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Ascot United bring ex-Reading, Portsmouth, Leeds, Norwich, Crawley, Oxford keeper out of retirement

Ascot United have managed to bring ex-Reading, Pompey, Leeds, Norwich, Crawley, Oxford keeper Jamie Ashdown out of retirement.

The 42 year old shot-stopper is currently helping the Combined Counties League Premier Division North to a new club record, being part of their record-winning streak of 11 matches.

Ashdown has kept three clean sheets as Ascot sit at as league leaders of the table, with the winning run going as far back as Saturday the 8th when they won 3-1 against Wokingham and Emmbrook in the league, includes two Isuzu FA Vase victories and a Cherry Red Records Premier Challenge Cup win.

Ascot also managed to snatch all three points in a home win against fellow title race contenders Burnham at the beginning of November, with 11 points separating the two sides.

Ashdown’s side have taken 39 points from just 14 matches having won 13 of them and lost one, with Reading City, who they face next Tuesday (6th of December) are only a point behind having won 12 of their 14 games, drawing twice and losing none.

Ascot’s winning run:
Wokingham & Emmbrook 1-3 Ascot United (Combined Counties League)
Ascot United 2-1 Spelthorne Sports (Combined Counties League)
Newport (Isle of Wight) 0-1 Ascot United (FA Vase)
Ascot United 3-1 Broadfields United (Combined Counties League)
Ascot United 2-0 Holyport (Combined Counties League)
FC Deportivo Galicia 1-5 Ascot United (Premier Challenge Cup)
Ascot United 2-1 Burnham (Combined Counties League)
Broadbridge Heath 0-3 Ascot United (FA Vase)
Virginia Water 1-2 Ascot United (Combined Counties League)
Ascot United 7-1 Hilltop (Combined Counties League)
Ascot United 2-1 London Lions (Combined Counties League)

On Friday the 2nd of December 2022, Ashdown won the Player of the Month award, showing age is no barrier.

In July 2022, a statement by Ascot said: “We’re delighted to announce that former Premier League and FA Cup winner, Jamie Ashdown has come out of retirement and committed to the club for the season.”

He had previously been a goalkeeping coach at the club, helping out players be in from the ladies team, the juniors or youth.

It was in August 2015 that he retired from football at the age of 34.

He said via Portsmouth The News: ‘I was in an era where people got decent money, but I didn’t play enough games or have that high-enough accolade to get big, big money.

‘Regardless, I enjoyed what I was doing and got paid very well for doing it.

‘Money doesn’t last forever, though, and I made some investments, but that takes years. When it goes down, it’s difficult to get that back again.

‘Whether you have £20m in the bank or a little money, you invest what you’ve got. It’s just luck of the draw sometimes.

‘Some people might lose it. I have known many people that have had millions and millions in the bank and wasted it.

‘I’m now working on trying to be sustainable rather than having a go at too many different things and throwing money at it, especially at this time with what’s going on.‘

 

The Reading-born 25-year-old rose through the ranks with his hometown club the Royals but struggled to take the place of Marcus Hahnemann and instead gained experience during various loan spells at Gravesend, Bournemouth and Rushden & Diamonds.

In June 2004, the 6ft 3ins former England schoolboy signed a four-year contract at Fratton Park and spent much of 2005-06 season as Pompey’s first choice goalkeeper but his chances were limited with the arrival of Dean Kiely and then David James during the summer of 2006.

Jamie made his Norwich debut the following day in the 1-0 home victory against then-league leaders Cardiff City. In his second appearance, he was sent off as the Canaries fell to a 5-0 defeat at Stoke City on 28th October 2006

Jamie returned to Portsmouth after a month apparently unwilling to extend his stay at Carrow Road.

Jamie was primarily understudy to David James but following Pompey’s relegation to the Championship at the end of the 2009/10 campaign, one wonders if James will stay and if Ashdown will get more match-time.

Instead he was released by Pompey in May 2010 but reports claimed that they might re-sign him especially if David James leaves.

James then joined Bristol City and Ashdown was re-signed by Pompey on 9th August 2010. He was their first choice keeper for the 2010/11 season and was in goal when Norwich won 1-0 on the 2nd of May 2011 to win promotion to the Premier League.

Ashdown and Portsmouth were relegated to League One on the 21st of April 2012, partly due to the club’s perilous finances which had seen them placed in administration and 10 points deducted. Ashdown left the club at the end of the season

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After a trial with Middlesbrough, Ashdown signed a one year contract with Leeds on the 24th of July 2012

Ashdown was released by Leeds in May 2014 having made just 8 appearances for Leeds, all coming in cup competitions.

In July 2014, Ashdown trialled with both Doncaster Rovers, joining them on their pre-season tour of Portugal, and Blackburn Rovers.

On the 29th of August 2014, Ashdown signed a short term contract with Crawley until the end of December 2014.

Jamie left Crawley in November after making 12 appearances, and on the 3rd of February 2015 signed with Oxford United until the end of the 2014/15 season.

In 2013, Ashdown set up an online business, Trusted Pro Supplements, supplying and offering information to athletes about nutritional supplements, as mentioned on the ex-canaries website.

In 2016 he opened a cafe which went out of business during the Covid-19 lockdown.

He took to serving coffee and making bacon sandwiches in a thriving Camberley-based enterprise, then expanded his Brewpoint cafe in October 2019 by moving to bigger premises.

He then helped out with is Dad’s hardware store in Crowthorne after closing the cafe.

Ashdown told The News: ‘I lost my coffee shop this year. I plunged quite a lot of money into that, it’s all gone now. Coronavirus destroyed it.

‘For four years I had a cafe in Camberley, it was doing great, but I wanted something bigger and better. There really wasn’t anywhere to grow, so I risked it.

‘I decided to get a place in Basingstoke on a trading estate. It was bigger, with massive doors going out into the car park and in quite a good location – but I just didn’t get a chance.

‘I got there in October and it took a little while to get going. January and February were a little quiet and then March hit. There’s nothing you can do.

‘It depends how long you have been established and if you are willing to wait. With an old-fashioned pub, you are not going to leave it, you’re hopefully going to sit around and wait for it to come back again.

‘My cafe wasn’t really that established in Basingstoke, it didn’t have the customer base for me to think “I’ll hold on. If I wait a few months then everyone will come back”.

‘After lockdown, I went back and for the first week-and-a-half it was brutal. I was earning £20-30 a day. There was nobody around.

‘I decided to put another business next to it, so introduced home fuels, selling BBQ stuff, supplies for woodfire stoves and chimineas. I got a bit of stock in for that and made it all look nice.

‘It was half cafe and half of that – and I ended up selling more of the fuel stuff than coffee.

‘Yet food goes out of date quickly. Each day I was throwing away stuff worth £100, such as coffee, milk, all sorts of things.

‘It went completely dead. I couldn’t wait around any longer and didn’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. A grant only goes so far with rent.

‘I shut it in August. It took me a good week to clear it all out, selling the equipment, such as an oven you bought for £4-5,000 which you’re now selling for silly money.

‘With hindsight, I should have stayed in Camberley and I would have been fine. But there you go.

‘I have learnt some life lessons that if you throw money at it, it doesn’t work out.

‘Now I’m working for my dad in the hardware store, he’s an essential shop, and you have to wear a mask all day.

‘I’m not really sure what the future holds at the moment, it’s just trying to get by like everyone else.’

ASHDOWN’S CAREER:

Youth career
1991–1998 Reading

Senior career
1998–2004 – Reading
2001 → Gravesend & Northfleet (loan)
2002 → Arsenal (loan)
2002 → AFC Bournemouth (loan)
2003–2004 → Rushden & Diamonds (loan)
2004–2012 – Portsmouth
2006 → Norwich City (loan)
2012–2014 – Leeds United
2014 – Crawley Town
2015 – Oxford United
2022 – Ascot United

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