The following is a passage from 'The Little Old Champions' by Ben Nichols. More details below.
January 3rd, 2020, a much needed striker comes through the doors at Cheltenham Town, arriving from League One Doncaster. The enthusiastic and sometimes ‘a bit random’ attacker joined on a one and a half year deal for an undisclosed fee and was instantly worth the money. A debut goal against Oldham Athletic was followed by another against Walsall which led to four in his first five games.
But how did life for then Conference South side Billericay Town lead to the heights of the Football League and a goal against one of the best clubs in the world?
May started out at Billericay Town in 2013, playing twice in 2012/13 season. His first appearance coming on the 13th of May as he made the bench and came on in a 4-1 win over Hayes and Yeading. April 16th saw him step up to make his first start in a 3-2 loss to Staines Town, a trip to Weston-Super-Mare followed but it came with another defeat as they lost 1-0 to the Somerset side. 2013 also saw May on the books of Corinthian, a year before Cheltenham’s 2017/18 top scorer Mo Eisa bagged 16 in 18 for the London side.
The Kent outfit have also been represented by the likes of Andy Hessenthaler and Jimmy Bullard. May was in the reserves side at 18 years old where he was praised for his ‘undoubted talent’ and tipped for the Football League and professional football.
Chatham Town of the Isthmian League Division One North followed, during which he was dual registered with National League side Bromley. Cheltenham did the double over Bromley in the 2015/16 season, winning 2-1 and 4-1. The Ravens finished third in 2014, losing out on promotion to Ebbsfleet in the play offs. May’s Chatham departure was unexpected, with manager Kevin Watson left having to fill gap he left late on in the window.
The striker’s tour of Kent continued in what was a very busy 2014 as he joined VCD Athletic, who won the 2013/14 Isthmian League Division One North. Erith and Belvedere came soon after where the now prolific goal scorer was starting to make a name for himself. May was then picked up by Farnborough in October and scored 25 in the Southern Counties East Football League.
Hailed as Kent’s leading goal scorer, May went on trial for League One strugglers Crewe Alexandra but opted for Spencer Day’s promotion contending Farnborough over the third tier side. Day told the club’s website that it was a “a great opportunity for him to try at a higher level [at Farnborough] and we are excited to again give lower pyramid players their chance”.
The move didn’t quite work out as May returned to Erith and Belvedere after just two weeks and two appearances which came against Bishops Stortford and Sutton United in the National League South. A two year spell at Hythe Town came between 2015 and 2017, the Gravesend Goalmachine was loved at the club by staff and players alike, scoring goals for fun and winning the praises of all.
Hythe secretary Martin Giles told InYouArea that: “He was sort of the guy where you could have an average game against a side and at the end you’d won 3-1 because Alfie had scored three goals.
“He made goals out of nothing”.
Soon enough, the Football League came calling again. May finally turned professional in 2017, joining Doncaster Rovers for their promotion winning season, losing out on the title due to a certain club and their 6- 1 loss to eventual champions Portsmouth. The Doncaster Free Press described the move as a thing of fairy tales.
While at Donny, May played in a 2-0 win over the robins and scored three goals in 16 games in his debut season. Luton, Grimsby and Wycombe were his victims as he netted against two sides who have since gone on to reach the Championship.
His contribution to Duncan Ferguson’s side doubled the following season as he added six goals to his tally in 31 games. This included a run of four goals in as many matches at the start of the 2017/18 campaign, bagging against Blackpool and Blackburn in the league as well as against Hull and Bradford in the EFL Cup. Goal number five came in League One at the end of September in a 3-0 win over Plymouth Argyle, with his sixth coming against Rochdale in September.
The first half of the following season brought a further three goals in 23 games, leaving his Donny total at 23 in 117 in all competitions over four seasons. It was at this point that Michael Duff came in for the striker, January 2020 saw his arrival for an undisclosed fee and what followed went down in history.
“There is a lot of quality in there” is what Duff had to say of his new signing, and he was certainly right. The second half of the season saw Alfie May fire town to the League Two play offs, hitting six goals in 12 games before the season was cut short. May played both play off games as we remained in the fourth tier.
2020/21 saw us go one better, a further nine league goals and 13 in all competitions, including a very famous FA Cup goal against Mansfield Town (and the team we played after), winning the League Two title and bringing the fireworks with his rocket of a right foot firing home the opener against Manchester City to give Cheltenham an unlikely lead.
May didn’t stop there though. Although the season was at times frustrating for May, with easy chances squandered, he soon found his goal scoring form and saw his name enter the top five (and top two later on) in the league after a quite frankly incredible four goal game against Wycombe Wanderers which saw him lob the chairboy’s keeper twice. May was, unsurprisingly, our 2021/22 top scorer and scored key goals against Oxford United, Bolton and Sunderland. His new contract in 2022 brought a fresh sense of security in keeping May at the club. With plenty of interest in the striker from plenty of clubs, the added security of the contract was reassuring to all robins fans.
May just seems to get better and better becoming a completely different player to the one who joined, don’t get me wrong he was a great player at the start of his Cheltenham career but has taken himself to a whole new level since.
Without him in the side, we lose not only his goals but his tracking back, his dropping to receive the ball and his set pieces. Without May on the pitch we are a very different team so even if he doesn’t find the net himself, he probably played a part in someone else doing so.
And now for a quick anecdote. As part of my role as the club’s Academy Media Officer I was interviewing the Academy Manager Antione Thompson about Will Armitage’s move to Southampton and during this Alfie May walked into the gym (the only free room we could find) and made a noise that onomatopoeia cannot describe before promptly leaving again.
After regaining my focus and being able to talk again, I carried on and got the interview done. On my way home I saw a man eat a Collin the Caterpillar cake while gripping it in one hand and taking bites as if I were an apple. So it was a weird day all round.
Commentaires