Ritchie Hanlon
Signed with minutes to spare before the August 31st transfer deadline, Ritchie Hanlon has added experience to the midfield and also got off the mark with two long-range goals in the match at Grays.
That eight-goal roller coaster at Grays seems a good point to begin this interview, with Hanlon scoring two of United's three goals to break the team's five game goal drought, but still finishing on the losing side.
"It was a weird game because I thought we actually played quite well but made five bad mistakes. Going forward and attacking-wise the team played really well but defensively we were really poor and you can't play against teams like Grays, who are on top of their form at the moment, and let them concede five goals.
"In that respect the game was an uphill battle but personally I was quite pleased with my performance, so it was a weird situation.
"It was good to get those first goals and I think it's 55 in my career now, so hopefully I can knock a few more in."
That game opened the door to more United goals, with eleven in the last four games, and Ritchie has a theory about that.
"It may sound stupid when talking about a 5-3 defeat, but I think the second half performance gave the boys a lot of confidence. Since then we've played better and I think that showed in the performances against Altrincham and certainly the second half against Burton last week.
"Hopefully that will continue and we can win a few games, and that will put us back up there again."
Speaking with the experience of someone who was promoted from the Conference with Rushden & Diamonds, the Wembley-born 27-year-old is one of the older players in a young squad and he grins, "I've never ever been one of the oldest ones in the squad before, I've always been in the 'youngies' team before."
A lifelong Tottenham fan who bought his young son a new Spurs shirt recently, Ritchie had a good grounding as a young footballer and he came through the ranks at Chelsea to captain the youth team, where his team-mates included Jody Morris (now Millwall) and Neil Clement (WBA).
"I used to clean Mark Hughes' boots, which was a good one as he used to look after me," he recalls, "and people like Dennis Wise were there at the time. It was disappointing not to get a contract but I think it made me a stronger person and you learn good habits at a club like that."
Released at 18, he joined Welling United in the Conference and enjoyed prolific form there before Rushden & Diamonds swooped to buy him.
However his stay there only last six months and before he made a senior appearance he joined Peterborough United in December 1998 in a player-exchange deal.
"I was there for just over three years, although I had a couple of loan spells back to Welling, too," he recalls. "I know the manager and he just kept asking for me to go back there on loan because I scored so many goals, and I was only a young lad and needed the experience.
"Back then it was hard to gain experience as a young lad because managers would use the experienced players, but now of course that's changed."
In 2001 Rushden signed him again in a £30,000 deal and he had a great first season there, finishing in the play-offs, but then disaster struck in 2002 when he damaged his cruciate ligament and was out for a total of 17 months.
"It was hard to swallow after such a good first season," he admits, "but I came back after about nine months, then in my first game back in pre-season I tore my cartilage in that same knee so I was out again, and it was a total of 17 months from appearing in the first team to returning to the first team."
Finishing the 2003/04 season with Rushden, Ritchie returned to the Conference by joining Stevenage Borough at the beginning of last season, but after six months he got the opportunity to join Lincoln City and reached the play-off final with them, losing to Southend United.
Moving on again this summer, he signed for ambitious Conference South club Weymouth but only made three starts and one appearance from the bench before making the switch to the Abbey Stadium.
It was so far away from his family home in Watford that travelling was very difficult, and when he learned that Rob Newman had rekindled his interest from earlier in the summer, Ritchie was delighted to make the switch.
"I only got the call from Cambridge two days after I'd signed for Weymouth," he explains, "although I spoke to loads of clubs in the summer and Weymouth made me a fantastic offer. They're trying to go places and I was on a two year deal with really good money there, but it didn't work out for me because it was so far away and I wanted to get back nearer home.
"I knew Cambridge were interested so we spoke and it was just an ideal move to come here. It was ten to midnight on deadline day when the deal went through, and I'm really enjoying myself here.
"It's like a breath of fresh air. I'm really enjoying my football and hopefully that shows in my performances. I think when your environment is right you tend to play better football, whereas when you're not happy your football can suffer.
"Although we lost the first four games after I signed, I've really enjoyed myself and the team spirit is excellent. There are a lot of young lads here, but when I was a youngster I didn't get the chance that they've got now."
Speaking about his unaccustomed role as one of the senior players at the club, Ritchie speaks highly of the young players at the Abbey and hopes he can help them as they learn on the job this season.
"There's loads of ability at the club but confidence was a little bit low when I came because of the defeats and obviously young players need confidence to play well. They have the ability, and when they're getting experience by playing matches they can only get better.
"Hopefully I can be one of those people - along with Mark Peters and Duncs and people like that - who can hopefully pull them through it by just offering some guidance and channelling them in the right direction."
Ritchie has played under several managers at his previous clubs and he counts himself fortunate to have played for some managers he admires.
"At Chelsea my manager was Graham Rix, who was an excellent coach and I'd like to think some of that influence shows in my passing game. They drilled passing into you at Chelsea and Glenn Hoddle used to come and train with the youth team sometimes after the first team had finished, so the experience was unbelievable.
"Then, at the other end of the spectrum, Brian Talbot was really good as well. He was more about organisation and it was a different kind of football in the lower leagues but I enjoyed that and he was really good, and then of course at Peterborough I had Barry Fry, who's a bit of a nutter!
"So I've had a wide variety of managers, all people work in different ways, and it's been a good experience for me. You can see all different aspects of the way they work and take a little bit from all of them."
Asked about the prospects for our newly-assembled squad this season, he responds, "I'd say we have a promising team and there's a long, long way to go - anything can happen. There are some teams with the resources to spend money on players that we haven't got, but anyone can beat anyone if you get a bit of confidence.
"In my first season at Rushden we were in the bottom six for the first ten games but we ended up reaching the play-offs and should really have won, but we lost in the final. But we got there on a good run and we were full of confidence because we were winning nearly every week, and once you get in that winning habit you'll win games 1-0 when you didn't deserve to.
"With all the changes in football I think a lot of the teams in any league are very similar and it will only take a little run of games to get us up the table.
"The talent is definitely there in the squad," he stresses. "There are some talented young players waiting for their chance - people like Paul Atkins, he's so determined everyone can learn from him - and we just need to find some consistency to do that."
*This interview was first published in the programme for the match against Tamworth on 7th October, 2005.
Previous Featured Players:
25Oct05: Stephen Smith
05Oct05: Fola Onibuje
29Sep05: Mark Peters
Last season's Featured Players:
15May05: Your Players of the Year 2004/05
10May05: Tes Bramble
05May05: Tom Newey
30Apr05: Adam Tann
23Apr05: Iwan Roberts
10Apr05: Stuart Bimson
17Mar05: Matt Somner
09Mar05: Daniel Chillingworth
24Feb05: Dan Gleeson
17Feb05: Shane Tudor
14Feb05: Richard Hodgson
07Feb05: Warren Goodhind
22Dec04: Darren Quinton
06Dec04: Andy Duncan
24Nov04: John Ruddy
22Oct04: Kingsley Mbome
13Oct04: Jermaine Easter
17Sep04: Justin Walker
09Sep04: John Turner
26Aug04: Luke Guttridge
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