Tom King speaks Newport departure, Wales experiences and new beginnings at Salford City
Adam Davies, Danny Ward, and Wayne Hennessey. That was who Rob Page decided to take across Europe for EURO 2020. The name not on that list? Tom King.
Despite being in the squad that saw them clinch qualification, Tom King was not part of the squad that would tour the continent in what was their second consecutive Euros.
The way in which King found out he wouldn’t be part of the squad set up a cruel few days for the goalkeeper, who could have had the best week of his carer.
Gearing up for the League Two play-off final, a chance to play on Wembley Stadium, King was notified by the Welsh boss that he wouldn’t be part of the team.
Despite that double whammy of missing out on a promotion and not being part of the squad, it was more a moment of reflection, rather than a period where he dwelled.
‘’I sort of put everything into perspective. I looked at the bigger picture and thought this time two years ago, I had lost my place in Newport’s team after coming back from an international call-up,” King said.
“If you were to tell me two years ago that I would be the fourth choice on the plane to go with Wales to a European Championships, I’d have laughed in your face.
‘’Just receiving the call from Pagey [Rob Rage] was a huge honour. He did it a couple of days before the play-off final just to let me know what was going on, just to give me time if there was any sadness or sulking just to get it out of the way before the final. It was just pure emotion that I was even considered to be in and around that squad and I’m grateful to the coaching staff.’’
King reflects on his times at Wales with fondness. He was part of the squad who qualified for Euro 2020 in a 2-0 victory over Hungary.
has been involved in two international campaigns for Wales – in November 2019 and September 2021.
‘’Just to be recognised on that level, to see those people who you’re going to be playing with when you’re there is just unbelievable.
‘’Then, when you get there, the stuff that you learn just took me to a new level. I remember coming back from that first camp, and it just took me to a whole new level physically and mentally. I knew I could compete. It gave me a whole new lease of life. It’s something I’m extremely proud of.’’
‘’It was a real eye-opener for me. I saw the videos of Euro 2016 and it looked so much like a club mentality. They look like they’re all best mates and they’ve been together for a long period of time.
‘’I looked at it, especially from the outside, and thought there’s no way they can actually be that close. But, as soon as you step foot in the building, it’s just like a club environment, it’s a club mentality.’’
‘’I was extremely impressed with how they treated me and I was grateful that they accepted me for who I am and the level that I was playing at compared to them.’’
‘’There are three amazing goalkeepers there – two with high calibre Premier League experience and one who has played over 100 games in the Championship,’’ King said.
‘’It’s not going to be an easy task, but I’m trying every day. I see the standards that they set themselves every day and I try to emulate that.
‘’The only thing I can do is concentrate on myself and not worry too much about what they’re doing. If the chance comes and arises for me to go away, I’ll go there and give it my all.’’
Embed from Getty ImagesLike any player who is released from their contract, their next steps are crucial, a few clubs came calling but it was Michael Flynn and Newport, who got his signature.
It was meant to be a home for him having spent most of his time away from The Den on loan, featuring for the likes of Welling United and Braintree in the Conference before Stevenage and Wimbledon came calling.
Featuring for most of the season in which the Exiles stayed in mid-table, King featured a total of 35 times, the most in his career before the COVID-19 pandemic brought an end to his campaign.
‘’The first season [at Newport] was ended abruptly. We weren’t in a position where we felt like we were challenging for anything, so maybe it came at a good time because results weren’t going our way and the performances were poor.
‘’Going into my second season, I also found it tough, losing my place to Nick [Townsend] at the start of the season, gaining it back for a little bit, then losing it again.
‘’The two biggest memories for me are Brighton in the FA Cup, where it would probably go down as one of my best performances in my career so far. And then there was the [play-off] final, which ended in tears and heartbreak.
“It’s every boy’s dream to play at Wembley, so to get to play there was unbelievable. I’ll be either looking to avoid that and go through the automatics or try and go there and win next time.’’
Newport County were defeated in unfortunate circumstances in the 2020/21 League Two play-off final, where they fell to a controversial extra-time penalty decision against Morecambe.
Replays showed that contact was made outside of the box when Morecambe were awarded an opportunity to break the deadlock.
As a goalkeeper, there is no pressure to save the penalty and instead, it is on the taker to score it.
But Carlos Mendes Gomes, now playing for Blackpool in the Championship, cooly dispatched it to send the Shrimpers into a division they’ve never entered before.
‘’I’ve actually had an unbelievable opportunity to speak to Bobby Madley [referee of the play-off final] since. He was actually the referee at one of our pre-season games against Derby. I had a good chat with him after the game. It was almost like breaking up with a girlfriend, I just needed the closure chat!
‘’I said to him, ‘please tell me you look back on that decision with a bit of regret.’ He said, ‘if I could have my time over again, maybe the penalty was a bit soft.’
‘’Look, we’re all human at the end of the day. We all make mistakes, I’ve made mistakes. He owned up to his mistakes on the pitch and that’s all you can ask for really.’’
‘’If you look at the squad we [Newport] had, the achievement of the boys doing it twice in three seasons. To go and lose twice at Wembley in three years, that’s pretty bad luck.
‘’It just wasn’t meant to be.’’
Following his departure from The Exiles this summer, King signed for fellow League Two side Salford City.
After falling at the last hurdle once more, Newport opted to overhaul their squad.
A raft of players, who had been at the club for a number of years weren’t kept on at Rodney Parade.
And after two years of service, King was one of them who wouldn’t be staying with the Gwent club. They opted to bring back a familiar face in Joe Day.
So as he left Newport this summer, one of the clubs that had done battle for the past two seasons, began sniffing around after losing first-choice keeper Václav Hladký to Ipswich Town.
‘’The way that it ended [leaving Newport County] was sad. I would have loved to have had another go at it with Newport, but after a long conversation with the manager, it was explained to me that they would be going in another direction.
‘’That’s football at the end of the day. Football is known as a revolving door. You’re the biggest thing one minute, not wanted the next. I completely understand it and I didn’t take it personally which is a positive.’’
King’s current lub Salford City are most known for their high-profile owners, the Class of 92, with Wales manager Ryan Giggs one of the people part of the consortium.
Following the club’s takeover by the Class of ’92 in 2014, they have been promoted in four of the previous seven seasons.
Managed by former Blackburn Rovers boss Gary Bowyer, they are a club that doesn’t want to stand still and stagnate in the same division.
Funnily for King, the move is one that worked out personally for him, as his partner was based in the area, which has made the move to the Peninsula Stadium one that works for all parties.
‘’This club [Salford City] is only going in one direction. The owners have been quite vocal about the direction they want the club to be going in, and for me to be part of the journey and to have my name in their long journey is going to be an unbelievable achievement.
‘’We feel the pressure to an extent because we want to achieve, and we know that we’re good enough to achieve the things we want to.’’
‘’My partner lives in Manchester, right in the heart of Salford. It all sounds like it was made up but I was actually on the way up to Manchester for her birthday and then I ended up getting a call from Gary [Bowyer].
‘’My agent had spoken to Gary a couple of times and said, ‘Tom’s on his way to Manchester, speak to him.’ So I spoke to the manager in the car on the way up and it’s a good job I had my boots and gloves in the car because I did a couple of days of training and that was it. After the training, they liked what they saw, they were impressed and that’s how it happened.’’
