In an effort to make the website as entertaining and varied as possible, I decided that it may be a good idea to get some interviews with some Hullbridge personalities. What better way to start, I thought, than with the goalscoring legend that is Tony Stokes? Stokesy was up for it and so here we present – A cup of tea with TMT & Stokesy….

Although we weren’t actually drinking tea (Stokesy had Lucozade I think & I had Bitter shandy!) but you get the idea! The plan is to do more of these, bringing out the characters of The Bridge, so next time, it could be you!!
Here’s how it went.

TMT – I’ve got some structured questions, but we can start with those and then just meander if that’s OK.
Stokesy – Yeah, yeah.

TMT - OK it’s recording, let’s go…
How did the Hullbridge move come about?
Stokesy – So, I was at Tilbury and not getting as much game time as I wanted but I felt like I was training and performing to the best I was. Steve Sullivan had literally just took over the Hullbridge job and he has a good relationship with a few people I know. He phoned me up and said I’m looking to rebuild, would you be interested, so I come over and had a look. Straight away I felt at home, but it was tough, something like 14 or 15 of the players walked out when the previous management went so, I was the very, very first player to come in. It was like 6 weeks into the season, and I played my first game against Stowmarket, here, and we lost 4-1. It was tough going as we were a team with a mixed bag of players and players were leaving. Two weeks would go by and two more would leave. We went through an 8-week period, it was like a revolving door.
TMT – The worst thing possible for a team as you need consistency, you don’t want to take too many players out.
Stokesy – Exactly, it took until boxing day that we had 6 or 7 of the players that finished the end of the season and that was when the Great Escape started. We played Barking just before boxing day, we beat Barking 2-1 and that was our first win of the season in December. It was a tough challenge, but we pulled through.
TMT – That kind of rolls into the next question really, which is, did you see the great escape coming?

Stokesy – When I signed for Hullbridge I had 3 or 4 people comment, if this is going to be your last season why are you going to Hullbridge to have a relegation on your name and I said I’m thinking more on the positive. What happens if we stay up and I was telling the other boys if we stay up, you’re young players, you can use Hullbridge as a stepping stone. You’re in the shop window and if we stay up people are ‘gonna be looking “how did they stay up”.
TMT – Yeah, you’re part of a successful team.
Stokesy – Exactly, we were on 2 points at Christmas, and we stayed up with one game to spare and when you look back at the fixtures all you see is loss, loss, draw, loss, loss and you’re thinking when did these actually get going?
It was after Christmas to the end of the season, and I think we lost 3 games and it was a tough run, we had the toughest fixtures, we had Aveley, Maldon & Tiptree when we won 3-2, Brentwood and we lost 4-1. After Brentwood, we didn’t lose the other three. That was what kept us up, it was the mentality of the lads, we did it for each other.

TMT – Funnily enough, next question. What changed in the dressing room? As you say "The mentality of the lads!!"
Stoksey – We got the right boys in. Not saying the players that were here to begin with were bad players or bad mentality, but they didn’t want to be here. We managed to bring in players who wanted to be here, the dressing room got better, the WhatsApp group chat got better, the banter was better, and we started fighting for each other on the pitch.
TMT- Did that coincide with Steve & Rob coming in?
Stokesy – Yeah, basically Steve Sullivan who brought me in, Rob & Steve were his coaches and when Steve Sullivan left Rob & Steve stayed behind to take it on. We worked closely together and brainstormed what players we needed, and who we could get in. I brought in one of my good pals, Albert (Levett).
TMT – Great player, he’s not come back for next season..
Stokesy – Thing is, as you get older your work & stuff overtake football etc. He’s into his cryptocurrencies and pictures and stuff…
TMT – Yeah, I follow him on Twitter but don’t understand a word he posts! And I worked in Finance!
Stokesy – He’s a really good lad, when he come in he helped us out massively.
Yeah, things got better, the attendances improved, we started getting a lot of kids in and...
TMT – The kids with the drums!
Stokesy – Yeah, they started making a lot of noise, it’s good to play in front of. I’m staying involved, and I’m looking forward to getting over and cheering the boys on. I want to help out as much as I can and Rob & Steve have said get over and talk to the boys, I’m still in the group chat, I’ve loved every minute here and I’m hoping my 2 little boys do the same, coming through. My very first club in non-league football was Concord Rangers and this club and that club are exactly the same. That’s why I fitted in so well.

TMT- Talking of the dressing room, who are the Hullbridge characters? I can edit this !!
Stokesy – It’s got to be Ross, yeah, he’s the weirdest kid that I’ve ever met but he’s great for the dressing room. He’s such a good lad, he loves it here and being part of the lads. A massive character.
TMT - Good to hear that, Ross is always one of the first ones to ‘like’ my stuff I put out. It’s nice to know someone likes it!
Stokesy – Yeah – definitely say Ross, great character.

Ross - weird kid, massive dressing room character & back for 22-23!

TMT – So, bringing it up to date, how’s the finishing school going?
Stokesy – Yeah, it’s going really well. Got a really good bunch, boys and girls. More girls than I thought I’d have. They’re all enjoying it and I just want to help them develop. Being a striker as I have been all my life, when you’re training it’s hard to work on your finishing because in training everyone works on all the team, so you might get 5-10 minutes to work on your shooting, where I’m giving kids a whole hour striking the ball, repetition.
TMT – Yeah, I still play on Monday nights and for some reason end up up-front a lot, although I was always a defender. So, I don’t find it natural to finish…
Stokesy – Yeah, I definitely think you’ve got to have that natural instinct, as I said to yer, my eldest when he scores or shoots, he has to proper work hard at it whilst my youngest just does it naturally, he just does it. You’ve either got it in you or you ain’t. It’s the hardest job on the pitch.
TMT – Yeah, like in games you might only get one chance.
Stokesy – It’s like what happened with me last season, I scored 16 goals and, in some games, I only had one chance whereas the teams at the top of the league, their strikers were scoring hat-tricks but they were missing…
TMT – Another ten!
Stokesy – Yeah because they had the players creating the chances whereas us were low budget just with players that wanted to play for the club and I might have had one chance and I had to take that chance otherwise I might not get another one. That’s why with the Art of Finishing, I’ve tried to help them so when they get that one chance in the game, every training session I do is something different, so when they get that chance in the game, they finish it.
TMT – Yeah it has to become natural...
Stokesy – Yeah, because it’s repetition, so when in training they keep putting the ball in the net, and when the game comes around, they’re used to it. So, you take that confidence into the game. You’ve got to be training to put the ball in the net, just repetition.
TMT – Yeah, so you go into the game expecting to score, although whenever I do, I still don’t!!

TMT – How about the under 9’s?
Stokesy – Yeah, last season we were with Supreme, had a good season, I‘ve got a really great bunch, great parents and with Jason and the committee wanting to get me on board they asked me if I wanted to bring my team over and with the plans they’ve got for the future I thought it was a great opportunity for the team to come over. I said to the parents, I’m going to Hullbridge, I’m taking my son with me, if you want to come, come if you want to stay, stay, I left it up to the parents. So yeah, most of the boys came and a couple stayed. So, this season we’re looking to carry on basically from where we left off. We’ve done a couple of tournaments and the boys have won them both.
TMT – Good start!
Stokesy – Yeah, they’re doing really well, I’ve got a really good bunch but I’m hoping to add to it. I’ve got two defenders but I was looking for another one so we can rotate it. So, we put the advert out there, and we’ll leave it out there, see if we get anything. Like, if you’re child wants to come and play, whatever position, then we might just have to get you in and switch it and get everyone playing in different positions.
TMT – Yeah, sometimes that happens and a player switches and plays better in another position, Michael Antonio springs to mind!

TMT – What are your favourite career moments?
The Great Escape is probably one of them.
Stokesy – Yeah, definitely The Great Escape. Concord Rangers, I was there 5 seasons and we got 4 trophies. We got promoted to the Conference South and that was when The Cowley Brothers were there.
TMT – Ujpest?
Stokesy – Yeah, I went out to Budapest, played in the Europa League. We played Steaua Bucharest in Romania. The atmosphere was, Hungarians and Romanians don’t like each other anyway, something to do with taking each other’s land.
TMT – There’s probably all this history we don’t know about.
Stokesy – Yeah, when I went there and played the game it was so hostile, 30,000 people, you’re walking out the tunnel, the Romanians are spitting on you and that. But as I said, it was a good experience to have, it made you grow up.
TMT – So did you go from there to…
Stokesy - I went from West Ham to there and then to Concord. I signed a three-year contract with Ujiest but only stayed for the year. Then went to Concord.
TMT – That was a switch, from Hungary to Concord!
Stokesy – Yeah, that was my first non-league.

TMT – So, how did you bounce back after it didn’t work out at West Ham?

Stokesy – As I said, that’s one of the things I’ll always be proud of, you see talents leave professional football and just pack it in. I just wanted to make a name for myself in non-league football and hopefully, I’ve done that. I stuck with it, kept going, and scored over 250 odd goals in non-league football over the space of 11 years.
TMT – So who were the boys you were at West Ham with?
Stokesy – Mark Noble, Chrissy Cohen, and then when I was with the reserves you had Jack Collison, James Tompkins, Freddie Sears. A really good bunch and really good times. But I’m just glad I never stopped, I just kept going.

TMT – I think that rolls into the next question, what happened next?
Stokesy – As I said, went to Hungary, a year there, and then went non-league. I’ve loved every minute of it.
TMT – A lot of clubs
Stokesy – Who me? Yeah, just in the later stages. I was at Concord for 5-6 seasons and then went to Canvey and it’s only been the last few years as I was getting older, and I wanted to carry on playing so If I never got the game time I wanted I’d move on. Younger players can afford to sit on the bench.
TMT - But you just want to be out there playing.
Stokesy – Yeah, so in my 11 years, 6 years of that were at Concord straight away, so it’s only been in the later stages where I’ve moved around. Also, when I was at West Ham, I went on loan, I went to Rushden, Brighton, and then went to Stevenage on loan as well.
TMT – Yeah, you see players go out on loan, some never make it. Some really good players you think will be in the team forever, but they just disappear.
Stokesy – You’ve got to have that bit of luck. Sometimes players go out on loan, and you stay at the club, and someone gets injured, and you’ve got an opportunity. Look at Declan Rice, he never went out on loan, decided to stay, Reece Oxford went out on loan and Declan Rice got his chance. You’ve got to have that mentality, you’ve got to want to do it, work hard but also in football you’ve got to have a lot of luck. You’ve got to be injury free, I think in my twenties I had four operations, instead of having like a hamstring tear or calf strain every time I got injured, I had to have an operation for it, and that set me back...
As you get older, these operations take longer to recover. As I said, for me to play last season, I’ve had two knee operations, two shoulder operations, a double-hernia operation, and to still be playing last year it was great, and to still be able to run around with the kids and everything.
TMT – Couldn’t move the next day though! Even when we play an hour on a Monday night, you really feel it the next day...
Stokesy - That’s on the Astro though, with all these 3G pitches in non-league you won’t get many still playing at 35.
TMT – That’s the way it’s going though.
Stokesy – Yeah, with the budget it’s ‘gonna be that way.

TMT – Any regrets? Big question.
Stokesy – The only regret I probably have is my personality. I’d never knock on the manager’s door so when I weren’t in the team, I just accepted it and the same in non-league whereas people like Mark Noble were always banging on the door
TMT – I can imagine Nobes doing that!
Stokesy – Even at 16 years of age, he didn’t care if players were better than him, he wanted to know why he wasn’t in the team. That’s a great feature to have but unfortunately, that just wasn’t my character, and I would probably say that is my only regret that I never knocked on the door and asked the question but hopefully, now I’m coming through with all the kids developing them and all that I’ll be telling them don’t be afraid to ask questions. Maybe if I’d asked the questions, I may have been in the pro game a lot longer than I was.
TMT – You hope that you’ll get noticed anyway…
Stokesy – That’s probably the way I looked at it, but it doesn’t work like that in football. It’s a bit of who you know and if you kick up a fuss the next time the mangers picking the team he will always pick the one who kicks up a fuss.
TMT – That’s a shame ain’t it
Stokesy – Yeah, it is a shame. It would be my only regret but as I say, I’m also a massive believer in fate, everything happens for a reason. I wouldn’t have had my boys if I’d gone down another route. So yeah, I’d say that is my only regret.

TMT – Any advice to ‘wanna be strikers?
Stokesy – Exactly what I just said, knock on the door!
TMT – Keep hitting the ball in the net in training!
Stokesy – Yeah, don’t be afraid to take a chance, if you miss keep trying. It’s all about repetition. Last season I missed chances, chances I should have scored, but also scored goals that I shouldn’t have, it’s all about concentration. I say to my strikers, just for that full game, stay focused, keep your eye on the ball and you can’t go wrong.

TMT – One last question. What do you think of The Bridge squad for this season?
Stokesy – Like I said to you earlier, we’ve got a more experienced team than we had last season. We’ve kept all the good lads and brought in some good lads as well. I’ll be getting over to see the games as much as I can and I’m looking forward to supporting the boys.
TMT – We’ve retained some really good lads.
Stokesy – It just shows you what the lads have bought into, they’ve stayed. Like I said to yer, by doing that Great Escape, there were many teams looking at our boys and for our boys to turn down offers to stay shows you what the club has got going down here.
I’m looking forward to it, I’m looking forward to seeing how the lads get on.

TMT – Thanks mate, that’s the main part of the interview. This next bit is a bit of fun I’m hoping to do with a few people. It’s called Hullbridge Hit and Miss.
10 quick-fire questions and if your answer matches mine, it’s a hit. Otherwise, it’s a miss!
Stokesy- rii…ghh…ttt, OK.

OK question 1
TMT - Sky Sports or BT?
Stokesy - Sky Sports.
TMT – That’s a hit.

TMT – Champions League or Premier League, hard one!
Stokesy – Premier League…because I don’t have BT Sports!
TMT – Oh! good answer. Yeah, that’s a hit

TMT – Back of the net or in the onion bag?
Stokesy – Back of the net!
TMT - Yeah, another hit.

TMT – West Ham or Arsenal?
Stokesy – Er…
TMT – Sorry about that.
Stokesy – I’ve got to say Arsenal
TMT – That’s a miss mate…
Stokesy – Funny, I was a West Ham fan as a kid, growing up West Ham but as I was a part of the club it was hard to support ‘em. Then Dennis Bergkamp came along.
TMT – Good reason for liking Arsenal to be fair. A magician.
Stokesy – From that day, I’ve always been Arsenal, but I always follow West Ham results as well.
TMT – That was a close one, could have gone either way on that one but that’s your first miss though.

TMT – The Great Escape or The Bridge Over The River Kwai?
Stokesy – The Great Escape. Got to be!
TMT – Yeah, yeah.

TMT – Playing or retirement?
Stokesy – Oh, playing, because it’s pre-season I’m not missing it. I weren’t a lover of pre-season and I had 19 of them. Tough going. At the moment I’m not missing football but when the games start and get going, I think I’ll start to miss it.
TMT – Yeah, a hit.

TMT – Champagne or Prosecco?
Stokesy – Oh, Champagne.
TMT – Yeah, no question.

TMT – Like this next one. Boris Johnson or Rishi Sunak?
Stokesy – It’s got to be Rishi.
TMT – Miss, I went Boris, you’ve got to go Boris just because he’s got a stupid haircut. You can’t trust any of them.
Stokesy – I was going to say to yer, you’ve got to go with the best of a bad bunch, they’re all as bad as one another.

TMT – Talk about fight club or don’t talk about fight club?
Stoksey – Aww...
TMT – That might be before your time.
Stokesy – Yeah, no, don’t talk about fight club, that’s the one rule ain’t it.
TMT - Don’t talk about fight club, another hit, yep the one rule of Fight Club.

TMT – Oh, you’ll like this one. Who would win in a fight, a badger or a polar bear?
Stokesy – I’ve gotta go polar bear, surely.
TMT – No, no, no, badger. Why would a badger win, I ‘dunno but I’m going badger.

TMT - You did OK there mate, 7 out of 10.
Stokesy – Ah, I’ll take that!

TMT - That takes you top of the table…but no one else has done it yet!
Stokesy – I’ll look forward to seeing the leader board.
TMT – Yeah, I’ll see who I can line up next.
Stokesy- The boys playing, they’ll do all this. Ross would be up for all this sort of stuff.
TMT – Yeah, it’s just a bit of fun, a bit of a laugh. Get some of the characters out.
Thanks for that mate.
Stokesy – That’s alright, no worries at all, anytime, anytime.

Hullbridge Hit & Miss - The table
Pos Player Score
1 Stokesy 7