HOCKEY’S loss has been football’s gain when it comes to Tamworth midfielder Bradley Pritchard.

Nov 22 2008 by Colin Stoner, Birmingham Mail

Such was the all-action playmaker’s disillusionment with football when his dream of being a full-time professional was shattered by Crystal Palace the teenager was happy to throw away his boots and pick up a hockey stick.

It was a sporting ability which merited an England youth trial and earned him a scholar’s place at Loughborough University.

But thankfully for the Lambs, life at college rekindled a football love affair which had seemed destined for a Madonna-Guy Ritchie break-up.

And the 22-year-old English Universities player’s form in helping Tamworth rise to top spot in the Blue Square North has been recognised by becoming October’s divisional player of the month.

“It’s an award that means a lot,” said Pritchard. “The only other football award I’ve got came when I was 15 and I was players’ player of the year for my Sunday side. My football awards have been pretty limited though I’ve got a few hockey awards.”

He added: “I used to think of myself as a hockey player rather than a footballer. I used to play quite a lot and I had a few training sessions with England at the age of 16.

“After I left Crystal Palace, where I had been on a one-year YTS place, I was a bit down about football and decided to change direction. I took time out and concentrated on hockey and studies. I felt there was nothing left.

“But you can’t escape football. The more I thought about it the more I felt it was something I would have regretted if I had stopped.”

It was Loughborough coach James Ellis who helped put football top of his sporting agenda when Pritchard was studying and he took him to Nuneaton Borough. His footballing star was in its ascendancy once more.

But after being courted by several clubs when Boro folded last summer it was former Boro colleague Alex Rodman who suggested Tamworth.

“I spoke to Alex and the set-up at Tamworth sounded interesting, with the big attraction the chance to train three times a week,” said Pritchard, studying for a masters in sports science at Loughborough. “Initially there was some uncertainty about my situation because I had signed a two-year contract with Nuneaton. But with the club folding it meant it was null and void.

“I spoke to [manager] Gary Mills and asked it he would be interested in me and he was fantastic.”

If the journey which took him from Nuneaton to Tamworth last summer is only a few miles down the A5, it was a longer road which brought Zimbabwe-born Pritchard to England.

When his dad came to study for his PhD, the family came with him and Pritchard – at the age of ten – found himself in a totally different world.

“It seemed to be constantly raining – I didn’t go out anywhere without my hat and coat!” he smiled.

He’s certainly comfortable in the red and white strip of the Lambs and he has quickly become an all-action figure in Tamworth’s unexpected rise to the top of the table.

“We are there to be shot at now,” said Pritchard. “Nobody rated us as promotion contenders before the season started but after the start we have made we deserve to be up there.

“Though it’s a new team, we’ve got a lot of experience with players like Des Lyttle, Martin Foster and Craig McAughtrie. And the gaffer and Geebo [assistant manager Darron Gee] have been in situations like this before.

“We know, though, that we have got to keep it going. We’ve got ourselves into this position by working hard and we need to keep the same ethos for the next five months and see where it takes us.”