“It’s quite nerve-wracking – I’ve never been centre of attention for anything,” chuckles Steven Swinglehurst ahead of his testimonial game at Annan Athletic.
The defender from Carlisle has racked up ten years and more than 300 appearances for Annan. On Sunday at Galabank, he will walk out with his sons Rory and Teddy – two, and nine months – to an appreciative crowd.
The game will see an Annan legends team take on a select XI pulled together by the Back Onside mental health charity. Former Rangers striker Kenny Miller is among the stars turning out for 29-year-old Swinglehurst.
The occasion will recognise an enduring career just north of the border. Swinglehurst joined Annan in 2012, after his dream of playing for Carlisle United had fallen agonisingly short. Swinglehurst soon found a new home at Annan and is well on the way to legend status there himself.
“It’s one of those clubs that just makes you feel you’re meant to be there,” he says. “It’s home. Unless they ever don’t want me to sign, I won’t be leaving.”
Swinglehurst has had opportunities to leave before, in one case to one of Scotland’s biggest clubs. More of that shortly. First, he explains why Back Onside, the mental health organisation run by Libby Emmerson, is such an important cause to promote.
“She [Emmerson] does so much work for the lads, sacrificing her own time,” he says. “You can text her any time and she’ll reply in five minutes, and she would fly down to Carlisle to speak to me or anyone. She works with loads of other clubs as well.
“If you’re feeling a little bit down, she will help you. And if she can’t, she will find someone that will.”
Swinglehurst plans to make a donation to Back Onside at the end of his testimonial year. Mental health is an important subject to the defender, as he suffered from anxiety in the recent past.
“It was when my first child was due to be born,” he says. “I was having a bad time at work, and it was pressure, pressure, pressure. I ended up breaking down to my girlfriend Ashleigh. The next morning she was, ‘Right, we’re going to the doctors’.
“Once I started talking to my partner, it was easy to open up. I found it hard with the doctor at first, but eventually it was a massive weight off my shoulders. I’m now in a far better place than I was."
Opening up does not always come easy to some in football. "You don’t have to have this thing about being a man and being reluctant to talk," Swinglehurst says. "Although I’ve always had good team-mates at Annan, changing rooms can still be hard places to be, especially if you’re not playing.
“Someone like Libby will always ask how you’re doing, how you’re feeling. In the changing room you can tell when people are struggling. Having someone there for you is massive.”
Swinglehurst could not, in his younger days, have imagined achieving testimonial status with Annan. For a while, it was not clear whether football would be his path at all. As a boy he was a swimmer fast enough to be second best in Great Britain, as well as a talented water polo player.
His dream, though, was still to wear the blue shirt of his home city. “I would get up in the morning for swimming, go to football with Carlisle United’s youth team all day, then back to swimming on the night," says Swinglehurst, who grew up in Upperby.
“It was pretty obvious I was tired. The youth team coach, Eric Kinder – I love that man, he did so much for me – said, ‘I think you need to have a sit down with your dad and make a decision’.
“With swimming, if I wanted to make it big, I'd have been talking about aiming for Olympic level. I’d have had to move away and my whole life would have changed. At the time it wasn’t for me. I’ve always been very close to my family.
"I do sometimes look back and wonder where swimming could have led me, but I don’t regret it. It was always my dream to play for Carlisle.”
Swinglehurst says he always loved the buzz of defending - "the big blocks, the headers that go further than you can kick it" - and that he fell short of first-team status at Bunton Park was not for the want of trying. He was in the academy for about nine years and, when he reached the under-18s, “I used to have the keys to the club so I could go into the gym before anyone opened up. I gave it my all.”
He remembers the proud day he became a professional with United. “Everyone in the youth team had been told, and it was just me left. They said they weren’t sure.
“I was in the gym, working hard as ever, and it was Ben Marshall, who was on loan from Stoke – he came up to me and said, ‘I’ve had a word with them’. Marshall had told Greg Abbott, United’s then manager, and his No2 Graham Kavanagh, that it would be a mistake not to give the dedicated Swinglehurst an opportunity.
“Then they came to me after the training session and were like, ‘We want to give you a chance’. I felt I’d achieved part of my goal, being a professional footballer. I went home and told my family and was absolutely buzzing. Then I went straight back out to train.”
United were in League One and, in Swinglehurst’s time around the senior set-up, had defenders like Ian Harte, Peter Murphy, Danny Livesey and Stephen O’Halloran. It was always going to be a steep climb. Swinglehurst played plenty of reserve football and travelled with the squad to first-team games.
“I realised how professional footballers live; how it’s eat, sleep, and football. It was really good to be around, especially seeing how older pros like Peter Murphy handled himself. He was the utmost professional: in on time, doing his gym work, you didn’t hear anything in the papers about him going up town..
“I used to clean his boots at Carlisle. Evan Horwood looked after me a bit. Marc Bridge-Wilkinson – I loved him and cleaned his boots as well. Frank Simek, Matty Robson…most of the older pros were amazing. Francois Zoko sat next to me in the changing room and made me feel comfortable.”
Swinglehurst, though, saw his progress impeded by a cartilage injury. Upon returning, he went on loan to Annan in January 2012. Come the end of the season, he was released by Carlisle.
“It did hit home. Yeah, I was in tears. But it didn’t stop me wanting to sign for another club and play football.
"I’m sure some of the lads in the same youth team got released and didn’t play again. But I loved football.”
Swinglehurst says he had been made to feel so welcome at Annan that, at 19, it was an easy decision to return there permanently. It was also a time his horizons started to shift.
“I did want to go back up the ladder in football, but I also started a plumbing apprenticeship. I spoke to my dad, who’d stressed the importance of getting qualified and thinking about the future. My sister’s boyfriend was a plumber and that’s the route I went down.”
Swinglehurst found new satisfaction in helping fix leaks and renovate bathrooms. He enjoyed the pleasure it gave customers when he sorted out their plumbing problems. He also adapted to part-time football at Annan, who were then managed by Harry Cairney.
“It was a shock going from training in the morning and having afternoons off, to starting work at 8am, finishing at 4.30pm, going home, flying up to Annan for training and then doing it all over again,” he says.
“After the first few months, though, it just became normal. I know I’ve got to plan my work around not being late, because if I do I might lose my spot in the team.”
Swinglehurst says working life bred a deep respect for the many players who dedicate themselves to part-time football. “Kenny Mackay, who’s playing in my testimonial, lives in Dunoon. He’s probably had to get a boat into Glasgow, then get a car down to Annan. He used to get home at crazy hours, then get up because he had his own personal training business.
“What lads to give up to play part-time football is probably more than professionals do.”
Cairney is returning to manage one of Sunday’s teams, with many of Swinglehurst’s Annan team-mates since 2012 also turning out. He says these connections reflect the homely nature of the club.
“The fans there will always wait for you after the game to chat or have a photo," he adds. "When you walk past someone, they’ll ask if you’re alright. I’m sure at some other clubs, if you’re not in the starting XI or injured, they’ll just walk past you.
“At Annan, you’ll have committee members coming up asking how you are. People like Alan Irving – Mr Annan. Incredible man. He does every single thing for that club. I sometimes think, ‘You could easily enjoy your retirement’. But no – people like him just want to be at Annan. They're there until 10-11pm some nights. They don’t want paying. They just love the club. It’s amazing.”
Swinglehurst’s highlights with Annan include runs to two play-off finals, in 2019 and 2022, while March 2013 brought his most memorable day in the amber shirt – when he helped the Galabank club beat Rangers 2-1 at Ibrox.
It was a season in which the Glasgow giants were playing at Annan’s fourth-tier level amid the consequences of financial crisis and administration. Ally McCoist was Rangers manager, but Annan pulled off an historic triumph.
Swinglehurst says: “When we walked through the tunnel and saw the board displaying everything Rangers had won, we thought, ‘What are Annan doing here?’
“But we had nothing to lose. It was 11 men against 11 men, and someone can always have a bad game…”
A 34,444 crowd were stunned by Annan’s victory. “We deserved it. There was a tiny corner of Ibrox with loads of Annan fans, and we celebrated with them like we’d won the World Cup.
“That’s what it’s about. We should never beat them in a million years. But it’s definitely one to tell the kids. What an atmosphere it was. Me and the other centre-half had been screaming at each other during the game, but we couldn’t hear a word. You can see how playing in that gets addictive."
Swinglehurst was also man of the man when Annan drew with Rangers at home, but it was at the time of the Ibrox game that his prospects could have dramatically changed. “I needed my ankle strapped for the game, and while I was on the medical bench I was told Rangers were looking at me. They were definitely in for me.
“Bloody hell – that was good to hear, especially when you’re going into battle with them.
“But I never pursued it. With the money involved, if you've got your head switched on, you could be sorted. But I ended up signing a two-year deal at Annan. I just didn’t want to leave.
“Looking back, should I have [left]? You could argue that. But I wouldn’t have this life, my partner, two kids, my plumbing business. I would have lost friends, wouldn’t have made the friends I have. I don’t regret it one bit.”
Swinglehurst also does not regret the days when the stars of the Scottish game laid on lessons. “Nico Kranjcar…I’ve never seen anyone make football look so easy. It’s like me playing against my two-year-old now.
“Joey Barton was frightening. So good. Technically outstanding. He gets a reputation of being a bit of hard nut, but there’s another side of him. After one of our guys got injured in an honest 50-50 with him, he came into the changing room and gave him his shirt.
“Lee McCulloch – frightening. One minute there, next minute he’s gone. Matt McKay could give me a two-metre head start and then still beat me to the ball with time.
“And that’s just Rangers. I’ve been lucky enough to play against some other big clubs. One I’d still love to do is Celtic away. It would be nice if that happened before I retire."
Carlisle fans will be interested to know that Swinglehurst cites Owen Moxon as the best he has played with at Annan. “When he first came he was just a young lad, but in the last couple of years grew into a man and started to drive us through games," he says of the midfielder from Denton Holme, who joined the Blues this summer.
“He’ll make mistakes; he’ll try that pass and it will get cut out. There was one game against Stenhousemuir when got the ball, tried to play a pass, it went straight to their striker and scored. But from kick-off, he did it again and set a goal up. Not many players would do that.
“I think he’ll go higher [than English League Two]. He’s got physicality, he’s as quick as anything and, as you'll have seen, can pass a ball.”
Murphy, the man whose boots he cleaned, has been Swinglehurst’s manager at Annan for the last five years. “When he came in, he said, ‘I’m coming in as player-manager, and we play in the same position, but I want you as my left-sided centre-half’. That gave me confidence straight away.
“He’s so professional. We were going up to play Forfar last season, and he had every single scenario mapped out regarding the play-offs, and it worked. He’s taken well to management. Obviously I don’t want him to go, but if he wanted to he could go higher.”
Swinglehurst certainly does not want to leave Annan, and cannot see the end yet. “I’m 29 but my knees are shot already,” he laughs. “I’m on them all day with the plumbing, and they’re throbbing at night. I would like to retire when I’m still able to play football with my kids.
“I’ve always been told that you know when it’s time. The last couple of seasons have been a bit hard, but now I’ve got my drive back and I’m getting into the fittest shape I can be in. It will be nice for my kids to come and watch me too. I’d like to think I’ve got another four or five years.”
Swinglehurst, who took the plunge at going self-employed in plumbing two years ago, makes a point of mentioning the support he gets from his partner, who also has her own beauty and cosmetics business, Aesthetics by Ashleigh Williams. She has also been busy helping organise Sunday's game.
The defender also has further footballing achievements to tick off. Promotion with Annan would top everything, while he could become the club’s record appearance holder this season. The testimonial, meanwhile, will be a rare and special opportunity to pause and consider ten eventful years.
“I’m sure when I’m finished I’ll sit back and reflect, and hopefully I’ll be pleased with what I’ve achieved,” Swinglehurst says. “But I haven’t really done that yet. I just feel the same as I always have. I just want to play football and win games.”
STEVEN SWINGLEHURST TESTIMONIAL, SUNDAY, JULY 31 AT GALABANK, KICK-OFF 2PM, ENTRY £10 (ADULTS), £5 (CHILDREN AND OAPS)
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