“I think the technical term for it is ‘f*cked it.’”
Josh Bailey has always been different. Unlikely beginnings led to an unprecedented rise in the ranks of an EFL academy, before his professional-footballing dreams took an unexpected turn.
Bailey sits up on his bed, the light of the winter Sunday morning shining onto the textured wooden frame. The farm that the Bailey family now resides provides a scenic setting for the story that slowly unravels from the academy product, even if it is through the lens of a questionable laptop camera.
“It came to just before Christmas (2019) and I had a game down in Dorchester,” the Englishman recollected.
Bailey eyes nursing career after injury-enforced retirement
“I jumped to control a ball from a loose pass, and I landed awkwardly and twisted at the same time and ruptured my ACL.
“I tore my MCL, tore my meniscus, and got an osteochondral lesion. I went from the heights of playing as an 18-year-old in step three football every week… it was a real shock to the system.”
That was the first bump of a slope that slid to the eventual reality of having to give up on the professional dream.
The 22-year-old was a late-bloomer in a footballing sense, only catching the eye of professional sides in his early teens.
Josh Bailey in action with Dorchester Town
“I trialled at [Bristol] Rovers a couple of times, trialled at Bristol City. They just kept saying: ‘you’re great but go and work on this.’ Then I trialled at Rovers again… they really liked my attitude; it wasn’t particularly my playing ability.
“Lots of the boys had been there since they were six, seven or eight so that hunger and desire had gone from them a bit. I was desperate to prove myself.”
Bailey signed for Bristol Rovers, his local side, at the tender age of 14. A couple of teething years blossomed into a scholarship at 16 which went on to bare rich fruit for the youngster.
“I was never really someone that got to play age groups up, especially at the beginning. Lots of the boys around me were.”
It wasn’t until Bailey’s GCSE year that he started playing consistently.
“As a 16-year-old I basically played most of the season with the U18s in all their competitive games.
“I got offered a scholarship, took it, and loved it.”
Enthusiasm glistens in the young man’s eyes.
Even with his playing opportunities, Bailey always knew he had to be prepared for life after football.
He came away from the scholarship with a Sport and Exercise Science BTEC and a Maths A Level qualification that he completed in his own time, two achievements that have proved invaluable.
The scholarship led to an impressive stint at Farnborough, which meant Bailey was thrust into a permanent role in the U23s, and even some first team action.
“U23 players do preseason with the first team… I played a preseason friendly with the first team. Everything looked great.”
The loan to Dorchester Town and an avalanche of games came tumbling down on the ex-Rovers player, with U23s fixtures in the week and Magpies action at the weekend.
Bailey recalls the events as if it was yesterday, but devoid of bitterness, only full of gratitude for those days, and to a certain coach.
Bailey on the pitch as a scholar with The Gas
“I used to do a Christian youth camp every August, and obviously that’s during the football season,” he recounted.
“I remember saying to him: ‘Chris, I’d really love to be able to go on this, my faith is really important to me.’
“He just stopped and was like: ‘I could tell there was something different about you. I could never really put my finger on it. Now you say that you’re a Christian, I can really see that.’ And I tell you what,” Bailey continued, “I’ve never had more encouragement from one person in one moment.”
Ex-pro Chris Hargreaves, his U23s coach, left a sizeable imprint on the ex-Gashead, giving him the confidence to continue to be different in what he describes as the “dog-eat-dog” football environment.
“My faith was the most important part of my life in football.
“Lots of people get defensive and put up all these walls and they’re horrible people purely because they’re just scared.”
DORCHESTER TOWN SIGN JOSH BAILEY ANNOUNCEMENT
“They saw my faith, someone who would pray before every game, someone who would be kind and compassionate and that was just so alien to them, so I felt really isolated and quite alone.”
Bailey is now an Adult and Mental Health Nursing student at the University of Exeter, and it’s clear, not only in his words but in his gratified demeanour, that the student holds no grievances.
“God was there throughout all of it,” he declares.
“I could see that God had put people in my life… to help, support and love me. I can see that I wasn’t meant to be there, and God’s got this plan for me. Life is so much better now and I’m enjoying myself so much more.”
Malachi Obrey 