His current circumstances are a world away from some of his former team-mates but he still has a significant FA Cup legacy to look back on. In 2014 he scored a brace for Worcester City in a famous firstround giant killing.
“Coventry were going through a bad patch with different things happening, so we actually did think we could win,” says Geddes. “We had a good team and we had nothing to lose. Apart from the last ten minutes, when they were throwing everyone forward, we battered them. We were comfortable. That’s probably my best moment in football. Especially scoring the second goal, because that was in front of our fans. There were 3,200 of them, something like that. It was just mad.”
Geddes was first discovered at the age of 14, when his Sunday team competed in a tournament in Manchester and his parents were approached by scouts from the city’s two biggest clubs, both keen to take him on trial. He joined Manchester United and lived in nearby digs, twice competing against Barcelona and others in the Nike Premier Cup, a prestigious youth tournament.
Whenever he returned home, Geddes would turn out for Walsall, who operated as a feeder club for Manchester United. At 16, the Saddlers offered him a one-year apprenticeship, followed by a guaranteed two-year professional contract. Believing that he had a better chance of making the grade there, Geddes accepted. It’s something he would approach differently now.
This story is from the November 2017 edition of When Saturday Comes.
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This story is from the November 2017 edition of When Saturday Comes.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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