Signed on the eve of the new season after he secured his release from today's visitors, Leo Fortune-West's Cambridge United career got off to a great start.

He scored four goals in his first three games, including a hat-trick in the 5-1 win against Farsley Celtic, he also scooped the Blue Square Player of the Month award for August, and at the time of writing he has scored six goals in 13 appearances.

Born in Stratford, East London, in 1971, Leo grew up supporting Leyton Orient - "It was safer in those days to go to Orient than West Ham!" - and was spotted playing for Essex in a county game at Tiptree by the Tiptree United chairman.

17-year-old Leo was quickly signed up and started out at left back, but during the course of that first season at Tiptree he converted to centre-half and then centre forward and has played in that position ever since.

An enjoyable spell with Bishops Stortford was followed by a move to Dartford in the year they went out of business, then Dagenham before they became Dagenham & Redbridge, and finally Stevenage Borough in 1994. His seven years in non-league football ended within the year with a £5,000 move to Gillingham in 1995, which meant giving up a degree course that he may return to when his playing career eventually comes to an end.

His three seasons at Gillingham got off to a great start with promotion in his first season to Division Three (now League One), but he broke his leg during the second season and after a loan spell with his boyhood favourites, Leyton Orient he was released at the end of the 1997-98 season. He joined Lincoln on a free transfer but was only there for five months, quickly going on loan to Rotherham and scoring four times in five appearances, before Brentford paid £60,000 to take him back to London.

Again it was a brief stay because Rotherham signed their former loanee for £35,000 in February 1999 and he was there for 18 months, enjoying a promotion and scoring 26 times in 61 games before Cardiff swooped with £300,000 in September 2000 to take the 29-year-old to South Wales.

"I've been lucky - I've always chosen good clubs which are established in terms of population and people," says Leo, "and I suppose Rotherham and Cardiff are the two clubs where I was at my peak."

He became something of a cult hero in his three years at Ninian Park, scoring 23 league goals in 53 starts and 39 sub appearances. They were promoted as Division Three runners-up in 2001 and as Division Two (League One) play-off winners in 2003, but Leo was released at the age of 32 as Cardiff won promotion to the Championship.

"I had a great three years down there and it was a good place to live too, but it's one of my biggest disappointments that I didn't get to stay on and play in the Championship," Leo admits.

He moved on to Doncaster Rovers, a club on the crest of a wave after their promotion from the Conference. Playing alongside current U's team-mate Mark Albrighton, Leo was part of the side that won promotion to League One in his first season, scoring 11 goals (including a hat-trick against Leyton Orient) as they clinched the League Two crown, and following up with seven more in 2004/05.

Released at the end of 2005/06 after scoring four goals in a stop-start season (including both Doncaster goals in at 3-2 defeat here at the Abbey in November 2005), Leo was signed on a two-year contract by Rushden & Diamonds manager Paul Hart in June 2006.

However, things quickly changed, as Leo explains: "I only started the first two games at Rushden last season, went on loan to Torquay for five weeks, and then went to Shrewsbury for the rest of the season, which I enjoyed; we lost in the play-off final after getting to Wembley.

Looking back on his time at Rushden, Leo says, "I was happy to be there but after two games they just didn't fancy me and I was moved on. I suppose I was lucky that I got away quickly and didn't have to stay there too long, and I had a good time at Shrewsbury so I'm thankful for that."

Leo is still based in Doncaster with his family but lodges in Cambridge during the week and explains it is mainly for the benefit of his sons Christian (7) and Evan (4): "We decided when we moved from Cardiff to Doncaster that if I move to other clubs we'll just stay in one place now. The children are in school now so it's difficult to move them around."

His loan at Shrewsbury over, Leo returned to Rushden & Diamonds for pre-season but he knew there was no future for him there: "I was on a two-year contract at Rushden but I knew from a long way back that I wouldn't be staying there, even though they had changed the management.

"I got back to Rushden and had a full pre-season but I wasn't playing any games. They asked some players to take wage cuts and to do some odd things, but trust has to go both ways and they were only asking the players to trust them and not vice versa, so I managed to have my contract cancelled and on the same day I got a phone call from Jimmy Quinn asking do I know any 'horrible forwards' - and of course I knew one!

"I know managers in this league so I would imagine he was aware of my departure from Rushden, and so I came here on the Monday to play against Leicester and signed a day or two later."

There were several other clubs interested in signing Leo, and he explains the thought process that led him to sign for Cambridge United.

"You always try to find a club who are well-established. Rushden has a great facility and a great set-up but there are no people in Rushden, and in fact Rushden is actually in Irthingborough. You know with places like Cardiff, Rotherham, Gillingham and also Cambridge, there's a catchment and if a team starts doing well then fans will come back.

"It's so much better when that happens rather than at a club with no fans, so the potential here was part of the attraction and my decision."

Reflecting on the first quarter of the season, Leo is quite pleased with the start we have made but feels we could be doing better.

"Looking back at the games, I think we should have had more points, but that's just me being ultra-critical I suppose. We can't complain and I think now we're beginning to believe we're one of the four or five teams who are going to be up there, which is important.

"I know this club has struggled in recent years, and at Gillingham in the three years prior to when I signed they had to be re-elected to the League and almost went out of business, but then after just one year they went straight up. So the potential is there and we've got the backing in terms of the local population and people to be a good club."

Picking out some highlights from his career so far, Leo mentions the promotion in his first season as a pro with Gillingham, and subsequent promotions with Rotherham, Cardiff and Doncaster, although there is a big regret about never playing in the Championship.

"After the first promotion at Cardiff, in the second year we were a better side - probably the best side in the division - but we failed in the play-off semi-final. Having beaten Stoke 2-1 at their place we lost 2-0 after extra time at our place and that was a real low for me, and I just think had we got promoted that year instead of a year later then I would have realised my ambition of playing in the Championship; I think I was worthy of it.

"I've been consistent at playing in League One and League Two and I just think that in 12 years as a professional there should have been a time when I played that one league higher.

"But overall I've been lucky and when a club gets promoted the whole town is galvanised and it's a real lift."

Returning to his thoughts about Cambridge United, Leo adds, "I played with Mark Albrighton for three years at Doncaster and when he knew the Gaffer was speaking to me we spoke and the first thing he said was 'we've got a lot of good young kids and we just need a few more older heads.

"Obviously Mark Albrighton is here, Mark Peters is here and I'm here, and if you're going to have older heads you need them in the middle, where the spine is, and it's working so far.

"I've been playing alongside Scott Rendell in most of the games so far and he's not as aggressive as me at the moment, which he has to learn, but what's been working so well with us playing together is that he's finding space that he's not used to because he's always been the big target man.

"It's been good for him and to his benefit and also the team's, and now with Lee Boylan coming back to fitness that's good for the squad, too."

The softly-spoken Leo concludes, "We've already shown in our first twelve games that we have a lot of ability and potential here. We're disappointed not to have got more from some of those games and I don't think there's anything we should be afraid of in terms of the teams we're playing.

"Unfortunately there's only one automatic promotion place, and the play-offs are a lottery. You can go into the play-offs in bad form and win it, or you can go into the play-offs in good form and lose it.

"But two teams will go up at the end of this season - why shouldn't we be one of them?"

The Q&A part of the interview with Leo will follow next week.

Andrea Thrussell
web@cambridge-united.co.uk

*An edited version of this interview was published in the programme for the match against Rushden & Diamonds on Tuesday 9th October, 2007

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