Okay. So I've been awful at updating this thing... I hung out with Woking left-back Aswad Thomas at the weekend and we spoke about his release from Charlton and bouncing back to the Football League. Enjoy!
“It was my birthday and it didn’t start off too well. I gave away a penalty!” Three minutes into the first day of the season, and Aswad Thomas’s Woking debut wasn’t quite the dream he had in mind, let alone his 20th birthday.
Having just been released in the summer from Charlton Athletic, Thomas knew he had to muck in and help the team get a result against Welling. “I was taught well (at Charlton). They always pressed you to keep going and dig in, and luckily I came up with a goal and we won the game.”
A Charlton career limited to one appearance on the bench in a Carling Cup game has meant that Thomas’s release from SE7 is not so much heartbreak, but more of a big break and something that the youngster is more than prepared for.
The Westminster born left-back spent the majority of last season on loan with Blue Square South side Lewes, helping them from the bottom of the table. Spells in League Two with Barnet and Accrington Stanley also helped shape his game, including a memorable two goals in one game against Chester City with the latter.
With the Addicks heading for League One, and their financial problems all too public, Thomas had a feeling that his days at The Valley were numbered; “Charlton were going down, and I hadn’t played much at all. I knew they weren’t financially secure and I had to be realistic. I hadn’t played at Championship level so getting a new contract wasn’t really going to happen”
Many of the second year scholars released by Charlton into the ‘real’ world this summer have now fallen out of professional football and into everyday work, but one of those who didn’t was centre midfielder Harry Arter, who signed with Woking upon his release.
It was Arter who convinced Thomas to scout the setup at Kingfield, and also told him that the Blue Square South side were looking for a left back. “I didn’t have an agent,” explains Thomas, “I came down by myself and spoke to the management and I was convinced with their proposal for the team and for myself.”
Woking soon had themselves two former Charlton trainees, eager to link up and play together. Something that Thomas thinks brings a new dimension to the style of play that big spending Woking employ.
“There are different qualities that we’ve brought down from Charlton. Harry likes to get the ball down and play, and I’m quick down the left, so we can link up. When he’s at centre midfield he can open out and hit me.”
Since his birthday debut, Thomas has made a total of 14 appearances for the Cardinals, and two as a sub, as his first full season in football helps shape his game; “Playing first team football helps so much as well as knowing you’re going to play every game because when I was at Charlton I was in the reserves.
The pacy defender did have other options in the summer, but based purely on footballing reasons, decided that a move to the Cards was the perfect way to kick start his fledging career, and hopefully work his way back into the Football League.
“I wouldn’t have joined Woking if I didn’t think it would shape me and help me on my way back up. I could have gone to league clubs on trial and seen how it went from there but I felt I hadn’t ever played men’s football and I needed to get a season under my belt.”
His willingness to go and find a club this summer is now paying dividends, as are his extracurricular activities which keep him in top condition for the rigours of life at this level. “When I’m not playing I go to the park, I do extra training and I go to the gym.”
Alongside Arter, the pair are now involved with a Woking side that find themselves serious play-off contenders at this stage of the season, thanks to a new style of football implemented by manager Graham Baker.
“We’re a new team. We’ve changed our style of play recently which started with a 6-0 win last week over St. Albans City and we’ve started picking up results at home now which you need to do if you want to be in and around the play-off spots.”
As long as the wins keep coming, then this could be a fantastic season for Thomas, who is learning more and more about the game with every appearance he makes. “There are highs and lows, but it builds you as a player.”
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