I Had Trials Once...

ay Rodriguez joins Gaz Seddon and Gary Stopforth to reflect on a career that took him from playing for Burnley as a nine-year-old to the Premier League, England and some of the biggest moments in English football. Jay discusses his time at Burnley, learning from Robbie Blake and Ade Akinbiyi, his move to Southampton, making his Premier League debut against Manchester City, scoring his first Premier League goal against Tottenham and representing England. He also opens up about the injuries that shaped his career, including a cruciate ligament injury and a serious infection that nearly cost him his leg.
In an exclusive, Jay confirms his retirement from professional football. He also looks back on his time at Wrexham, working with Vincent Kompany and the people who influenced his career.

Chapters
0:00 Intro
2:50 Introducing Jay Rodriguez
6:04 How Jay Rodriguez Knows Gary Stopforth
8:10 Jay Rodriguez Confirms He's Officially Retired
12:20 Meeting Ryan Reynolds and Jazzy Jeff at Wrexham
15:35 Football Is Ruthless: Phil Parkinson Under Pressure at Wrexham
20:00 Playing for Burnley as a Nine-Year-Old
27:04 Learning From Robbie Blake and Ade Akinbiyi
32:35 Joining Stirling Albion on Loan and Facing Celtic
36:40 Breaking His Ankle at 19
41:00 Advice for Young Footballers Dealing With Managers
46:10 Joining Southampton From Burnley
48:36 Making His Premier League Debut Against Manchester City
51:00 First Premier League Goal Against Tottenham
55:46 Making His England Debut Against Chile
1:02:20 Cruciate Ligament Injury and Missing the World Cup
1:05:33 Recovering From a Cruciate Ligament Injury and Infection
1:09:00 Moving to West Bromwich Albion
1:13:20 Returning to Burnley
1:17:20 Winning Promotion to the Premier League With Vincent Kompany
1:22:10 Finishing His Career at Wrexham
1:22:24 Quickfire Questions
1:35:46 Outro

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⚽ I Had Trials Once is the football podcast where the best stories from the game get told. Every week we sit down with former footballers, current players, managers, coaches, journalists and some of football's biggest personalities for honest conversations, hilarious dressing room stories, untold career moments and behind the scenes insight.

📈 From the Premier League and EFL to Non League, grassroots football and beyond, if you love football stories, football interviews and proper football banter, you're in the right place.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gaz Seddon and Gary Stopforth are joined by Matty Mainwaring, the former professional footballer who went on to become a professional boxer, model and actor.

Matty looks back on his journey from Manchester United’s academy and Preston North End to Stockport County, a devastating broken leg and his eventual decision to walk away from football at 25. He also discusses modelling campaigns with Manuel Neuer, landing a role in Emmerdale, turning professional under boxing trainer Matthew Hatton, the injuries and setbacks that affected his fighting career, and his work as a physiotherapist.

If you are affected by any of the topics discussed in this show, please reach out 24/7 - 0808 500 2222

0:00 Intro
1:44 Gary’s Dragon’s Den idea
5:12 Meet Matty Mainwaring
6:35 Life as a physiotherapist
12:28 Modelling & Emmerdale
21:03 Manchester United academy
23:09 Preston North End
31:31 Stockport County
46:10 The broken leg
52:36 Hull City & Stockport
1:00:12 Retiring from football
1:03:05 Turning to boxing
1:08:05 Becoming a professional boxer
1:10:07 Boxing injuries & setbacks
1:16:01 Walking away from boxing
1:20:11 Football & boxing memories
1:23:18 Outro

👋 Got someone you'd love to see on the podcast? Drop us a message on any of our socials or let us know in the comments.

👌 If you're enjoying the podcast, make sure you Like, Comment & Subscribe, and turn notifications on so you never miss a new episode.

👀 Join I Had Trials Once on Patreon for just £3 a month for more exclusive, unfiltered content that we simply cannot get away with on YouTube

👉 https://www.patreon.com/IHadTrialsOnce

👏 A massive thanks to CAPO for sponsoring this week's episode.
👔 Check them out: https://capouk.com/

🤑 Use code IHADTRIALS at checkout to save 15%.

🤔 Who should we get on next? Let us know in the comments!

😍 Connect with us:
🐦 X (Twitter): https://x.com/ihadtrialsonce
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ihadtrialsonce
⏳ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ihadtrialsonce
🖥️ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ihadtrialsoncepodcast

⚽ I Had Trials Once is the football podcast where the best stories from the game get told. Every week we sit down with former footballers, current players, managers, coaches, journalists and some of football's biggest personalities for honest conversations, hilarious dressing room stories, untold career moments and behind the scenes insight.

📈 From the Premier League and EFL to Non League, grassroots football and beyond, if you love football stories, football interviews and proper football banter, you're in the right place.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're back with another exclusive episode of A (Non) League Of Their Own!

Join us every month where we discuss the best Non-League stories from up & down the country, from The National League to The Dog & Duck & everything in between.

This week we were joined by Seds, G Stop and Shents as we discussed everything from ranking perfect goals to answering hypothetical questions.

👋 Got someone you'd love to see on the podcast? Drop us a message on any of our socials or let us know in the comments.

👌 If you're enjoying the podcast, make sure you Like, Comment & Subscribe, and turn notifications on so you never miss a new episode.

👀 Join I Had Trials Once on Patreon for just £3 a month for more exclusive, unfiltered content that we simply cannot get away with on YouTube

👉 https://www.patreon.com/IHadTrialsOnce

👏 A massive thanks to CAPO for sponsoring this week's episode.
👔 Check them out: https://capouk.com/

🤑 Use code IHADTRIALS at checkout to save 15%.

🤔 Who should we get on next? Let us know in the comments!

😍 Connect with us:
🐦 X (Twitter): https://x.com/ihadtrialsonce
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ihadtrialsonce
⏳ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ihadtrialsonce
🖥️ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ihadtrialsoncepodcast

⚽ I Had Trials Once is the football podcast where the best stories from the game get told. Every week we sit down with former footballers, current players, managers, coaches, journalists and some of football's biggest personalities for honest conversations, hilarious dressing room stories, untold career moments and behind the scenes insight.

📈 From the Premier League and EFL to Non League, grassroots football and beyond, if you love football stories, football interviews and proper football banter, you're in the right place.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Former Liverpool goalkeeper Daniel Atherton joins us to tell some unbelievable stories from his time at the club, including Steven Gerrard’s brutally competitive side, Jordan Henderson making him look ridiculous in training, and the bizarre Palmer Violets incident that left him fearing his Liverpool career was over.

Daniel lifts the lid on what it was really like training alongside some of the biggest names in football, from Gerrard to Henderson, and opens up about the highs and lows of a career that took him from Liverpool to non-league football.

But behind the funny stories, there’s a much more personal conversation. Daniel speaks honestly about battling anxiety, depression and ADHD, reaching some of the darkest points of his life, and how opening up and getting professional help helped him begin to understand his own mind.

It’s a brilliant, honest conversation about life inside a Premier League academy, the reality of a football career, and the importance of talking when things get tough.

0:00 Intro
1:47 Liverpool Academy
4:45 Rejected by Liverpool
16:48 Nearly Released
17:46 Steven Gerrard at Liverpool
19:37 Gerrard’s Dark Side
20:58 Career Ending Video
26:46 Pep Lijnders & Liverpool Training
27:40 Jordan Henderson Humiliation
29:12 Imposter Syndrome
31:00 Training With Liverpool’s First Team
34:00 Klopp Plays Him Up Front
36:00 Nearly Scoring for Liverpool
39:27 Leaving Liverpool
40:20 Málaga & Spanish Football
44:00 Football Trials
47:00 Improving as a Goalkeeper
51:00 The New Saints & Champions League
55:00 The Champions League Dream
1:00:00 Losing His Love for Football
1:04:00 Warrington Town & FC United
1:06:50 Anxiety, Depression & ADHD
1:08:22 Drinking to Silence His Mind
1:11:37 His Darkest Moments
1:13:49 Feeling Alone
1:18:29 How Therapy Helped
1:19:07 The Fire Pit Therapy Exercise
1:20:16 Talking About Mental Health
1:22:40 The Don’t Want to Talk Podcast
1:24:35 Outro

👋 Got someone you'd love to see on the podcast? Drop us a message on any of our socials or let us know in the comments.

👌 If you're enjoying the podcast, make sure you Like, Comment & Subscribe, and turn notifications on so you never miss a new episode.

👀 Join I Had Trials Once on Patreon for just £3 a month for more exclusive, unfiltered content that we simply cannot get away with on YouTube

👉 / ihadtrialsonce

👏 A massive thanks to CAPO for sponsoring this week's episode.
👔 Check them out: https://capouk.com/

🤑 Use code IHADTRIALS at checkout to save 15%.

🤔 Who should we get on next? Let us know in the comments!

😍 Connect with us:
🐦 X (Twitter): https://x.com/ihadtrialsonce
📸 Instagram: / ihadtrialsonce
⏳ TikTok: / ihadtrialsonce
🖥️ Facebook: / ihadtrialsoncepodcast

⚽ I Had Trials Once is the football podcast where the best stories from the game get told. Every week we sit down with former footballers, current players, managers, coaches, journalists and some of football's biggest personalities for honest conversations, hilarious dressing room stories, untold career moments and behind the scenes insight.

📈 From the Premier League and EFL to Non League, grassroots football and beyond, if you love football stories, football interviews and proper football banter, you're in the right place.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode of IHTO was filmed last year as a Patreon exclusive, but we thought with Lewis taking over at Avro, it would be the right time to release it for free!

Lewis sits down with the boys to discuss all things football from starting out at Blackburn to retiring early at 22 because of a heart condition.

The lads start the pod talking about Lewis' time at Blackburn Rovers in the academy with Willem Tomlinson, John Buckley & Lewis Travis.

Lewis then talks about dropping into non-league on loan where he played with Gaz & Jordan at Salford and why playing men's football at a young age is so crucial.

Lewis chats about his bad decision to join Port Vale on loan where he had issues with manager Neil Aspin, struggling to cope mentally with not being the team and why the move set his career back.

The trio then discuss Lewis' move to Barrow, working with Ian Evatt and David Dunn as well as early heart issues starting to affect his career.

Lewis openly talks about how heart issues forced him to retire early at 22 years old, how he struggled to deal with his health issues and what life looks like after he hung up his boots.

Finally they discuss Lewis journey into coaching and his aims of becoming a first team manager in the near future.

🔗 Join our Patreon below for as little as £3 a month and get access to all of the best unfiltered and unedited stories that normally have to be cut! 👇
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https://podfollow.com/i-had-trials-once

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Let us know in the comments who you want to see on a future episode of the Podcast! 👇

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Twitter: / ihadtrialsonce
Instagram: / ihadtrialsonce
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0:00 Intro with Lewis Hardcastle
14:25 Moving into coaching.
18:00 Early life at Blackburn Rovers.
24:08 Dropping into non-league.
35:30 Port Vale loan move.
46:25 Fresh start at Barrow.
52:06 Retiring at 22 with a heart issue.
1:01:15 Becoming a coach.
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