Ben Mayhew thought his football days were behind him before the age of 30, but a late call from the Soccer AM production team gave the ex-forward an unlikely reprieve.
Ben, by his own admittance, never took football seriously when he was younger – preferring to spend his time playing poker – and even then, his focus was more on scoring goals as opposed to stopping them. The 37-year-old described himself as an attacking midfielder-striker before a series of knee injuries curtailed his ability to get about the pitch.
Not wanting to completely walk away from the sport, Ben donned a pair of gloves and turned out for a local village side before a friend asked him for a favour that would change his life.
He told Fen Regis Trophies: “Just by chance I ended up going in goal for a few games for the local village team and I didn’t think anything of it.
“I did that for a couple of years, on and off, and then out of the blue a friend of mine, who’s a friend with a member of the production staff at Soccer AM, said they were looking for a goalkeeper.
“It was because somebody dropped out, so I said ‘yeah, I’ll get involved in that’. Being on the live show, I thought that’d be quite good fun.”
Soccer AM and Rekindling His Love for Football
Soccer AM, a long-running cult Saturday morning show broadcast on Sky Sports, has been hugely popular with football fans for nearly three decades. At the height of the programme’s popularity, Soccer AM was considered must-see television and had a viewership in the millions with Tim Lovejoy and Helen Chamberlain presenting.
Following several changes in presenters and formats, Sky Sports has called time on Soccer AM with the final show due to be aired on Saturday 27 May coinciding with the final weekend of the Premier League season. It was during the time that John ‘Fenners’ Fendley, previously a producer on the show under Lovejoy, was presenting alongside Chamberlain that Ben received the call to step in as a last-minute replacement in 2017.
“I did really well,” Ben recalled. “They asked me back the following week to do some shoots and we did one with Jamie Vardy.
“We did one with Emile Heskey, a few with the older Chelsea player, and The F2Freestylers.
“It got me back in love with football again and I ended up joining a local semi-pro club.”
Ben joined Ely City and was part of the squad that won the Cambs Invitation Cup in 2018, defeating Cambridge United’s Development team 2-1 in the final held at the Abbey Stadium.
Bury Town Homecoming
Playing at a higher standard than he had been used to, Ben sooner began training more regularly and his passion grew ever stronger. After a couple of moves from leaving Ely, Ben found himself signing for his hometown club in Bury Town.
Despite finding himself playing at a respectable level of the non-league pyramid, Ben remains grounded and is not shy in admitting that he isn’t exactly world-class.
“I’ll be honest,” he said. “I’m not the best goalkeeper. I’m not very agile, my handling is not great. I can kick okay.
“It’s certainly helped that I had a bit of a blinder with Soccer AM. I think people got the perception that I was actually quite good when I wasn’t!
“I joined Bury five years ago and I just become a little part of the club. I only play a maximum of half a dozen games a season, but I’m there in training and do a little bit around the club now and again.”
Ben’s love for Bury Town is clear and since beginning to volunteer his time away from the football pitch as well as on it, he admits that his eyes have been opened to the value of having the local community supporting their club.
“Now and again, I’ll go down to the club and help with something around the ground and see the same faces down there. Without them, the club would cease to exist.”
He added: “Joining semi-pro football has certainly opened my eyes to the amount of work that goes into the running of a football club. It’s quite staggering really.
“The players take a lot of credit when, in fact, they’ve been given a platform to play on by a team of volunteers…they probably don’t get enough credit.”
All Change at Ram Meadow
While Ben has thoroughly enjoyed being part of his hometown club, he accepts that his days are probably numbered. This past season saw a change in management at Ram Meadow, with Ben Chenery leaving after nine years in charge.
Former Bristol City and Ipswich Town midfielder Cole Skuse has since been appointed ahead of the 2023/24 season, and Ben accepts that the new manager “might not want a slightly overweight 37-year-old”.
“I’ve always played for one manager at Bury (Chenery), he was the for the best part of 10 years and I had a really good relationship with him.
“Unfortunately, the club and he parted ways a couple of months ago, we went six games without scoring a goal and the mood was a bit down, and I think both the manager and the club agreed that it needed something different.
“I stuck around and the assistant manager (Alex Rossis), who I also have a really good relationship with, stuck around.”
Speaking on the appointment of a new manager before the announcement of Skuse, Ben said: “Once they appoint a new manager, then you have to wait to find out if the new manager wants you…he might not want a slightly overweight 37-year-old knocking about in training!”
Whatever the future hold for Ben, he is fully aware that he has been fortunate to have enjoyed being allowed to play football at a semi-professional standard, realising a dream of being involved in the FA Cup, and signing for his hometown club.
When the curtain falls on Soccer AM after nearly three decades on air, few will have more reasons to be thankful than Ben for the show’s indisputable influence on football over the years.
By Aaron Gratton
