EFL Q&A: Shrewsbury Town's Mat Sadler on facing Chelsea ace, Birmingham and Mario Melchiot

Yet even the 32-year-old might not have predicted that Shrewsbury Town would be sitting proudly three points clear at the top of Sky Bet League One after nine games of the season.

Shrews club captain Sadler is the latest player to take our Q&A. He offers a self-deprecating outlook on a career which began with representative games for England at Under-17 (when Wayne Rooney was a teammate), Under-18 and Under-19 level, but which has so far delivered just one promotion.

A boyhood fan of Paolo Maldini, Sadler names Bobby Moore as his perfect partner in defence and admits to partaking of too much of his mum’s fruit cake.

Were you always a central defender?

I was as a youth team player. Growing up all my football was at centre-half, but I ended up getting into the team at Birmingham as a left-back and that was that really.

I kind of had two separate debuts at Birmingham because I played very early on when I was 17, but then had a few years of injuries and got back into the team when I was 20 alongside the likes of Matthew Upson and Kenny Cunningham, who were real good guys to have when you are first coming into the team and really helped you through.

Personally, I always wanted to play for Birmingham growing up and to get that opportunity was a big thing for me and my family.

For the next 10, 12 years of my career, I was always at left-back. Reverting back to centre-half, it had been more than a decade since I’d played there. It was a case of dusting it off when I first went back in there this time last season but now it all seems second nature. 

Best moment on a football pitch?

Playing for England when I was young was always an enjoyable time. I scored a goal when I first captained England in the Under-17s against Poland. That was a fantastic moment for me. I want to say it was at Peterborough’s ground but I might be wrong about that. It was against Poland and I’m pretty sure we won the game 5-0. I don’t whether he played that day but Wayne Rooney was always in my year. You could definitely see that he was head and shoulders above most of the players at that time. It was no surprise that he was being touted for a first team call-up. We were all 16-year-old kids thinking about our next academy game when he was scoring the goal against Arsenal and the rest is history.

Another great time in my career was getting promoted with Birmingham under Steve Bruce (in 2006/07). I had the enjoyment of feeling like I was one of the fans as well as getting promoted with the team.

Is there one regret you need to put right?

Less a regret and more of an ambition is that since that first promotion however many years ago, I’ve not had any relegations but I’ve also not had any other promotions. That is something that I am desperate to do, that’s for sure. I’d like to have that enjoyment of promotion again. It was a long time ago the first time around and I possibly didn’t quite appreciate it in the way that I think I would now. So that’s something that I hope to achieve and a real ambition for me.

You can’t stop fans thinking about such things but for sure there won’t be any uttering of that within the four walls of the training ground here at Shrewsbury. All we are focused on is the next point, the next win. When Paul Hurst came in as manager a year ago, he revitalised our season but we were something silly like six or nine points away from safety, marooned at the bottom of the league and this was in October time. The turnaround that he made was monumental but because of such a slow start, we were always around the bottom of the league and needing results all the time, which brings its own pressure. Fighting relegation battles isn’t enjoyable in the slightest.  You always want to be fighting at the other end of the table and let’s hope that’s what we’ll do this season.

Hardest opponent?

As a left-back, I always remember coming up against Damien Duff when he was at Chelsea. He was something else. Maybe not remembered as one of the best flying wingers that the Premier League has seen, but I tell you what, when he was in full flow, he really was effective.

He was up against me in the first half, cutting in from their right on his left peg. Then in the second half Arjen Robben came over and played on that side. And for the last 15 minutes Joe Cole came over and had a bash. I don’t know if they were getting any sort of success, but it was ‘play on me’ for that game.

That was when I was at Birmingham. We drew the game 0-0 so we did something right, but it was some assignment. Every time someone else came over to my wing, I thought: “Here we go.” You are talking about some right cracking players. With Joe Cole, you literally didn’t know which way he was going.

Least favourite away ground?

I’ve only played at Accrington Stanley once and fingers crossed I’ll never have to play there again. That’s probably being a bit harsh but the dressing rooms aren’t very nice. They are very, very tight. It is what you expect. It’s a place where you’re not coming to big stands with thousands and thousands of fans. It’s a tough place to go. The one time I’ve been there, I think we won the game but I’d prefer not to have to play there again.

What’s your guilty food pleasure?

I’m not a massive chocolate person but I do like a nice cup of tea and a slice of cake every now and again. My mum does a lovely fruit cake which goes down very, very well. When she brings the whole cake round, it’s a big struggle to not go through it within the day. I know I shouldn’t be eating so much of that. Fortunately, I tell her not to bring too many round to the house because they go as soon as they are on the table.

Funniest thing you have seen in a dressing room?

I remember Mario Melchiot when he was at Birmingham. He could talk and talk, Mario, so he was quite memorable.

But there was a player when I played at Walsall, a guy called Claude Gnapka, who played at Luton and he’d been around the block. The first game of the season, we didn’t know this guy. I remember he’d done well and we won the game 1-0. At the end of the game we were happy enough, but then he got one of the kit bins, the big metal containers, puts it in the centre of the room and starts playing the drums on this kit bin.

We’re all thinking: “What’s going on here? What’s he up to?” It was obviously something he’d done at previous clubs that had worked. He tried to get us to interact and before you knew it – fair play to him – he’d got everyone properly whipped up into a frenzy. We’d won the first game of the season, that was all, but we were bouncing off the walls because he’d got his kit bin and he was banging away and singing whatever song it was to whatever tune it was.

At the time, you’re thinking: “What a team spirit we’ve got here. Every time we win, we’re going to end up doing this.” But I don’t think we won again for another few months. That was the first and only time that the Claude Gnapka bin smash came out.

Boyhood sporting hero?

Paolo Maldini. He played in my position. I thoroughly enjoyed watching Football Italia on Channel 4 - it was an hour’s show - just to see the positions that he got himself into. He just played with such grace and calm on the ball and he was part of a fantastic AC Milan team. He was left-footed, he played left-back as well and he had such a fantastic mop of hair which made him very stylish and Italian by nature.

If you had the power, what one thing would you change about the game?

Something that frustrates me is the offside rule where centre forwards are not interfering with play, but they are interfering with play. There is that whole confusion and then a third man nips in. That frustrates me and I’d probably try to nail that down if I could.

Half the time, I don’t think the officials are quite sure themselves, so there is not a definitive: “Yes, this is offside.” They kind of make it up as they go along and hope to get it right.

Say there is a centre forward who’s been a bit lazy and not got himself back onside. Even if he’s not taking much interest in the play, for me that’s offside. And when they are allowed to become active again? That seems a whole mess as well.

Just put your flag up, lino, and we’ll all be happy.

Most embarrassing moment in football?

There are plenty of those. There have been some “Please, ground, swallow me up” moments. Especially as a defender.

There was one backpass when I was at Birmingham which haunted me for a good couple of years afterwards. I’m probably only just getting over it now. I think we were playing Reading in one of Alex McLeish’s first games in charge after Steve Bruce went to Wigan.

We were 1-0 up in a relegation dogfight and I’ve laid a backpass to Maik Taylor. It just didn’t have enough on it and Stephen Hunt nipped in, won a penalty which they scored and the game ended 1-1. We hit the bar and the post after that and their keeper made some unbelievable saves but you walk off the pitch and I have cost us two points. I was 21 or 22 at the time. I had been out for a long time with injury, I’d just had a good spell and then the new manager came in. You want to make a good impression and obviously that wasn’t the impression that I wanted to make. It was one of my last couple of games for Birmingham, so it probably stayed with me more for that reason.

Which player in history would you like to play alongside?

As an England fan and being passionate about all things to do with the England football team, I’d probably want to play alongside Bobby Moore and witness how good a centre back he actually was. There’s not as much footage of him as I would like. I watch all sorts of football day and night and it’s disappointing that there isn’t that much out there of him to watch to get a real feel for just how good he was. But from all the stuff I have seen, he looks a fantastic centre half. The guy just oozed class and the only relevant player to him since then was probably Rio Ferdinand.

I think it would be a pleasure to play alongside him. I’d watch and learn from the master, and play off his moves.

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