Source: FOOTYMAD
I Nearly Ended Up As A Copper - Westwood
It's funny how things turn out - Westwood Former Coventry City keeper Keiren Westwood has admitted that he nearly went in to the police force as his football career was not working out. Westwood now at Sunderland told the Daily Mirror: “I was passed from pillar to post, had a trial here and there, promises of contracts which were not going to happen and in the end I was going to join the police force. “I was filling out forms for the police at my mum’s house when I got the call to go to Carlisle, so it’s funny how things turn out. “The application form is a big thick dossier. You have to fill out everything, like whether you have tattoos, and I was just at the bit answering how you would deal with a domestic disturbance, which obviously I know all about, when the call came asking if I could get myself up to Carlisle. “I got up there in the gold Punto very very quickly. I trained that day with the lads and I have never trained so badly. In the shooting session, the shots were hitting the net, and then I was diving. I was nearly in tears at the end of the session. “I just sat on the ground, head in hands, saying: “What a day, what a summer.” Dennis Booth was Paul Simpson’s assistant, a brilliant bloke, and he said `you all right son?’ I said `I’ve had a shocker’ and he said `nah, you were all right’ “I looked up at him and said: “I was absolutely shocking,” and he just started laughing and said: “Forget about it, come tomorrow and play in the game, see how you go, don’t beat yourself up.’ “I played against Barrow the following day, did quite well, and Simmo asked me to sign. It was the best feeling ever. “If I was a bit quicker and brighter I might have finished the application form and become a policeman. I know how precious it is coming so close to not being in football.”
