Hargreaves happy to playing in 4th Round

Former Hereford United player Chris Hargreaves is probably as surprised as anyone that at age 36 he will be playing in the fourth round of the FA Cup this afternoon.

His team Torquay, who will include another former Bull Tim Sills in the starting eleven, are at home to Coventry. And a cup upset isn't out of the question.

Hargreaves is a journeyman who has now played over 600 games in the Football League and more recently the Conference. And there have been some up and downs as he explained to the Daily Mail.

"While I was at Northampton we played Manchester United in the fifth round of the FA Cup and I scored the one and only own goal of my career. What a time to score it. There was only a worldwide audience of 60 million so it's not as if there was anyone really watching. We were 1-0 down, I was on the goal-line, got bundled and managed to slice one in for Man United."

He didn't take to every manager he played under.

"The manager at Grimsby, Alan Buckley, wasn't my cup of tea. He gave me so many rollickings. I remember a training session and he said, "You can be Grimsby's first million pound player". A few years later he sold me to Hull for 35 grand."

And he admits his judgement could have been better.

"I've have made mistakes, just as everyone does. I left Everton as a 14-year-old when I shouldn't have. When I was at Plymouth, Newcastle came in for me and the club refused it.

"Then I was driving to Reading on deadline day to sign for them and that fell through because I found out later on that my agent was asking for 50 grand."

He thinks he's lucky to still be playing and likes to tell younger players what they should do.

"Every day I go on at them - they probably get bored of it - about staying as long as you can on the training ground because that's where it matters.

"If you don't, you'll end up regretting it. When I was playing for Grimsby, in those days it was go training, go straight to the pub for a pint because it was the done thing. Back then the old pros didn't tell you any different. They used to be as bad as us.

"There came a time when I knew the big move had passed me by. Now it's all a bonus. I'm thinking about playing on until I'm 40, but I still get hellishly low after defeats. You can't change that, even after 18 or 19 years.

"I've got five huge boxes of papers and videos of goals and cuttings at home. It's quite good looking back but I need to put them in order. I can't keep collecting old papers and taking them from house to house. They're just going from one garage to another and the wife's going mental at me."

Hargreaves joined Hereford United in February 1996, having had a spell on-loan, from West Bromwich and played over 100 games for the Bulls before moving to Plymouth Argyle.

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