Fridge in the Telegraph

[Stu M]

Right, my last post before the pub, the game and tomorrow's draw at Old Trafford. Come on you reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeds!

 

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Gravesend 'Fridge' plans icy welcome

By Nicholas Harling

(Filed: 02/12/2003)

 

 

 

For good reason is Francis Duku known as 'The Fridge' by team-mates who bounce off him in training. At 15st and 6ft 4in, Gravesend and Northfleet's central defender has filled out to become an even more formidable obstacle than Notts County encountered when they played the Kent club in the FA Cup first round three years ago.

 

The pair have been drawn together again and Saturday's second-round tie will be played this time on the Nationwide Conference club's own Stonebridge Road ground rather than Gillingham's Priestfield Stadium, which proved more resistant to the torrential rain of 2000.

 

Duku, 25, is one of only three Gravesend survivors from the 2-1 defeat, along with right-back Matt Lee and midfielder Rob Owen, who will be suspended. Yet he feels that he should be elsewhere, among the ranks of full-time professionals. Both at Reading and Bournemouth where he had trials, he did well enough, he assumed, to be offered terms.

 

Richard Hill, his youth team manager at Reading, was the first one to disappoint him. "He liked me and made me his captain but ultimately didn't give me a pro contract so he couldn't have liked me that much," Duku said. After spells at Romford, Crawley and Dulwich Hamlet, Duku was turned down by Bournemouth.

 

Duku is now virtually resigned to semi-professional life. "I won't give up hope," he said, "but as I grow older I'll not see many other dreams to chase after. I've got a bit more realistic about things. But now, if I did get an offer, it would take a lot to make it worthwhile as I've got a decent job."

 

Indeed, armed with his umbrella in a downpour yesterday, Duku looked a typical City gent striding out of Royal Mint Court where he is a corporate actions analyst for Barclays Global Investors. He is not there to make the tea, he insists to disbelieving Gravesend team-mates who find his academic background a source of great amusement.

 

Born to Ghanaian parents who moved from Accra to Peckham when he was three, he studied hard and eventually gained an economics degree at the University of London.

 

With two jobs, Duku is invariably on the move, but he was slowed to a halt for much of last season by a horrific fall that left him with a broken left leg and ankle. It came in a pre-season friendly at Weymouth "on a terrible pitch with weeds growing out of it".

 

Attempting a clearance with an overhead kick, Duku's ankle went one way and his body the other. "Being 15st didn't help," he said. He was initially put on crutches and only two days later did he discover the extent of the damage. "I'd always imagined that a broken leg would be so much more painful," he recollected.

 

The eight-month absence has slowed his career. He came back for the last seven games of last season, none of which Gravesend lost. "I'm not saying our escape from relegation was down to me," he said modestly. Nor will he, presumably, if Gravesend stay up again as his form still leaves something to be desired.

 

"I haven't been as good since breaking my leg," he observed. "I haven't played as well, although I'm totally over it. I just haven't regained the form I had before. It disappoints me and I know it disappoints our manager Andy Ford as well. It's not for want of trying but it's not coming together as well as it can do."

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