Boreham Wood's Mendy says: 'I'll never complain about too many games'

Boreham Wood played seven games in three different competitions in January but you won't hear wing-back Jacob Mendy complaining about fatigue.

Less than a year ago, he was up at 6am every day to work on a building site. Before then, he was a cleaner. Before that, he separated rubbish for a waste management company. A particularly smelly job, he confirms.

Having arrived in England via Gambia and Madrid, his first club Redhill paid him £40-a-week in the Combined Counties League to supplement his day jobs.

Thankfully, the years of toil paid off. At the age of 24 last July, he finally got the chance to turn full-time pro. And next weekend, thanks to the beauty of the FA Cup, he'll share the limelight with Harry Kane and Kevin De Bruyne as his non-leaguers face Premier League hopefuls Bournemouth in the fourth round, live on television. 'It's taken a while but I'm fulfilling my dream,' says Mendy. 

'Last season, at Wealdstone, I'd play or train on a Tuesday night, get home and midnight and be up at six to be on the construction site at half-seven. My body would still be sore and aching from playing football but I had to do it. My last job was building houses in Kensington.

'I used to do everything, carrying, lifting big loads, it was my job. I used to go even though I was still tired, aching. I just had to do the work, rest if I had time. That was my life until July.

'I'd tell my work-mates I was going to make it in football, They were happy for me when I signed full-time for Boreham Wood.

'You hear footballers at the top level complaining about things like too many matches but maybe they aren't aware of what other people are going through.

'In the lower leagues you play every Saturday and Tuesday, and those guys have other