JODY ON THE MISSING GOAL CELEBRATION

Bevan’s 250th goal celebration had been in the planning for months – and on the day he forgot to do it.

“I had four or five party poppers stuffed down my shorts and the plan was to let them off after the goal. All the lads knew about it as well.

“But my momentum after scoring took me careering behind the net and soon the moment had gone.”

JODY ON LEE SMITH

Bevan acknowledges the debt the Cirencester Town side owes to Lee Smith whose goals have kept the veteran striker on the bench for much of the season.

“I have known Smudge since he was 17 and many don’t take to him, but he has been awesome for us to get 28 goals this season so far.

“He is a strong character, very vocal in the dressing room and quite full of himself.

“But he has always asked questions and has not been scared to test himself elsewhere at a higher level.

“This season was a bit of a last chance saloon for him, I think.

“I have advised him so see it through with Ciren – he will have plenty of offers in a higher league next season.”

JODY ON HONOURS

“I have won a few Player of the Year awards but I have only won one medal – when Weston were promoted to the Southern Premier as runners-up in the 2002/03 season.

“When Cirencester were promoted through the play-offs we received nothing, not even a presentation.

“But the vast majority of players at this level, me included, will tell you that we do it for the love of football.”

JODY ON HIS TOUGHEST OPPONENT

“I am not saying it just because he is a mate, but I never ever got the better of Lyndon Tomkins.

“And so it was it was great when he ended up playing in the same Cirencester Town team.”

JODY ON MANAGEMENT

Bevan’s first taste of coaching at Shortwood has not set up a future career path – but managing is another matter.

“It didn’t work out for me at Shortwood but I had a great time and it really opened my eyes to coaching.

“The fact that I barely played last season has helped me this term. I had a total rest – taking my foot off the gas as a player – and I did not add many miles on the clock.

“Coaching does not come naturally to me, I am much more interested in the mental approach to management.”

JODY ON BRIAN HUGHES

“Hughesie does not get involved in coaching, he’s all about man management and the fact that he could be heading for his third promotion with Cirencester is not an accident.

“He’s a terrific manager at this level. He’s old school and it still means so much to him. You can see how much it hurts him when we lose.

“He also instils in the younger lads particularly that those special days don’t come around very often.”

JODY ON HIS INJURIES

“Regarding injuries, I was relatively lucky until I was 28. Before then I had never missed more than two weeks of a season through injury.

“That changed on my 28th birthday when I broke my left leg, as well as tearing my ACL and cartilage while playing for Gloucester in the FA Trophy at Tiverton. I went under the knife and the surgeon advised that I should seriously consider quitting football but in my own mind that was never an option.

“It was during the rehab that I started researching my career stats and realised at the time that I was not too far away from 200 career goals at that time.

“Just before I rejoined Ciren in 2009 I had surgery to repair a double hernia that had troubled me for the second half of the 2008/09 season while at Cinderford.

“In 2011, I tore the ACL in my right knee in the first home league game of the season. Being on the sidelines that season broke me. The team really struggled and it quickly became apparent that we were going to be in a relegation battle.

“I was working so hard on my rehab as I had this romantic vision in my head that I would come back into the side and save the club from relegation. I think I came back from the injury after five months which in hindsight was ludicrous.

“My form was not good enough and I was gutted come the end of the season when we experienced relegation for the first and hopefully the only time in my career.

“I had convinced myself that I was no longer up to the demands of regular Southern League football, so when the offer of a player-coach role materialised at Shortwood I felt it was too good an opportunity to turn down.

JODY’S CLUB CHRONOLOGY

1996-97 Cinderford Town

1997 Trowbridge Town

1997-2000 Cinderford Town

2000-03 Weston-super-Mare

2003-05 Cirencester Town

2005-06 Cinderford Town

2006-08 Gloucester City

2008-09 Cinderford Town

2009-12 Cirencester Town

2012-13 Shortwood Utd

2013 – present Cirencester