EFL Q&A: Sean McConville on playing with Paul Scholes and worshipping Duncan Ferguson
GETTY/SKYBET Sean McConville is in the dock for the EFL Q&A
Having agonisingly missed out on automatic promotion from League Two on the final day of the 2015-16 season and then the play-offs last season, John Coleman’s side are hoping to consign those disappointments to the past by making it third time lucky. Currently third, they face fifth-placed Luton tomorrow. Influential midfielder Sean McConville has enjoyed a fine start to the season and this week takes our Sky Bet EFL Q&A. The 28-year-old former Liverpool trainee has flitted between League clubs Accrington and Rochdale and non-league Stockport, Barrow, Stalybridge and Chester, so his views on the game are grounded in realism. That doesn’t prevent him regaling us with tales of worshipping Duncan Ferguson as a lad, wanting to play alongside Paul Scholes and eating cakes in Starbucks.
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Were you always a midfielder? No. At Liverpool growing up I was a striker but from the age of 15 or 16 I turned into a midfielder. It was in the Liverpool set-up that they put me into midfield. I was in the same year at Liverpool as Jay Spearing, Stephen Darby, Martin Kelly, Jimmy Ryan – a lot of lads who have gone on to make a career out of football. I saw Jimmy on Tuesday because we played Blackpool and he’s there now. I’ve had a few games playing at left-back and right-back for Accrington as well, so I don’t mind that either. Best moment on a football pitch? My first Football League hat-trick was a big moment. It was at home to Macclesfield, the second home game of the season in (August) 2010. (Accrington won 3-0). I was still only young and it was a big achievement. The first goal got pulled to the back post. I hooked it back in with my left foot. The second one was more of a dribble into the box. I took a couple of players out and put it past the keeper. And then the last one, a few people said it was a cross but it wasn’t. I cut in on my right foot, I hit the back post and the keeper didn’t know whether to come or stay. He stayed and it went in the far corner. I got the match ball signed by all the lads afterwards and I still have that so it was a good moment. That’s my only hat-trick in the Football League, so it’s time for another one. I scored two this season against Carlisle and hit the bar, so I was unlucky there but hopefully another one will come. And I remember making my Football League debut away at Bournemouth (a 1-0 defeat in February 2009 at the age of 19) like it was yesterday, coming on for John Mullin. You always remember your Football League debut. Is there one regret you need to put right? I don’t live by regrets, I always look forward. I think that if you dwell on any bad times you have had in football, it will affect your performance going forward. There are certain clubs that you go to where you don’t fit, but it’s not through a lack of trying or hard work. I don’t hold any grudges against anyone. I just look to the next game, get my head down and work hard to try and better myself as a player and as a person. Even when we didn’t go up here two seasons ago, I don’t look back on it as a regret because we accumulated 85 points. I think any other season in League Two, that would have been easily enough to get you up. It was just a freak year when teams at the top did really well. Bristol Rovers finished on 85 points but they went up by two goals (instead of Accrington). That’s how tight it really was. Maybe you look back at the last home game against Stevenage with a tiny bit of regret because we drew 0-0. If we’d won that game, we would have been promoted. But again it wasn’t for a lack of trying. It wasn’t to be and I thought we were a bit demoralised for the play-offs because we didn’t go up automatically. We fell at the first hurdle (Accrington were beaten 3-2 on aggregate by AFC Wimbledon). There’s maybe a little bit of regret about the play-offs in 2011 when I got sent off against Stevenage in the second leg at home for a petulant slap. I was still young, still learning the game and it’s something that I definitely learned from.
GETTY Sean McConville is the captain of Accrington Stanley
Hardest opponent? I’d say it was Matty Pearson who played for Accrington. He got a move to Barnsley in the summer. I used to come up against him in training every day. I used to hate playing against him because he was a very good defender. He was always 100% in training, a top competitor, always overly physical. He wouldn’t mind leaving a foot in and he was strong. And after training he’d shake your hand and he’d take you for a coffee. I did actually play against him a couple of times as well when he was at Halifax and I was at Chester, but then when we both signed for Accrington, I was playing against him on a daily basis. Least favourite away ground? I bet everyone says Accrington, but I’d say Port Vale because the pitch is that big, you come off absolutely blowing every single game. The pitch seems two times bigger than any other pitch so you feel like you’re doing a double shift. The distance between the halfway line and the goal, if you stood on that pitch and then you stood on Accrington’s pitch, you’d notice a sizeable difference. What’s your guilty food pleasure? Cakes. I’m a cake fan. I do like a coffee and a cake, so now and then I’ll get a caramel shortbread in or a chocolate brownie. I shouldn’t really but I do enjoy it. If we play on a Saturday I won’t have one on a Thursday or a Friday, but if we haven’t got a midweek game, I’ll definitely go to the Costa or the Starbucks on a Monday and indulge myself in a nice coffee and a couple of cakes. And then run them off in training before the Saturday. Funniest thing you have seen in a dressing room? The manager (John Coleman) has got a little trick up his sleeve. What he does to a new lad is he’ll offer him a race. The gaffer’s not the fittest and looks like he’s had a few too many pies or whatever, but he’ll offer the lad a race for £50 to the halfway line and back on the pitch. The only stipulation is that the lad has to drink a cup of water halfway through. The new lads will think: “Yeah, I’ll have a go at that.” So then the assistant manager comes out with the water and puts it on the side. They’ll say: “On your marks, get set, go.” The new lad will get 10, 15 yards ahead. He’ll get to the cup of water and it’s just been boiled from the kettle, so he physically won’t be able to drink the water and the gaffer will run past him, run to the halfway line and run back. And he’ll take the money out of the lad’s pocket as well. I’ve seen him do that five or six times. That’s quite funny. But he’s a good manager, a great man-manager. Boyhood sporting hero? I was a big Evertonian as a kid, so it was Duncan Ferguson. And I was also a big golf fan and I loved Tiger Woods. I’d put them two on a par. I love getting out and playing golf, I always have from a young age, and I’ve always looked up to Tiger through his main years when I was watching him. He was unbelievable, winning major after major. Duncan Ferguson was a cult hero at Goodison when I had a season ticket. Again, it was my era. The club didn’t have the riches we’ve got now and he was always the main man, always rolling his sleeves up and giving it 100% with that enthusiasm for the Evertonians. Every Everton shirt I had growing up, I had ‘Ferguson’ on the back. I play golf off (a handicap of) eight but it’s about finding the time to play. I try and get out there once a week when we haven’t got a midweek game and it’s definitely my second sport. I love it. We signed a new lad at Accrington in the summer, Liam Nolan, and he plays off six. I haven’t played him yet, so I think a matchplay between us would be tasty.
GETTY Duncan Ferguson is Sean McConville's sporting hero