9:01am Thursday 21st February 2008
By Tim Edwards
NICK EYRE has dropped his biggest hint yet that he is likely to leave St Albans at the end of the season if they fail to beat the drop.
Despite the club's perilous Blue Square South position and unflattering goals against column, the Saints custodian has been one of City's top performers this season, keeping seven clean sheets in all competitions.
And while he is far from deserting a sinking ship, the 22-year-old is sensibly weighing up his options as the campaign nears its climax.
"I believe I can play at a higher level and the next thing for me is to move back to full time football," said the likable goalkeeper.
"Unless something miraculous happens here it might be my only option to move on with the Conference (National) as my target. It's not fair on me to keep playing at a lower level. That's not me being arrogant, I just know what level I can play at and moving on is something I know I will need to do.
"Whatever happens, I will always have massive respect for St Albans because they have given me a chance to play a lot of games and give me the experience I needed. I want play 50 games in a season and I'm on course to do that."
Eyre arrived at Clarence Park at the start of the season from Conference National champions Dagenham & Redbridge.
The former Spurs youth product has also kept goal for Rushden & Diamonds and Grays Athletic and was wanted by Peter Taylor's Stevenage Borough before he opted to join Saints because he did not want to be sat on the sidelines "twiddling his thumbs".
But Broadhall Way could become Eyre's next destination if Borough lose current stopper and Player of the Year Alan Julian when his contract runs out at the end of the season.
"Stevenage is a big club and is a place you would want to go to," added Eyre, who represented England at Under-15 and Under 17 level.
"Alan Julian has been their best player for the past few years and will be wanting to play in the Football League. The summer will be interesting, as it always is for me."
Whether or not Eyre does head for pastures new, he has more pressing concerns to address. Since keeping a clean sheet in the Saints' 3-0 win over Dorchester Town last month, Eyre has picked the ball out of his net 15 times in their last six matches, a sequence of results which has yielded just a point.
However, rather than be demoralised, Eyre adopts a pragmatic way of thinking.
"There are a 101 worse things in life than conceding a goal," he added. "I'm a positive person and while it's been difficult here at times, you've got to keep smiling.
"I've had some great times in a bad season and think moving here was the best thing I've ever done.
"The experience I'm having now as a 22-year-old will do me huge favours when I'm a 42-year-old, if I'm still playing then. Things have worked out better here than I ever imagined. It was a brave decision to go part time but I've never regretted it."
Eyre, who cites rags to semi-riches goalkeepers Darryl Flahavan (Southend United) and Jimmy Walker (West Ham United) as big inspirations, along with former Saints stopper Paul Bastock, says he and his team-mates have stopped looking at the league table in a bid to ease the mounting pressure of avoiding a second successive relegation.
"We sat down as a group four or five games ago and looked at how many points there are left to play for. If we pick up points we will stay up. If we don't we won't have been good enough, it's as simple as that."
© Copyright 2001-2010 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.times-series.co.uk