In part one of his interview with Squawka, ex-Swindon Town, QPR and Southampton striker, Charlie Austin speaks about his sparkling EFL career and podcast, Chaz Kicks Off.
The 36-year-old recalled QPR’s playoff final victory over Derby County, his debut goal for Southampton at Old Trafford and running out at the San Siro.
Austin opened up about how he found the move from non-league football to being thrust into the EFL spotlight and how highly he thinks of grassroots football.
You can listen to the Chaz Kicks Off podcast by clicking on this link or the image below.
Charlie, you’re here to talk about your EFL career but we’re really interested to know more about your podcast, Chaz Kicks Off. What can you tell us about it? What makes it unique and why should fans give it a listen?
It’s an honest fan’s opinion, but also an honest player’s opinion from how I see the game and certain mistakes, heroes and villains each week. It’s raw.
I get a fans perspective and get into the nitty gritty side of it more than anything. It’s just a raw and honest perspective rather than a scripted one. It’s my thoughts on certain scenarios, with no real restrictions.
You famously worked as a bricklayer while playing for Poole Town. Looking back, do you think that “hard graft” outside of professional academies gave you a mental edge?
It certainly helped me tenfold because I knew what real graft was. But my mentality was thinking about the worst case scenario which was if it didn’t work out at Swindon, I’d be able to go back to playing non-league and go back to the building work. As much as I didn’t want that to happen, I had a trade behind me. I had everything to gain and nothing to lose.
We talk about how the game has changed compared to me making my league debut in 2009 but I’m not sure it’s all changed for the benefit of young players. There’s such a tiny amount of under 9s that actually go on to play the game professionally and it’s even to the point now where so many under 18s never make a first team appearance and fall by the wayside. You want them to feel like professionals at a certain point, and for as long as they can in that environment, but you’ve got to be very lucky to be given the opportunity.
When it comes down to it, I think it’s too much, too young at times but that’s your dedication. It’s also the people around you. Your family members play a massive, massive part in everything too.
You’ve recently spent time back in the non-league scene with AFC Totton and Hungerford Town. How has the non-league game changed since you were previously, and does it still feel like the “heartbeat” of English football?
I’ve got to say yes. And my reason isn’t because of the product that’s on the pitch. Yes, some teams are good, some teams are not, but that mostly comes down to finances, the same as the professional game.
The reason is because you look at how many fans travel and watch their local team. So many teams now are getting 1,000 fans, even as low of the Southern League. And it’s crazy, but also it’s brilliant. The golden ticket, the pot at the end of the rainbow is the professional game but when you go to a non-league game and you get involved with a non-league crowd, it’s just something completely different. In my opinion, it’s still the heartbeat of English football, but also it’s the heartbeat of so many communities.
Coming from Poole Town to Swindon, you scored on your full debut and became an instant hero. What was going through your head in those first few weeks at the County Ground?
I was very fortunate!
I struck up a good partnership with Billy Paynter, and he was someone that I needed at that time in my career. I needed to learn from him at that level. But I didn’t think I had made it at all.
I started off well and I scored my first four goals straight away but then we got beaten by Bristol Rovers just before Christmas and I didn’t score. In my head, I thought that would be it, I’d be dropped.
The penny didn’t really drop until probably later on into that season. I realised I belonged here, at this level. I belonged in the league.
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You reached the 2014 Championship playoff final with QPR against Derby County and that game is legendary for Hoops fans. Bobby Zamora got the winner, but you were the engine that got them there. After Gary O’Neil got sent off did you truly believe you’d find a way to win?
There’s no two ways about it, we absolutely got battered for 94 minutes in that playoff final. But for that 15 seconds, that bolt of energy from Junior Hoilett and Bobby scoring, that was it!
It’s harsh to say we threw the league away because Leicester and Burnley run away with it that season. They were incredible but when you looked at the playoffs we were the favourites to go up. We got through the Wigan play off semi-final and then the final comes and it just didn’t happen for us. Those games just happen sometimes. Nothing was really going right for us. But we got in at half time goalless and Gary O’Neil makes one of the most incredible, selfless decisions to bring down Jonny Russell and take a red card.
But there wasn’t a moment of thinking, ‘oh no, that’s us done’. We had a guy called Steve Black at the club who had worked with Jonny Wilkinson as a mentor and all he kept saying for the last five weeks of the season was ‘when it’s getting tough, always just remember to get through the next five minutes’. And that’s we did for the last half an hour. Sometimes you only need one moment of brilliance and that from Junior and Bobby was it!
When the final whistle went it was incredible. I was the only person on the pitch for QPR that hadn’t played in the Premier League before. I felt like I’d come a long way to be able to get my opportunity in the Premier League.
You scored 18 goals for QPR in the Premier League the following season but the club were ultimately relegated. Do you look back on that season with personal pride, or does the frustration of the team’s relegation still overshadow those individual numbers?
No one wants a relegation on their CV, let’s be honest, but on a personal note, I scored 18 goals in my Premier League season!
I should have had 20 though! I missed two penalties that season. I missed one against Hull and then took a terrible one against West Ham. I should’ve scored 20!
But I look back at it and I think ‘Wow, I achieved that in my debut season!’. Phenomenal. And in my office at home, I’ve got a yellow Nike Premier League ball because I scored a Premier League hat trick!
My only disappointment is that I didn’t get an England cap. I got the call up but didn’t get the cap. If I had got that cap, even if it was just one, then I’d feel like I’d completed football! But the two people that played in my position were the England captain at the time, Wayne Rooney, and the current England captain, and all time England goal scorer, Harry Kane!
Scoring the winner at Old Trafford against Manchester United on your debut for Southampton is the stuff of fairy tales. How did it feel to silence the Stretford End?
That was a crazy feeling. I was only signed by Ronald Koeman that week and there were some absolute superstars in that Saints dressing room. The player I came on for at Old Trafford was Sadio Mane!
It was a free kick in the corner and I remember being stood behind Jose Fonte in the box. I made a movement and no one came with me. I found myself seven yards out and headed it in the bottom corner past De Gea! It was a surreal moment.
When you’re speaking to footballers, the one thing they all say when they are coming off the bench is that you want to get your second wind as quickly as possible. When I came off the bench in that game I didn’t get my second wind at all. Although I scored, I was absolutely blowing! But I scored on my debut at Old Trafford which is amazing!
You played in the Europa League for Southampton, including against Inter Milan at the San Siro. Coming from the Wessex League, was that a real ‘pinch me’ moment?
I should have scored there! There’s a picture out there of Samir Handanović and you can’t see his face. You can only see the ball as he saved it with his face!
I was on the bench but came on at half time after Shane Long injured his hamstring. Standing there was a real ‘pinch me’ moment. It was amazing, iconic at the San Siro. Everything you imagine. Even the day before, we trained on the pitch and it phenomenal.
It was definitely a ‘pinch me’ moment. I played at the San Siro. I played in the Europa League!
The second part of our interview with Charlie, where he talks about the defender he found it hardest to get a goal against, his views on the EFL in it’s current state, his plans for the future and which moment he’d relive if he could, will be available next week.
Charlie was speaking to us in conjunction with his podcast, Chaz Kicks Off, which you can subscribe and listen to here.
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