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Craig Maskell
Forward, born in Aldershot 10/4/1968. Came through the Southampton youth set-up but moved to Huddersfield Town after a loan spell at Swindon Town. He then joined Reading in the summer of 1990 and stayed for two full seasons before returning to Swindon. He then went back to Southampton and had a loan spell at Bristol City before joining Brighton and Hove Albion and then Leyton Orient. He left League football in the summer of 1999 and became player-ciach at Hampton & Richmond Borough. He stayed there until May 2002, when he joined Aylesbury United.
From The Times on 16/11/2000:
Maskell achieves new goals after leaving the big league behind
Craig Maskell has had no cause to regret the spur-of-the-moment decision he made when walking off the Wembley turf in May last year, having played as a substitute in the Leyton Orient team defeated by Scunthorpe United in the Nationwide League third division play-off final. "I turned to one of my team-mates and said 'that's enough'," Maskell said. "I'd spent too much time away from my family and too little time on the pitch at Orient." Eighteen months later, Maskell, still only 32, has found renewed fulfilment as a coach and leading goalscorer at Hampton and Richmond Borough. He is delighted to have helped the Ryman League premier division club to reach the first round of the FA Cup for the first time and is looking forward to jousting with Barnet at Underhill on Saturday.
Maskell got to know John Still, the Barnet director of football, on a Uefa coaching course in the summer and relishes the prospect of a duel with Tony Cottee, the third division club's recently appointed player-manager. "He's had a far more illustrious career than myself," Maskell said. "But we're similar types of players, neither exactly big target men, with similar games. We shall see who comes out on top in a battle within the battle."
At his peak, Maskell was a £250,000 forward who enjoyed a rush of goals at Huddersfield Town after an apprenticeship with Southampton, more success at Reading and a career highlight as a goalscorer in the Swindon Town side that beat Leicester City 4-3 in a first division play-off under the playermanagement of Glenn Hoddle in 1993.
A stop-start half-season in the top flight with Swindon and an in-and-out return to The Dell was followed by playing through the angry final days that Brighton and Hove Albion spent at the Goldstone Ground and a final, frustrating 18 months at Orient.
Like any thoughtful, ambitious coach in the making, Maskell carefully stored away the qualities that he most admired in the many managers with whom he worked. "I try to take the best of them," he said. "I look to Glenn Hoddle for his ability to create flair in attack and Lawrie McMenemy because he was so good at man-management. Most of my ideas on defensive organisation I learnt from Dave Merrington, who was youth-team coach at Southampton. He was fantastic. You just have to look at the players he found for the club, not just myself but Matt Le Tissier, Alan Shearer, the Wallaces and another dozen or so less well-known players who had good careers."
Maskell, rung up out of the blue before the start of last season by Victor Searle, the chairman, was swiftly sold on Hampton - and the feeling is mutual. Steve Cordery, a manager schooled in the art of making much out of little at Yeading, said: "It's the professional way he goes about his job. Craig's obviously got the natural ability and an awareness of players and situations around him. For someone to come out of the professional game and show his level of enthusiasm and commitment speaks volumes for him as a person."
The likes of Leroy Griffiths, a pacy striker, Peter Barnsby, a classy centre back, Warren Williams and Dean Green are all benefiting from Maskell's encouragement. "The thing I find most difficult about playing and coaching is trying to put things right on the pitch if the forwards, midfield or defence isn't working as a unit," Maskell said.
Maskell has proved himself adept not just at the technical aspects of coaching but also the psychological tricks. When Hampton were drawn into relegation trouble towards the close of last season, he told the squad that they were lucky not to have their fate resting on one match as Brighton endured when escaping relegation to the Conference in 1997 by drawing 1-1 away to Hereford United on the last day of the season.
Three wins and a 1-1 draw away to Aldershot Town later and Hampton had a highest finish of thirteenth in the table. That form has been seen to no better effect this season than in a Cup run that has brought 3-0 wins away to Windsor and Eton and Merthyr Tydfil, and a 5-0 thrashing of Worcester City at home. For a day job, Maskell has found an equally challenging role as coach at Southgate College, where young players prematurely discarded by the professional game are made ready to pursue new avenues both within and outside football. Training at Hampton on Tuesdays and Thursdays ties in nicely before he sets off down the M3 back to his home in Southampton.
If Alison, Maskell's wife, and their two daughters see as little of him as ever, he is at least trying to make it up to them by spending his spare time helping to turn their bungalow into a full-grown house.
Southbank songs:
After his signing: "Super, super Craig, super, super Craig, super, super Craig, super, Craig-y Maskell."
Before too long it was "Sell, sell Craig Maskell, sell, sell Craig Maskell, sell, sell Craig Maskell. He's a lazy bastard."
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