Moore relishing Walsall move

What happens when one of the game’s great under-achievers meets one of the season’s over-achievers?

Bescot fans should find out tomorrow when Stefan Moore, once regarded as one of the domestic game’s major young talents, takes a home bow for Walsall against Northampton.

The Saddlers continue to defy all expectations by chipping away at an unlikely promotion League One challenge with Richard Money’s astutely woven combination of old hands and young kids.

The 24-year-old Moore is hoping that Money’s blend will give him the opportunity to re-launch a career which ran into the sidings at Villa before drifting into anonymity at turmoil-ridden QPR.

Moore makes a powerful point towards the looming crisis in the English game about the diminishing opportunities for our home grown talent.

It is not a whinge either. The young Brummie accepts he has “under-achieved massively” to date and must do more after being given this opportunity at the tough workface of a League One promotion challenge.

But there was a time when Moore viewed a different career path. He captained the Villa juniors which got the better of Wayne Rooney’s Everton to land the FA Youth Cup six years ago and when he lit up Villa Park with his first goal for the club four months later, he was regarded as one of the domestic game’s hottest young talents.

But while Rooney went on fulfill everything that had been expected of him, Moore  made only 22 appearances for Villa before moving to a Queen’s Park Rangers club locked in financial turmoil.

“If you look at my career stats, you will see I’ve never had a run in any of my teams,” says Moore. “I’ve never had more than five or six games. 

“I’ve never had that 20-game run which I think young players need to get their careers going. 

“Look at most 24-year-olds around the world and they will have played 20 games in a row at some stage but I haven’t.

“It is getting tougher and tougher for young English forwards to get that run in today’s Premiership teams and when I look back now I realise I might have stayed at Villa a bit long. 

“A lot of people get caught up in the size of clubs like Villa – a big club, nice facilities, you just don’t want to leave.

“But if you don’t play in the first team you end up treading water; reserve team football is just not the same.

“When I was at Villa trying to break into the side I was the fifth striker behind Dion Dublin, Peter Crouch, Juan Pablo Angel and Marcus Allback.

“You’ve got to be instantly world class to make the breakthrough when you are faced with that kind of competition these days – like Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney.

“But name me any other English strikers who have come through into their Premiership teams that early?”

“I got in the Villa team as a young man but I don’t think I’ve played in my position up front more than three or four times,” he adds.

“I don’t think I’ve done enough and now it’s up to me to change that. I think I’ve under-achieved massively in the last few years and now it’s down to me.

“I’ve not done enough. I’m delighted to be back at home. This move is perfect for me. I’ve got a wife and little boy whose going to pre-school – everything is just right for this move.”

Moore made his introductions to the Saddlers with a winner on his debut at Luton on Saturday and now finds himself up against one of his old Villa coaches, Stuart Gray, in charge at Northampton.

Money will sit back and hope to watch the sparks fly as a young man who has realised that the clock is ticking sets about making up for lost time.