Striker Lee Boylan got off the mark with a debut goal at York on the opening day, added to it with a great winning strike against Oxford last Thursday, and he's looking forward to scoring many more for Cambridge United.

28-year-old Lee began his professional career at West Ham, although he was with Colchester United from the age of five and had spells at West Ham and Arsenal as a schoolboy before returning to the Hammers for his YTS.

He spent four years at West Ham and made one senior appearance at the age of 18, and when he was released at the end of the 1998/99 season he spent four months in Sweden with Trelleborgs.

"It was a really good experience for me, a new culture and a different way of playing football and at the time they were in the Swedish Premier League so it wasn't a bad standard at all," recalls Lee.

But then he became ill and returned home to England to learn he was suffering from Chrohn's Disease, an ongoing disorder that causes inflammation of the digestive tract. He joined Exeter City for two months, making the only Football League appearances of his career so far and scoring once in six league games, but had to leave at Christmas 2000 due to the Chrohn's Disease.

"It's something I'll never get rid of but it's well controlled by medication, and it hasn't affected my career apart from when I was at Exeter, when I had to pull myself out of there and was out of football for 18-20 months," Lee explains.

"It was a very bad time for me and I was very down, but then I got the chance to get back playing football again."

He played a trial game each for Hayes and Stevenage before joining Canvey Island in July 2001, and a prolific spell followed. It took him until December to get fully fit and become a regular in the side but he went on to net 170 goals in five seasons, including a record-breaking 57 in 56 games during 2003/04 as Canvey won the Ryman Premier and only narrowly missed out on a double when they lost in the FA Trophy final.

"We had a lot of ex-professional players who had played at a higher level and enjoyed their football, and Jeff King liked flair players who would go out and play and enjoy it," says Lee. "It didn't quite work in the first two seasons, but in the third season I was there he allowed some of the older players to leave and brought in younger ones who would help the club push on, and that's what we did and we got into the Conference."

Lee himself collected the Ryman Golden Boot for a record three consecutive seasons in 2002, 2003 and 2004 as he matured into one of the most deadly non-league marksmen. His 18 goals in 2004/05 helped to preserve Canvey's Conference status, and the following season he scored 14 times in 29 appearances despite three months on the sidelines with facial injuries after a collision with a goalpost.

Lee admits, "The two seasons in the Conference with Canvey were a bit of a nightmare for me because people ask me if I'm injury prone and I'm not, but when I get injured I do it properly! That first season I was out for 17 weeks with a broken ankle and I only played about 23 games, but still scored 14 goals and we managed to stay in the Conference that season, but it was disappointing for me to miss a lot of games.

"Then the following season I collided with a goalpost and fractured my eye socket in two places - as I said, I don't do things by halves! - and I was out for 18 weeks with that. And before that I'd had a Gilmore's groin operation and missed seven weeks with that, so the last year I was at Canvey I missed 25 weeks and still managed to get into double figures with goals, so I was quite happy with that."

When Canvey withdrew from the Conference at the end of that season, Boylan was snapped up by Grays Athletic but only started 16 Conference games, usually out of position in midfield, and in February he was allowed to join Chelmsford City on loan until the end of the season, reuniting him with Jeff King, his former manager at Canvey Island.

"Grays had me playing out of position and that just got me down, and I like to be happy when I'm playing," says the 28-year-old. "On top of that they had about four managers that season so I ended up playing on one position one week and another position the next week so I couldn't get settled and I really wanted to get out.

"But then the opportunity came to go out on loan to Chelmsford and so for the last two months of the season I was at a club close to home where I knew the people and could enjoy playing again, and it was a big weight off my shoulders. I really enjoyed my football again and scored eight goals in 12 games, which helped get my confidence up again, and then I got the chance to come to Cambridge."

Lee reveals that the chance to work with former top striker Jimmy Quinn was a big factor in his move to United, adding, "My confidence was down at Grays and my game was beginning to suffer, and I thought that Jimmy would help me with my game and get me back to how I used to be and hopefully better than I used to be. So it was quite an easy decision to come here and work with Jimmy for those reasons, and his ambition for the club is massive and it was good to hear that he knew exactly what players he wanted to bring in; you can see that he knows what he is doing."

One of those subsequent new signings was Lee's former Canvey team-mate, goalkeeper Danny Potter, which he was delighted about: "Me and Danny are really good mates in and out of football, we were at Exeter together so I've know him for years, and he's a good signing. He's a really good keeper and he's a laugh in the changing room too - a bit of a character."

Lee's Cambridge United career could hardly have got off to a better start, following a goal and a victory in both of the games so far, although he says, "It's obviously good to score goals but the most important thing is the team wins and that as a unit the team is strong. Everyone's getting on with everyone and helping each other out and there's a good team spirit.

"But from a personal point of view, it's massive to get off the mark and I want to score in every game, so as soon as we were awarded the penalty at York I went and got the ball! I just wanted to score and it didn't matter what it was, whether it went in off my head or my arm, I didn't really care.

"But the main thing is that the team has got off to a good start and hopefully we can carry it on today."

United fans can look forward to penalties with more confidence than for many seasons, as Lee also revealed that he took all the penalties for Canvey and only missed one in the last two seasons: "I enjoy pressure situations in anything, and I'm a confident penalty taker," he added, "so I don't mind taking them whatever the situation."

Lee played alongside either Scott Rendell or Dan Chillingworth throughout pre-season and now finds himself paired with eve-of-season signing Leo Fortune-West, and he believes United have good strength in depth up front.

"We have a couple of big lads in Scotty and Leo and Chilli's quite similar to myself, although obviously he's injured at the moment, and we seem to have a good mixture of players in those positions.

"Leo is a good target man and I'm used to playing off a target man from when I played with Neil Gregory at Canvey, but it seems to be a good mixture and it's just a case of keeping everyone happy. Hopefully my place won't get taken, but that's up to me to keep performing and doing what I do best."

Now that he is playing up front in his favourite role and relishing the challenge at a new club, what are Lee's hopes for the season ahead?

"As I said, we're all really positive. The army camp in pre-season helped massively with the team bonding and everyone speaks to everyone, there are no little groups like you get at some clubs, and we all feel that if we get a good start and keep it going we can win the league.

"Obviously there's a long way to go and everyone's got to stay together, and there can't be any bickering or anything like that; we need to stay together united like a family. If we do, we feel that we can win it, and if not get to the play-offs."

The U's number 10 also revealed that he has a number of pre-match superstitions and doesn't like to vary his preparations: "I always wear two pairs of socks, and if I score I keep the same socks and the same slips and boots for the next game, but as soon as I don't score I change the boots and everything.

"I like to eat certain things before games and if it's an evening game I like an hour's kip in the afternoon - just little things like that. It might sound weird but that's just the way I am and it's what I have to do."

Away from football, Lee is a married family man with two sons - Callum aged 5 and Tai aged 3 - and he says Callum is already 'football mad' and always has a ball with him, while Tai is beginning to show interest in the game and enjoys playing with his Dad. But he adds, "They like watching me play but I know what football is like and if they're not 100% into it I'm not going to force them into it."

We also asked Lee some questions from supporters on the club message board at cambridgeunited.com, starting with Ryan Chapman, who asks, "Have you ever adopted any weird or wonderful goal celebrations, and would you consider dancing like MC Hammer in the future?"

Lee answers: "I've got my own little 'one arm up' celebration that I've done for years. I point at the crowd and put one arm up. As for dancing like MC Hammer, I would do it if I could do it!"

Dan Mansfield asks: "How does it feel to score a goal in front of a bunch of wildly celebrating supporters?"

Lee replies, "As a forward it's a really good feeling, because obviously they chant your name and as a forward you always want to be scoring goals, so it is a really good feeling and long may it continue."

Matt Ramsey closes with this question: "Following a good pre-season and two goals in two games so far, do you set yourself personal targets as well as team goals? If so, how many goals this term would constitute a good season?"

Lee answers: "I do set myself personal targets but I like keeping them to myself so I won't be telling you what they are until the end of the season. But a lot of the players know what I've set myself this year so they might tell you!"

Andrea Thrussell
web@cambridge-united.co.uk

*This interview was also published in the programme for the match against Farsley Celtic on Tuesday 21st August, 2007

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