FEATURE: Ex-Mansfield Town, Newport County, Rushden and Kettering Town star Aaron O'Connor on still playing at 41

Aaron O’Connor started scoring goals more than 22 years ago and he doesn’t show signs of stopping any time soon.

Currently enjoying life at the top of the United Counties League Premier North with Eastwood CFC, the 41-year-old has enjoyed a career that saw him play professionally for over ten years, taste the joy of promotions and scoring at Wembley, and play under some truly inspirational managers.

So what is it that makes him still want to run around a football pitch when he could quite easily have his feet up instead on a Saturday afternoon?

"It comes from just wanting to be fit and healthy,” he said.

"I’ve always been that way. I’m meticulous in looking after myself and doing things right. I’ve been going to the gym since I was a teenager and always eating the right foods.

"I like to still test myself against younger players and compete. It’s not about the money or anything like that. I’m still enjoying it and the day that stops, I stop.

"Age is just a number. You face different challenges as you get older but if I show I can still compete then I’ll keep playing and take a lot of pride in that.”

O’Connor is amongst friends at Eastwood. Joint-bosses Daryll Thomas and Martin Ball have both played alongside him before, whilst one of his fellow strikers, Craig Westcarr, turns 40 next month and is also still finding the net on a regular basis.

And that, along with still wanting to learn, is what helps drive O’Connor on.

"The game has changed since I was younger. It’s evolving all the time and you have to adapt, so we’re always learning both from coaches and also the young players we now play alongside,” he said.

"The nature of tackles, how the game is played, formations, the technological side of things – all of that has changed and whilst we can help young players with experience, they can also help us in their own way too. There’s a good mix of youth and experience at Eastwood and it’s going well so far.

"The managers treat me the same as the other players and vice versa. It’s easy to go from friend mode to the more serious player to coach relationship, as we have the same attitude and same take on lots of situations. We all know what we want to do and achieve, then once that’s done we can be friends in the bar afterwards.”

O’Connor grew up in Basford and began his career at Ilkeston Town, where at first he struggled to get in the picture at the New Manor Ground.

He said: “I did well in the reserve side, scoring lots of goals, but was only really making the bench for the first team and in the end I was preferring to get games in the reserves rather than sit on the bench and not play.

"I ended up going on trial at Scunthorpe United and scored in a game against Notts County. The manager Brian Laws then signed me for the rest of the season but it didn’t work out so I went back to Ilkeston, where this time I got more regular football but out on the wing rather than up front where I wanted to be.

"That all led to me having to make the first big decision of my career. I needed to be away from Nottingham where I had too many distractions, and find a club where I could play where I wanted to play and enjoy my football.

"Gresley Rovers and Belper Town came in for me but once I met Gresley boss Gary Norton he was the one I wanted to play for. He told me I’d be his number one striker and that was all I needed to hear.

"It was the best decision I ever made. I got my head down, was there for about two-and-a-half seasons and scored over 90 goals.”

That form started to attract the attention of clubs higher up the pyramid, and that was when O’Connor would first join up with a man who would be pivotal to his future success.

"Justin Edinburgh was manager at Grays Athletic, who were in the Conference Premier, and was really keen to bring me in,” he said.

"I ended up signing and Justin was so influential in the way he operated and you can’t underestimate the importance of a manager like that.

"He was a great person – it wasn’t just about the football for him. I’d end up playing for him at Rushden & Diamonds and Newport County too, and nearly Gillingham when he went there. I performed best under him and Gary Norton because of who they were as people and I even turned down better money elsewhere to stay working with Justin at times.”

O’Connor gets emotional talking about Edinburgh. When manager of Leyton Orient in 2019, Edinburgh died suddenly aged 49 following a cardiac arrest, robbing the game of one of its brightest young managers and O’Connor of a valued friend and mentor.

"We had a unique relationship,” O’Connor adds. “He was exceptional.”

Having impressed in a struggling Grays side, prior to working with Edinburgh again at Rushden, O’Connor moved back to Nottinghamshire for a spell with Mansfield Town in the summer of 2008.

He said: “I had a few clubs interested, including Mansfield and Burton, but had always liked Mansfield and the stadium and it would be good to be back closer to home again.

"It was up and down a bit there. I didn’t play up front all the time and as a team we didn’t score many goals, but Rob Duffy and I were top scorers.

"But again I felt that if I wanted to pursue my career as well as I could, I’d need to move away from Notts again. It was good to be near my friends but there were again too many distractions.

"I was offered a new deal, but I opted to leave and vowed I wouldn’t come home until no longer full-time and I stuck to that pledge.

"When we’d played Rushden, Justin Edinburgh had jokingly kept sewing the seeds and hinting to work with him again, so I knew he’d want me and whilst he told me it would be tough as he was having to build a squad almost from scratch, he’d proved he could do that to good effect before, helped by giving everything week in, week out.”

A good couple of years followed at Nene Park, but all of a sudden Diamonds ran into serious financial trouble and faced going bust, which is where the next stage of O’Connor’s career would take flight.

See part two of the interview with O’Connor next week, where he discusses life after Rushden, including playing under a footballing hero, becoming a legend back in non-league, and continuing to knock in the goals into his forties.