Many of us enjoy visiting our local non-league club at the weekend and during the week. We finish work, watch the match and head home ready for a new day. But what about the players who have to fit in their work commitments around the football? How do they do it?

The Echo will be speaking to non-league stars from across south Essex this season about how they juggle two of life’s most crucial aspects – work and football.

This week we speak to Canvey Island captain Jay Curran, who scored a late penalty to salvage a draw against high-flying Margate last Saturday, although couldn’t prevent Canvey from going down to Hendon on Wednesday.

 

SATURDAY

Saturdays are the best day of the week by far!

I am normally up nice and early and am thinking of the game, who we are playing, where it is, etc.

I normally get around two or three hours to myself with the TV in the morning as my missus normally sleeps in till around lunchtime!

Soccer AM and Sky Sports News is pretty standard and always gets you in the mood, so I have my breakfast and a cup of coffee and start getting my bits together for the game.

Today we play second-placed Margate so we knew we had to be at our best, having lost at Hornchurch the Tuesday before.

I drive to the game and, as always, there was a buzz around the place, and to be honest I was very confident going into the game – we always seem to play well against the better teams.

Just as I predicted we did play well, we was moving the ball very quickly and confidently, switching play at the right times and kept asking questions of them, they found it difficult to cope with us!

We were unlucky with their second goal, as our goalkeeper’s clearance deflected straight into the striker’s path...we don’t seem to get the rub of the green on too many occasions at the moment.

But, at 2-1 down, we were awarded a penalty! For me this couldn’t have come any quicker because I missed a penalty against Hornchurch last Tuesday so I wanted to put that right.

The gaffer (Danny Heale) asked me before the game if I was confident to still be on pens which and there was only one answer!

I had a good record of around 12 to 13 pens scoring them all so I thought I was a little unlucky with the Hornchurch game.

But I scored and I must say I did feel a little relieved as there is always the added pressure after missing one the game before!

Tonight I had a bonfire night around a friend’s house with a few beers to relax, it hadn’t been a bad day.

 

SUNDAY

The day after a game I am normally struggling. I have played all season with a double hernia so the next day or two after a game I can’t move around too quickly.

I have had this since August last year but the gaffer wouldn’t let me have the operation during the season, I had to play through the pain and agony for eight months! I HOPE HE IS READING THIS!

My operation is now booked in for the end of April so I get can get back to full fitness for the start of the new season.

I normally watch Super Sunday on the TV and, being a Man United supporter, it wasn’t a bad day for it in the end after they beat Spurs 3-0 at Old Trafford.

 

MONDAY

I’m going to breeze through my week at work as it is pretty routine. I run my own business – DF Roofing Ltd – which is a flat roofing and green roofing contractor, and I have an office based just down the road from where I live in Corringham which is ideal.

A lot of our work is in London and the surrounding counties so I’m normally up early.

I have my breakfast and head down to the office for 8am and my day will normally start in the office with emails before I go into London for meetings/pricing, jobs etc.

The it is off to the gym to prepare for tomorrow.

 

TUESDAY

I don’t have it too bad at work as I can work around my football, so it’s in my favour if we have a long journey.

As we have a match tomorrow, we don’t have training on a Tuesday! I would much rather play a game although it’s obviously better when we have a home game.

For me it is all about preparing the right way and making sure I am ready for the game against Hendon.

 

WEDNESDAY

I leave work a bit earlier to get to Hendon, which is another tough game, but we were confident off the back of Saturday.

We picked up from where we left off and put Hendon on the back foot moving the ball well even on a not so good pitch.

It was 0-0 at half time and we were the better team but went on to lose the game 1-0 from a worldie goal from outside our area into the top corner which no goalkeeper would save!

We were again unlucky on this occasion and we did have a few chances so maybe if we had taken one of these it might have been different but I was still happy with the performance we put in.

We took Saturday’s performance and took it into Tuesday’s game which was encouraging and it bodes well for the remaining games of the season.