Tommy Jaszczun

On loan from Rochdale for the rest of the season, Tommy Jaszczun is enjoying playing regular football and being close to his Northamptonshire home.

The Wellingborough-born left back was spotted by Aston Villa scouts playing at country level as a schoolboy and served his apprenticeship with the Premiership side. His progress was interrupted by injuries, which made it hard to get a settled run in a side at youth and reserve level at such a big club, but his first team debut came in a Worthington Cup tie against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

"After such a frustrating time with injuries it was great to finally get my first team chance, but after that I broke down again with a groin injury," he recalls.

At the age of 23 he asked to speak to the manager, John Gregory, about his future and they decided it was time for him to move on: "It was disappointing because when you're young you look at the senior pros and you want to do what they've done and you want to have what they've got, but you have to be realistic and I didn't want to spend my career playing in the reserve team.

"Out of the 25 lads who were there in my youth team," he continues, "I think only three are still playing football in the league now; me, and Richard Walker and Aaron Lescott who are both at Bristol Rovers."

Tommy's subsequent £50,000 move to Blackpool proved to be a success. He played 100 games for them, including two LDV Vans finals - one against the U's in 2002 - and a play-off final against Leyton Orient, and was there at a time when the club was making progress off the pitch, too.

"It was a very good time to be there," Tommy recalls. "Steve McMahon was the manager and a lot of people have a lot of respect for him in football, and he was probably the main reason I went there, but they were redeveloping the ground too and it was a nice place and surroundings for my family too."

From Blackpool he was pleased to return close to home when he joined Northampton Town at the start of the 2004-05 season, but the football aspect of the move was less successful.

"I'd wanted to move back closer to home so that was great and I played quite a few times for them in my first season, but I got injured at the end of the season and had a little operation on my knee.

"A few things went on with the manager, Colin Calderwood, that I can't really talk about, and I got married in the summer and went away on my honeymoon, and I got back to find that there was nothing there for me," he continues.

"That was disappointing but I signed for Rochdale for two years, which is officially my club at the moment, and it started out OK, but it's become difficult for personal reasons. I'd just got married and my little girl's in school, and I didn't want to travel all that distance every day and I didn't want to live up there and not be with my family either.

"I decided to try to get somewhere nearer and that's how this loan came about," he explains. "The manager at Rochdale has been really good and I think he knows Rob Newman and knew he was looking for a left back, so this has been ideal for me and I've enjoyed it.

"From a personal point of view it's been good, and from a football point of view I think I've just started to play how I can and the results have been better for the last few weeks so I think the whole team has gained in confidence. When you think that the manager started the season with only four players, it shows how far we've come when the teams around the top of the table are coming here and not finding it so easy."

Tommy also believes the long awaited second away win of the season, at Woking a month ago, had a big effect on the players' confidence.

"You can get into a rut by not winning away from home and put yourself under added pressure, when really you should relax away from home. If you get eleven men behind the ball and get results, then hopefully next year if you can start picking up points away from home and if the home form holds up then you'll be at the right end of the table."

A specialist left back throughout his career apart from a few games on the left of midfield for Rochdale, Tommy has found football in the Conference to be similar to that in the division above.

"In League Two you've got the teams like Wycombe, Grimsby and Northampton at the top of the league who have a lot of good players, but in the Conference it's a similar standard of football apart from the teams like those I've mentioned. I think if you took the other 15-16 teams and put them in the Conference then I really don't think there would be a lot in it.

"I think that's why teams find it hard to get out of the Conference and into the league but once they've done it they don't seem to struggle, and the teams that come down and assume they will bounce straight back up find it difficult to do that."

The personable 28-year-old was pleased to confirm the correct pronunciation of his surname: "Yash-jun", and revealed that he would be interested in staying on at the Abbey Stadium.

"Obviously I still have another year on my contract after this season so I'm not sure what will happen next year. I have to see what's going to happen at Rochdale first so I need to speak to the manager there and then speak to the manager here to see whether he's interested in keeping me long-term.

"All I can do is keep playing to the end of the season, hopefully put together a string of good games, and then hopefully something can be sorted out with Rochdale.

"Things are looking up for this club and you can see from the table where we would be if we'd won five or six away wins this season; there would be a massive difference. And stability and a settled side will help too, although obviously the manager has had to get a lot of players in and out this year because of the financial situation."

Tommy has not yet decided whether he wants to stay in football after hanging up his playing boots, but revealed that he has the option of joining the family business: "My wife and her parents have a cane furniture business, which I try to get involved in on my days off, and that's probably what I'm looking at at the moment.

"I don't know whether I'll stay in football and I haven't done my coaching badges - I'm not really into that side of football - but with a daughter and another on the way I'll need to be earning a living!

"I've enjoyed watching my nephew playing recently and I wouldn't mind getting involved in kids' football to start with, and try to help them out and pass on my knowledge - always assuming I have any knowledge to pass on!" he concludes with a grin.

Andrea Thrussell

*This interview was first published in the programme for the match against Morecambe on 1st April, 2006.

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