Neal Hungry for more Promotion Success with Ambitious Coasters

After the strangest of seasons, the Coasters have taken an involuntary step back in their bid for EFL status by 2022.

With two years and counting on the clock, they’ve turned to someone who knows very well what it takes to make the leap – he helped Salford City dash his new employers' hopes little over a year ago!

Now he’s back to help the Mill Farm outfit, led by Jim Bentley, rebuild. He’s even brought old pal Nathan Pond with him to help out.

“We’d spoken in the off-season because we’re close friends,” Neal told Oli Osborn in the latest of the National League’s summer features.

“We know the club was interested in signing us both and it ended up that we both got the deals done. It makes a massive difference playing with Pondy [Nathan Pond], I’ve been with him at Salford and Fleetwood, so I know him and he knows me.

“It was tough leaving Salford and then with the coronavirus situation and a lot of players being out of contract, I spoke to Jim Bentley quite early on and he made it obvious that he wanted to sign me. That was always in the background and luckily, we could get something sorted and get it over the line.

“There were other clubs interested but I’ve known AFC Fylde for a while. When I was at Fleetwood, we always played friendlies against them so I knew the setup they have here already. There was a lot of options but in the end it was a no-brainer to sign here.”

When any player in the latter stages of their career drops two leagues, most fans have already made their minds up what the motivation is.

So what gets a player with a decent back catalogue out of bed in the morning after all this time?

“I’m 34 nearly 35 but I’m still motivated,” Neal explains. “I’ve got no interest in going to a club and being the number two or three and not being involved on a Saturday.

“That shows the motivation and the hunger. I still want to play every game. I’ve had promotions in my career, and I want another one.

“The chairman is very ambitious, he doesn’t want to sit still, he wants to progress up the leagues. The season before last they were one game away from the Football League.

“It shows where we want to be and last year didn’t go so well for whatever reason, but we want to be up there and get the club back into the National League and move on from there.

“When you see the ground and the ambition of the chairman, you’re in no doubt that the club want to move forward. The players, including myself, that the manager is looking to bring in – lads who have been in the league and had success who know what it takes – that can only put us in good stead for the season.”

Neal played every minute of every league game when Salford won promotion. After a rollercoaster of a season last campaign, things didn’t quite go to plan.

As he explains, a thick skin is something goalkeepers have to programme themselves to have if they want to be successful.

“It’s tough as a goalkeeper. You have to be mentally strong. You might make a hundred saves in a season but make one mistake, but everyone will only ever bring up that mistake.

“You have to be mentally stronger than any other position. The older I’ve got, the more I’ve learned to forget about the mistakes.

“When you’re younger you sit on the mistakes more but now I’ve learned to forget about them and move forward to the next game.

“Unfortunately for goalkeepers there’s only one position. I’ve been at clubs where I’ve come out of the team – at Fleetwood I came out of the team and didn’t get back in for the whole season.

“That’s part and parcel of the job and that’s where you have to keep your head and keep positive, that’s the hardest bit of being a goalkeeper.”