(Photo: Idris Martin)
By Sam Elliiott
HOPING for a better season after one to forget last time around? Have a little chat with Torquay United‘s new signing James Gray.
He’s seen your bad year and raised you one – he broke his ankle, had his drink driving arrest broadcast over national television and made front page news in the red tops when he was bitten by a false widow spider which left him unable to move for months.
Yes, 2016 wasn’t the best for the then-Wrexham striker but then again neither was it for the new Peterborough United forward Ricky Miller, you may recall.
Dumped by Luton Town after being charged – not found guilty of – racially aggravated assault, Miller was picked up by Dover Athletic and then cleared. The rest we know about, few were better in Non-League football last season.
Now trebling his money at London Road, the sky’s the limit for prolific striker Miller in League One this season.
“I’ve heard his story and coming through the other side like he did is something I aspire to,” said Gray, whose goalscoring antics on trial at Torquay United in early pre-season convinced Kevin Nicholson to make him his.
“It’s not been an easy period in my life but I totally accept some of that is down to me. I know I let everybody down by driving after I had been drinking. My family, friends, colleague and club, not to mention myself. That was the biggest mistake of my life.
“But now I’m determined that chapter is closed. I want to make up for what happened and football gives me a great outlet to do that. It drives me on.”
A big error, and one played out for all to see. His story was told on 999: What’s Your Emergency? and public humiliation – and court – soon followed for the punished player.
But he endured awful fortune, too. No pro expects to break their ankle, even fewer to have a ten million-to-one spider bite that had the 25-year-old questioning if he would ever recover.
“I was asleep in my apartment in Manchester and felt a sharp bite to my arm,” he recalled. “I didn’t think too much of it, but it soon became very serious.
“The hole was so big they had to heal it from the side and pack it with antibiotics. It was horrendous, I felt like I would never get my life back.
“It took over two months and mentally it sucked the life out of me. It all came at once. The infection went right up my arm and I feared I’d never play again, so that’s why this season is so important to me.”
Not quite the ‘Killer Spider Eats Footy Ace’ that the Daily Star plastered over their front page, but harrowing enough.
“I’m so glad to be at Torquay, it’s a fresh start and time to make the headlines about my football and nothing else,” Gray accepts.
“Nico (Nicholson) just seems to get the best out of me, and I love his style of management. There’s a serious team ethic here and I buy into that.”
The Gulls get their campaign off and underway with the visit of Tranmere Rovers next Saturday.
“They could have given us an easier first game!” the striker joked. “It’s a great way to open up the season so I’m just focused now on getting myself in the team and hopefully we can make the start that we really want.”
