Warren meets... Bradley Wright-Phillips

With not a lot to do on Wednesday night I decided to take in Crawley's latest friendly against local Ryman Premier Division side Three Bridges.  After the game, I noticed Bradley Wright-Phillips sitting with a few friends in the stand and I had a little chat with him about his career.

WL: Bradley, you've had quite a career, born in London, you began your career at Manchester City; how did that move come about?

BWP: Yeah, I actually started out at Nottingham Forest, along with my brother, Shaun. He got released from Nottingham Forest after they decided he was too small for them. The person that scouted us for Forest, brought us both to Manchester City and we both started from there really.

WL: Kevin Keegan gave you your debut at City, he's a bit of a legend, how big an influence did he have on your career?

BWP: Yeah, he had a big influence on me. When you're young, you don't know what type of player you are and he was the first manager really that believed in me and realised that I was a goalscorer and yeah, he really just helped me out in that way.

BELIEF: Keegan

WL: From City, you went to Southampton, how big a move was that for you?

BWP: Yeah, it was a big move for me and big at the time. I didn't really want to leave Man City but Stuart Pearce told me it would be a great opportunity to go out and get some first team football and it worked out well for me.

WL: Whilst you were at City, there must have been a few there that have gone on to be rising stars now?

BWP: Yeah, you've got a lot of them. The likes of the Stephen Irelands, the Micah Richards and the Nedum Onuohas. Even now, it will go on, they have a lot of talent in their youth team.

Ireland (L) and Richards (R) came through the City ranks

WL:  From Saints you went to Plymouth; starting off well there until they went into financial difficulties. How did that affect you?

BWP: Yeah, the move came about. I didn't want to leave Southampton, again. They had no manager at the time and again, I thought things weren't going too well there so I thought to myself, why not go down a step in terms of club size. Sometimes you need to go down a step to come back up and that's what I decided to do.

WL: You had a superb start to the season at Plymouth; you began like a train in terms of scoring goals. Charlton snapped you up and you haven't really looked back since have you?!

BWP: You know, it's good to be back home. I'd never really played my football in London and I'm just really enjoying myself at the moment.

WL: You top-scored for Charlton last season and it must have been great to win promotion back to the Championship?

BWP: Yeah, definitely, we had a really good season last year and it was probably the best time of my career. Hopefully we can have another good season.

WL: Your brother Shaun of course is another who has had a good career; when he made his England debut did it make you determined to try and join him in the squad?

BWP: You know what it is. Shaun's got his career and I've got mine. We've got different roles. Shaun's a quality player and he got his England opportunity and I'm happy for him. It could go down the same path for me. Maybe one day.

Shaun plays for QPR

WL: Of course you're a striker and, with Ian Wright as your Dad, he is a massive influence on you surely?

BWP: For sure, you know, when your growing up and your Dad is a plumber, you want to do that and you want to fix things like sinks and the like. Seeing my Dad scoring goals made me think "Yeah, that's what I want to do!"

Dad Ian knew where the net was!

WL: Finally, you're coming up to the prime of your career, where do you want to be in five years time?

BWP: I'm 27 now. I haven't got a clue! I hope you'll see me scoring somewhere. Even if it's here at Three Bridges! Yeah, hopefully I'll still be scoring!

Me and Bradley

Many thanks to Bradley for taking the time out to speak to me.