By Jon Couch
AMBITIOUS James Golding has set his sights on the Premier League – and believes learning his trade in Non-League will help him get there.
The Maidenhead United defender is fast building a reputation as one of the National League‘s top young prospects, regularly drawing in the talent scouts to York Road while on loan from Oxford United.
Golding has already played a pivotal role in Maidenhead’s recent upturn in form this season, now he is looking to establish himself as a regular in a senior set-up and take his promising career to the next level.
“I’m really enjoying my football at the moment,” the 20-yearold told The NLP. “My main aim at this stage of my career is to get games under my belt and show people what I can do.
“Growing up, I had aspirations of playing in the Premier League and nothing has changed.
“Playing Non-League football has been really important to me. It has helped me mature as a player and has really opened my eyes because it is totally different to academy football.
“I’ve played Southern League, Conference North, Conference South and now the National League, and playing through the divisions like that, at such a young age, shows you what football is about.
“It has given me a good platform to get games under my belt and help me kick on in the future.”
Golding made his Oxford debut in the EFL Trophy against Tottenham Hotspur academy as a 17-year-old and made two more first-team appearances before joining Banbury United on loan in January 2022.
There, he formed part of the Puritans side which romped to the Southern League Premier Central title by 23 clear points.
“I wasn’t too clued up on Non-League when I first went on loan but I soon discovered that there are a lot of really good players at all levels of Non-League,” Golding admitted.
“At Banbury, we won the league by 20-plus points and if you look at the players now, they’ve gone on to progress their careers. The standard is a lot higher than people give it credit for.”
A month-long loan at Dartford followed before Golding first joined Maidenhead United in September 2023 where a ten-game stint persuaded Alan Devonshire to lure him back to Berkshire at the start of this campaign.
Wily boss Devonshire has helped launch the careers of many an up-and-coming prospect in the Football League and Golding sees the 68-year-old as the perfect mentor in which to progress.
“When I first went on loan to Maidenhead, my Dad told me what a great player he was for West Ham and what a legend he is there,” said Golding, a Republic of Ireland U19 international, who has occupied a central-midfield role in recent weeks, chipping in with crucial goals against Dagenham & Redbridge and Oldham Athletic.
“He has just given me the confidence to go out there and play and has a lot of trust in my ability.
“In my first spell, I didn’t even have a training session before I got thrust into the starting eleven. It feels so good to have someone like that give you confidence in to go out and play.
“One of the best things about playing under him is that he gives the group confidence that we can beat anyone on any given day.
“Even though we respect the big teams we play against, we are not afraid of playing anyone.
“He [Devonshire] makes us believe that when we are in form we can pick up points against anyone in this league. That gives us the confidence to take games to teams and show what we can do.”
Golding, though, has missed out on one big opportunity to catch the eye with suspension ruling him out of Maidenhead’s big FA Cup clash with Leyton Orient yesterday.
“I’m devastated I can’t play,” he admitted. “I didn’t realise until after the replay in the last round [against Taunton] but it’s about the team, not me, so I’ll certainly be there watching and cheering on the lads.”
Golding is a young man with a strong team ethic, but with his Maidenhead loan up in January, he’s also got one eye on his own bright future.
“The aim is to go back to Oxford and kick on but all I can focus on is the here and now and playing well every weekend,” he added.
“I’ll take things one step at a time but I do have dreams to play at the highest level possible.”
