By James Burch
Not many current professional footballers will be able to say they signed for one of their respective clubs while sitting in their local pub. However midfielder Joel Byrom who scored fourteen goals in his thirty eight appearances for the club in two stints, is one of those players that ended up getting a football team with his pint one afternoon.

The local lad from Oswaldtwistle told the official club website; “I’d just left Accrington Stanley and I wasn’t enjoying football anymore. I was in my local pub and Carl Garner walked in out of complete coincidence and sat down for a chat with me. He invited me down to the club to play a few games and I ended up signing for the club I enjoyed it that much.”

Playing for the club at the young age of 20 in his second spell between 2007 and 2008, Byrom wowed the fans at Shawbridge with his attacking intent and leadership qualities and to many Clitheroe fans it was no surprise that the now Preston North End man, currently on loan at Northampton Town went on to bigger and better things in professional football.

The former England C international said; “Training was great, Neil Reynolds did a lot of the coaching and having been a former player at the club for so long you could tell how much he loved everything about Clitheroe. He wore his heart on his sleeves as a player and you could see this in his training sessions and team talks. There was a real fun element in training and it was a joy to go into training.”

The 28 year old is one of the Blues biggest success stories over recent decades alongside the likes of Danny Williams who is now at Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Moving from Northwich Victoria to Stevenage for £15,000 in 2009 was Byrom’s big break in the pro game and since then the midfielder has gone on to win conference and league two promotion medals.

Byrom went on to say; “My favourite game was scoring a hat-trick against Kidsgrove Athletic in a 5-1 win. I had some great times at Clitheroe too, I remember the fans and players always used to travel to away games together and the banter was incredible on some journeys. I’d known a lot of the lads even before I joined the club and the friendship between all the boys was great, we’d play together and party together, that’s why team spirit was so good.”

Describing former Blues players Ryan Fisher, Greg Anderson and Gary Stopforth as the three best players he played with during his twelve month stint at the club, Byrom spoke about Clitheroe’s current season so far and hopes that the play-offs will be a possibility for Simon Garner’s young team; “The club had a slow start but that is understandable with such a young team and a big turnaround of players in and out the door. I’d hope the way Clitheroe are now playing, that they will be pushing for at least a mid-table finish and maybe even the play-offs if things go their way.”

Finishing off the midfield man that started his career between 2001 and 2005 playing for Blackburn Rovers Youth team, Byrom said confidently; “Simon Garner is doing a great job at the minute on a very tight budget, recent signings of Andrew Dawber and Sefton Gonzales show the clubs ambition and hopefully Clitheroe will be able to match some of the other teams in the league despite working to financial constraints. With the current youth and average age of the squad, the future is looking bright for my former team.”