I NATHAN SHERON

NATHAN SHERON

Nathan Sheron, Harrogate Town’s no-nonsense defender who wears his heart on his sleeve and loves a good old-fashioned tackle. From spending 10 years with Liverpool FC’s academy to becoming Fleetwood Town’s first-ever youth team player to come through the academy and feature for the first team, this is the story of Sheron’s journey to Harrogate Town.

Interview by Henry Whitaker

Ryan Browne/Shutterstock

Born and raised in St Helens, Merseyside a town known more for rugby league than football - Sheron had a ball at his feet from as early as he can remember. He’d play in the garden with his older brother, and in the park behind his house with whoever was there wanting a kick about.

Being the nephew of Mike Sheron - a former Premier League striker who made just under 500 appearances for clubs including Manchester City, Norwich City and Blackpool - Nathan Sheron had the footballing gene in his DNA and at the age of just seven, joined Liverpool FC’s academy following trials through his school.

As a Liverpool fan, it was already a dream come true for a young Nathan Sheron, and the defender recalls the first few years being all about enjoying football and learning the fundamentals.

“I remember going down to Kirby with one of my mates for trials. He was dangling off the goal post and I was running laps around the goal as at that age I was a fast little forward,” Sheron says. “I just enjoyed playing during the early years. There wasn’t any pressure from my parents, they just said go and enjoy it.”

As Sheron reached his teenage years, things began to gather pace as he and his teammates were now missing days of school to train at Kirby. He’d be mingling with the likes of Ryan Kent, Harry Wilson, and Trent Alexander Arnold - all who have gone onto play in the Premier League - and it was a lifestyle any young aspiring footballer would love. For Sheron, there was never a doubt in his mind that he wanted to become a professional footballer.

“My parents were keen for me to get my schoolwork done as I was academically bright and they didn’t want football to stop that,” he explains. “I’d come back at 8pm and go straight to my room to do homework but there was never a second thought in my mind about becoming a professional footballer, football is what I wanted and it was that or nothing.”

At a club like Liverpool where the hunt for silverware and success is enormous, new players

come through the door each season and that doesn’t stop at the first team. By the time Sheron had turned 16, he was beginning to see more players joining the academy team from other clubs in the country and abroad, signing for big fees.

The likes Sergi Canos - who’s now at Brentford - was just one of many who made the task of breaking into the first team for the local academy boys so much harder.

“It made it hard as you were pushing yourself to do better only to then see a new guy come in for a big fee in front of you, it wasn’t nice,” Sheron admits. “It was the ‘oh no not another one’ feeling each time a new signing came in but most of the time you’d be able to fight them off as mentally we were just stronger than them. The older you got though the higher the quality of players you start to find yourself around and you begin to fall off a bit. It’s so hard to keep up with, it was a ruthless environment,” he continues. “As soon as you were out the team, they weren’t really interested in you.”

Nonetheless, at 16, Sheron signed a two-year youth team scholarship with Liverpool and was looking forward to getting his professional career started.

However, just a couple of months into his contract, Sheron and his dad were called in for a meeting by at the time academy coach Neil Critchley, who informed Sheron’s dad that they didn’t see a future for the youngster at Liverpool and that instead, it would be best for him to move onto another club. For the boyhood Liverpool fan who had been at the club for 10 years, it was a day to forget.

“Liverpool are a massive club and you can understand why all the signings keep coming in but you do feel after being there for 10 years you’ve been put aside, it wasn’t nice,” Sheron says. “I’d just moved into full-time football, something I dreamed of since being a little kid but I just couldn’t get a game in the youth team. The coaching staff said I could see out my scholarship or look for a move elsewhere which is what I did and the best thing I could have done.”

Sheron went on trial with the likes of Sheffield United, Wigan and Shrewsbury but Fleetwood Town is where he signed. He lived in digs with his new teammates and found the experience to be completely different to life at Kirby.

From having everything put on a plate for him at Liverpool with the best facilities you could imagine, at Fleetwood, it was a case of training at an old rugby ground, helping to complete all the jobs in the rain and snow after each session. It was something that Sheron loved.

“Those jobs kept me grounded and helped me become a man, it put that respect into you,” Sheron explains. “I just wanted to get playing, it was simple as that. I’d missed just playing every Saturday like I did as a kid and at Fleetwood, I was playing three times a week and I just got the enjoyment back. Being a Liverpool fan, I could have stayed at the

club and taken the easy option, which some lads do as they like the tag of playing for Liverpool and that lifestyle. Lewis Travis was in the same boat as me and he’s now playing week in, week out for Blackburn. Leaving the club got us into the real world and exposed us to men’s football.”

When Sheron’s youth team contract ended, he signed a professional contract with Fleetwood Town, along with just one other player from the academy. With Fleetwood not having an under 23s side, Sheron was sent out on loan to Chorley FC in November 2016 for a month before then stepping up to the National League on loan with Chester and then Southport. The youngster was getting a real taste of men’s football at an early age but it was something he was embracing and thriving on.

“Chorley was my first experience of men’s football as I was going into the changing rooms with fully grown men, big brutes,” Sheron chuckles. “You can go one way or the other but I loved it. The environment was brilliant and the management was all perfect for me for a first loan. Gainsborough Trinity was my first match and it was a horrible afternoon where we really had to ground out for the win, but I loved it and from then on that was what football was about for me, rolling the sleeves up and getting stuck in.”

Sheron made his senior debut for Fleetwood on 8 November 2017, in an EFL Trophy match against Carlisle United and in doing so, became the first graduate of Fleetwood’s Academy to play for the first team. He would then go on to feature two more times for the Cod Army that season while Uwe Rosler was manager.

At the start of the next season, however, it was not Rosler in charge of Fleetwood but instead former Newcastle United midfielder Joey Barton.

Barton - originally from Merseyside himself - took a liking to Sheron’s aggressive style of play and saw him as the ideal holding midfielder in his side, a position Sheron had not played before.

“It was a shock when Joey came to Fleetwood,” Sheron says. “You’d seen his reputation as a player but we had no idea what he’d be like. I’d been a defender all my career so far but some said I was too small to be one. In the first game of preseason against Salford, I played the final halfhour in midfield and within five minutes I’d bust my head open. He (Barton) loved that though as maybe he saw a bit of my playing style in him.”

After continuing to impress the Fleetwood boss throughout preseason, Sheron soon made his league debut for the Cod Army, featuring for 20 minutes against Oxford United on matchday two of the campaign.

Two months later and two days before his 21st birthday, the versatile player made his first league start but it came at centre back coming up against Wycombe Wanderers and striker Adebayo Akinfenwa. It was a match that Sheron described as an “eye-opening” debut.

Nonetheless, Sheron held his own and was now a key man in Barton’s team, filling in at right-back, centre back and central midfield. He went on to make 26 appearances that season which included a derby day victory over rivals Blackpool.

It looked like Sheron had now turned the corner and was set to establish himself as a Football League player but come the start of the 2019/20 season, things began to unravel.

Sheron playing for St Mirren against Hamilton in the Scottish Premiership in August 2020

Barton had signed a bunch of new players including Paul Coutts and Jordan Rossiter as the Cod Army looked to push for promotion into the Championship. It meant Sheron quickly slipped down the pecking order.

By January, the St Helens born man hadn’t made a single league appearance and was so allowed to join Walsall on loan for what was an “opportunity to just play games”. Sheron featured eight times for the Saddlers before Covid brought the season to a premature end.

Sheron then asked Fleetwood if he could return to the Lancashire side to train as they prepared for the playoffs but when they said no, Sheron knew his time with the club was nearing an end.

“It was a kick in the teeth as I’d experienced firstteam football and got a taste for it. I understood the club wanted to kick on but it just shows how ruthless football is,” he confesses. “During the Covid period, there were lots of Zoom sessions and running around the blocks for me. That wasn’t great as I knew my time at Fleetwood was pretty much done.”

Now into the 2020/21 season, Sheron was on the lookout for a loan move and it soon came with the opportunity to move up to Scotland and join St Mirren on a season-long loan. He was told by manager Jim Goodwin that he was after a defensive midfielder who would “head and kick everything”, something Sheron proudly admits he’s quite good at.

The midfielder featured against Rangers - managed by Steven Gerrard who Sheron briefly trained with during the 2013/14 season - but after a few results that didn’t go The Buddies way, Sheron was out the side and now living in Scotland during a pandemic with nothing to do other than turn up for training.

He asked if he could go back to Fleetwood but the club were strapped for cash and so Sheron was stuck in Scotland until Barton got the sack in January 2021. The interim manager recalled Sheron to see what he could offer but when Simon Grayson was appointed soon after, Sheron was once again frozen out of the side.

“I was buzzing to be back as they had a few injuries and I thought it was a chance to play but Simon Grayson comes in and just had no interest in me at all,” Sheron recalls. “That again was a knockback which was hard to take as I was back home ready to take the chance but never got it.

It gave me more determination to play though,” he adds. “I asked Grayson to go out on loan but he said he wanted me as cover for injuries but I was tired of hearing the politics and b*****t.”

Sheron’s contract expired in the summer and for the first time in his career, he was without a club. His agent told him that several clubs were interested in taking the Merseyside man on, but nothing concrete came his way until he trialed with Harrogate Town at the start of July.

He quickly impressed manager Simon Weaver with his attitude and work rate, as well as being able to fill several positions on the pitch, and after featuring a few times during preseason, Sheron signed a permanent deal with Harrogate Town.

“During the trial I just loved the environment,” Sheron expresses. There’s trust in me and with the atmosphere of the lads, it’s what you want as a player. I just wanted to get the contract signed and sealed as injury or the unknown could have ruined that.” Sheron continues, “In the past, the honesty has been lacking or coaches have said things just to keep you quiet but here with the conversations I’ve had with the Gaffer, it feels genuine and I’ve just got to keep my head down and take the chance each time it comes.”

So far this season, the 24-year-old has featured half a dozen times and impressed in Town’s last outing, a 3-1 away win against one of his former clubs Walsall. The next step for Sheron will be to cement his place in the starting XI and help the team build momentum as we edge closer to the halfway point of the season.

“I just want to play as many games as possible and enjoy myself,” Sheron says in his final comments. “I want to be part of something and hopefully, that can happen this year. This is a great group to be a part of and we’re all pushing in the same direction, which is so important. We had a great result last weekend and the aim now is to keep building that momentum and achieve something special.”