Interview with Spencer McCall

It’s going to be a really big couple of weeks for our on loan midfielder Spencer McCall. As well as being involved in our battle to avoid the drop, the young starlet also has the little matter of finding out whether he’s going to be offered a professional contract at parent club Stevenage FC. So after getting his first goal for the club and putting in a Man of the Match performance against Kingstonian, McCall spoke to WingateFinchley.com to tell us a bit about Saturday’s game, adjusting to senior football and his career at Stevenage so far: You must be really pleased with how the game went on Saturday, both in terms of your own performance and a crucial three points for the team Yes it was a really good game for me but I also want to give credit to the whole team because everyone put in a great shift out there. I’m pleased to get my first goal, I’ve felt it was coming so it was great to see it go in. In terms of the result, it’s a massive three points. We have been performing well recently and Meaks has just been saying keep doing what you are doing. We had a good performance in the cup defeat against Bromley but the result just didn’t come so we felt if we just went out there today and worked hard, the result would come and it did. It’s important that we keep doing that now and crack on to next Saturday. We’ve only got three games left now, how do you see them going, can we stay up? Yes, definitely. We just have to keep working hard, keep doing what we are doing and take every game as it comes. It’s not going to be easy but I really think we have a chance. It was good to see some of the results on Saturday going in our favour but at the same time there have been some really odd results in this division so you can’t take anything for granted. What we have to do is just concentrate on ourselves, not look at everyone else which is hard because you want to know how they are all getting on. But we have to forget about them, we can’t influence those games or results, we have to concentrate on our own ones. Moving on to your career at Stevenage, tell us a bit about that I got a scholarship at Stevenage when I was Under-16 and I have been there now for two years. They sent me out on loan to Wingate to get some men’s team experience. It’s coming near to the end of my scholarship now, so it’s almost at the time when I get my decision at Stevenage and it was important that I went outside of the club to get some first team experience. I haven’t received any direct feedback as yet but they are obviously keeping an eye on me and tabs on how many games I play, the minutes I’m on the pitch and any goals. How have you found your time at Wingate & Finchley? It’s the first time I’ve played senior football and I have to admit it was a bit of a shock at first, it took me a little while to get used to it, they threw me in at the deep end here but it’s an experience that I am relishing and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. There’s a really great bunch of lads here, they are a close bunch and some of them have decent banter, not all of them though! I love Meaks as well, he’s supported me ever since I came here, praised me and told me what things to improve on and what things to keep on doing, he has been a massive help. Have you noticed an improvement in your game? Yes massively, it’s really brought on a different side of my game, the dirty side of things and also that winning mentality. When you are playing youth team football, I know you obviously want to win but it’s not about having to get those three points. Compare that with here today when we knew we had to go out and get those three points, it was massive nothing else would have done. That’s one thing I will really take from my time at the club and also experiencing all the different scenarios, what to do when we are under the cosh, what to do when we are on top in the game, whether to hook it up, when to try and keep it in their area more than ours. I’ve learnt that sometimes rather than trying to pass it you just need to hook it on and just be clever knowing when to play and when not to. And finally looking to the future, have you set out any career ambitions or targets? My career ambition is of course to be a professional footballer and play at the highest level that I can but at the moment I’m just focusing my ambition on signing a professional contract. I get my decision in a couple of weeks; we will have to see how that goes because obviously we changed managers at the end of last month with Graham Westley coming back in. I’m training at Stevenage Mondays to Fridays and there are going to be a few in-house games that I’ll be involved in over the next couple of weeks and then I find out after that, I’ll just have to wait and see.