JAMES NORWOOD has always been a man in a hurry. After all, when he first arrived on the men’s football scene with Eastbourne Town he was still at school.
By then he’d already set one Ryman Youth League record and then immediately smashed it less than two weeks later.
But it’s not just this interview the 23-year-old has to wait for while England C room-mate Matty Pearson gives his thoughts in the lobby of the Baltic Beach Hotel.
Norwood has had a taste of the big time and expected it to be a much more regular thing by now.
By his own admission he’s made mistakes – a 19-month ban for drink driving an example.
But now he’s turning things around, learning from his misdemeanours and fully focused on fulfilling his unquestionable potential with club Forest Green Rovers and England.
As he explains when we finally get underway the morning after winning his second England C cap.
“I was about 16 when I first played men’s football,” he says. “I’d scored six in one game for the youth team against Horsham YMCA and then broke it against the same team straightaway by scoring seven.
“I scored 22 goals and finished top goalscorer after only playing eight of the 18 games.”
Playing for the men’s team got him noticed by Exeter City and his pro football dream was up and running.
Attitude
“I came on against Leeds for my debut and made a couple of starts before I went on loan to Sutton United,” he says. “I did well and got a new contract.
“The next season I was top goalscorer in pre-season and I was sent out on loan to Forest Green. I felt like I deserved a shot and if I’m honest my head went a bit.
“I got dragged into things a professional shouldn’t get dragged into like nights out before training, eating bad food and it didn’t help my game.
“Looking back now, I was sent out in August to Forest Green to say, ‘Go for three months and come back and be in and around’. But I saw it as, ‘We don’t want you’. My attitude was terrible.
“But I’ve come to Forest Green permanently and I’d like to think I’ve finally turned it around; 17 goals last season and something like 15 assists has maybe proved it – especially after the drink-driving conviction.”
That came at the beginning of last season and although he says, “things were starting to click anyway,” it acted as a real wake-up call. “We’d been watching a [David] Haye fight,” he explained.
“I genuinely didn’t think I was over the limit. I’d only drank at the house a good few hours before we went into town and I didn’t really total it up – it was a top up here and there.
“Stupidly I drove. I missed training because I was in a police cell. I didn’t tell my mum and dad because I thought I’d see it out and see what the ban was.
“The club found out because I missed training. On the Monday I was sent to the gym while the manager spoke to the players and the lads said they would look after me.”
Norwood repaid the faith shown in him by his team-mates and manager Dave Hockaday by firing 17 goals and making 15 assists.
He admits people may perceive him as a “joker who doesn’t care,” but it’s clear to see how much he does.
Educated at private school – St Bedes – he had a full scholarship on the table to study Business at Michigan in America.
“My headmaster, Steve Cole and tutor Dave Leggett played a big part in my life. I wasn’t the best behaved at school and I got sent to the headmaster’s office a fair bit so we had quite a good relationship.
“I gained so much respect for him and his ethics. I remember one time when what I’d done was quite serious, I probably should have been expelled.
“But he sat me down and told me a story about how his father-in-law was an All Black and he told him he needed to get his life straight if he was going to marry his daughter.
“It was a completely different way of handling things. That’s what I like.”
And he likes to have fun.
“After playing with Adam Stansfield at Exeter, when he died it made me realise anything can happen,” he says.
“Life’s too short. It’s about enjoying things. I felt as though I fell out of love with it a couple of years ago. I thought, ‘You know what, I’m going to have some fun.’
“It’s turned out, I scored 17 goals last year, four this year already and I’m having a good time. And I’ve played for England twice.”
Norwood clearly thrives on the big stage. Having banged one in at Wembley for England schoolboys against France, he fired a second-half hat-trick on his C debut in Bermuda.
In Latvia he couldn’t get on the scoresheet, but he played the full 90 minutes and wants more.
“I wanted to be more of a leader this time because I’ve been away before,” he says. “I wanted to show the new lads what we do here. Things like sitting in a different seat at meal time so you can speak to different people, tidying up after yourself, just trying to help out.”
For now he’s back to his club, trying to help their Skrill Premier title quest and get in the League.
Norwood, who praises Hockaday for sticking by and pushing him, says: “I guess I’m impatient because this is not how I saw my life being at 23 – I saw myself with a girlfriend and a mortgage!
“I saw myself playing in the Football League. I still think I can play there, but I’m 23 now and it’s still not happened.
“I probably had a bad reputation in football and it’s difficult to get rid of but I’m not the same person I was a few years ago.
“I’m at a great club now trying to push into the Football League and hopefully I can help them do it.”
