Melbourne City star Craig Noone says Liverpool great Steven Gerrard got him back in the game
From working on the roof of Steven Gerrard’s house to playing in the English Premier League - that’s the remarkable story of Melbourne City midfielder Craig Noone.
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A night on the tiles doesn’t appeal to Craig Noone because the Melbourne City winger has had too many days standing on them — as a roofer in Liverpool and dreaming of the football career he thought was over before it had begun.
And we’re not talking any old tiles, either, but those of Steven Gerrard.
Every morning Noone would watch the Liverpool star drive off to training while 20-year-old Noone and his workmates pitched the roof on the extension for Gerrard’s new billiards room.
Noone had had a taste of playing for Liverpool after joining their academy as an eight-year-old. But when Steve Heighway, the academy director, released him three years later, he drifted into semi-professional football and part-time roofing.
“A setback like that, when you’re very young, is hard to take,” Noone said ahead of the trip north to face the Newcastle Jets at McDonald Jones Stadium today. “But it's how you bounce back from it.
“I tried not to let it get to me too much. I went and played with my mates, then went into non-league.”
But the dream of playing professionally was never fully extinguished and a few choice words from Gerrard reinvigorated him.
I knew I didn’t want to be a roofer all my life,” Noone said. “(Gerrard) spoke to me, told me to keep working hard, and that just made me more determined than ever. It had a big effect on me making it.
“When I did turn professional in England a couple of years later, I played against him in the FA Cup.”
His break came at 21 when Plymouth Argyle offered him a professional contract in 2008 after seeing him play for non-league Southport. Noone moved from one end of the country to the other, found his feet, impressed and was bought by Brighton in 2011.
It’s where he played under Gus Poyet, who preached total football and all-out attack, even against Liverpool.
“That was my first real taste of playing under a manager who played tiki-taki (short passing and movement) football, if you like,” Noone said. “Gus was great for me, a really good manager.”
Cardiff bought him as a weapon for a promotion campaign and it worked — the Bluebirds rose to the Premier League, where he scored against Manchester City.
But after being relegated and another move, this time to Bolton – a club in serious financial trouble – a phone call a few months ago changed everything again.
“I was a free agent in the (English) summer and speaking to a few clubs,” he said. “Then Melbourne City got in touch and it was chalk and cheese with the sort of offers I was getting in England.
“A move like that was something I was keen on, the chance to play abroad. So far it’s going well — it's an attacking style of football, it suits me.”