Sean Geddes admits to not enjoying the media spotlight, but there is one record that the Worcester City playmaker is happy to set straight. His astonishing rabona against Barrow in the FA Trophy two weeks ago – think Erik Lamela but with a chipped, floating finish – has been watched two million times online in the period since. It is a rare piece of craftsmanship that succeeds in smudging the boundaries between sport and art, and probably outdoes Lamela’s on an aesthetic level.
“It wasn’t influenced by that goal, though – I’d have done it anyway,” says the 22-year-old, who joined Worcester in September after a promising early career at Manchester United had seemingly derailed at Walsall and then Stourbridge. “It was actually the second time; when I was a youth team lad at Walsall I scored a goal just like it against Oxford. I’d been practising it in training and if you keep doing that then, sometimes, things will come off.”
If that constitutes a niche form of consistency, Geddes has a track record of weightier consequence in the FA Cup. Three years ago he was in the Stourbridge side that upset Plymouth Argyle 2-0 in the first round, assisting one of the goals; four weeks back, he scored both in Worcester’s 2-1 win at League One Coventry City, the second a fine, angled finish from the edge of the penalty area.
On Sunday he will seek to add to the eight goals he has already scored when the Conference North team travels to another third-tier stadium, Scunthorpe United’s Glanford Park. These are occasions that can resurrect careers and can do the same for entire clubs, too. Times have been hard for Worcester, who until last month had only really registered in the wider football vocabulary through a 2-1 win over Liverpool in 1959. They came close to folding last year and now, playing 15 miles away at Kidderminster Harriers’ Aggborough ground after selling off their St George’s Lane stadium, remain on borrowed time unless a new home is found.
“This is still a tough time despite the cup run,” says Carl Heeley, who has been with Worcester as player, coach and then manager for 20 years. “There are bigger challenges ahead. We can’t be in exile forever because the club won’t survive – it’s crucially important that we get back into our own city, so there are many obstacles to face. The money we’re getting in the Cup has been brilliant so far, but it’s only a small part in the bigger picture of what we’re trying to – and have to – achieve.”
Worcester are close to submitting plans for a new stadium that would bring them home. There is the potential for a warm welcome back; the city is known for its rugby focus, but 3,000 supporters travelled to Coventry and 2,000 are expected in Lincolnshire. Heeley believes his team can continue its upward mobility. Six or seven players, he thinks, are capable of plying their trade higher up the divisions, and Geddes is among them.
“He can do things in training that are beyond belief, and to replicate one in the pressure of a match was just incredible,” he says. “It is the best goal I have ever seen, a moment when you thought: ‘Has he actually just done that?’ – but he certainly had it in his locker.”
Geddes would probably have made the headlines for this weekend’s previews regardless of any rabonas, such is the Cup’s propensity to turn up footballers with full-time jobs worlds away from Premier League decadence. A lathe operator for a company that produces turbo housing parts for Mercedes’ Formula One cars, he can claim to have played a part in Lewis Hamilton’s F1 world championship win. But he has not given up on contributing higher up the ladder of his favoured sport.
“I’d love to get back into full-time football,” he says. “If I carry on playing the way I am and scoring goals then hopefully someone will give me that opportunity. I’m enjoying my football more than ever and, as long as that’s the case, I’m sure I will play well.”
Another match-winning performance at Scunthorpe would probably change the landscapes that both club and individual, 13 games unbeaten together, are working in. “We’re going well in the league but the benefit of getting to the third round would outweigh that,” says Heeley, who accordingly rested players for the trip to Hyde on Monday night and still returned with a 3-0 win.
“You have to look at the situation the club is in; getting there and drawing a Premier League club would be huge for us – life-changing.”
