Jordan Skelton P2 - “Welcome To The Hunger Games!” Ricardo Pepi, Mark Mckeever & being desperate to bring success to One Knox - E10

Skelts is back for part 2, reflecting on the successes and challenges of the inaugural 2023 season with One Knoxville, emphasizing the importance of implementing a strong team culture, communication on and off the field, and building for the future of the club. He discusses the impact of losing long standing coach Mark Mckeever midway through 2024, and what effect that had on team dynamics and the growth of the club. The conversation also touches on defining success for One Knoxville and the significance of personal achievements in football, including playing for England Schoolboys and winning a national title. And trying to volley a certain USMNT international as he was being danced around… 

00:00 2023 Breakout Season

02:37 One Knox Defensive Unit

04:31 Reaction to Mckeever Exit

06:35 Jam's Red Card vs Skelts

13:59 What Makes a Good USL1 Team?

17:01 What is Success for Skelton & One Knoxville

20:13 Mark McKeever's Impact on Player Development

24:59 Extra Time

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Transcript

Dom Okus (00:00)
Beautiful.

It rounds us into like, you know, you've gone through a terrible time, ups and downs, and then you had a bit of a break out right? So like, 2023, 2024, you know, team of the year, accolades,

sheets, all those things. Talk to him nice, talk to him nice. That is true.

Jordan Skelton (00:15)
Come on, man!

Yeah, come on man! man's gotta eat fam! Man's

gotta eat fam!

Dom Okus (00:29)
Amazing. Brilliant. So just talk to us a little bit about that 2023 season and obviously being named the team of the year, but like kind of your mentality going into the season and why it kind of worked out for you on the pitch.

Jordan Skelton (00:29)
Yeah, what?

Jamil Roberts (00:30)
Huh?

Jordan Skelton (00:41)
Yeah bro, I think it was the accumulation of a few things Dom. So I think first and foremost, I was part of a really good team and I know that can come across as cliché. Like yeah, you're saying the right thing, know, but generally that's what it was. I went to a team where I knew the head coach, I had a really good relationship with the head coach and

Jamil Roberts (01:04)
That's McKeever,

Yeah.

Jordan Skelton (01:06)
Yeah, I was with Mark

McKeever. So I'd played for him for three summers and just won a national title with him. So I won the national title with Des Moines, signed for North Carolina. And then, my year at North Carolina, I really enjoyed my experience there. I really enjoyed the football. But my thing was, I think I was 26. And I'm like, hey, I'm 26. I'm back in the game. I want to win. I want to make something. Because listen, we're not driving Mercedes Benz's and BMW's over there on League 1. So it's like...

Jamil Roberts (01:30)
you

Jordan Skelton (01:34)
I'm in this because I love the game and I want to win. And I felt like in North Carolina, just fair, their objective was to produce youth. So my thing was I heard Mark was getting it at Knoxville and I asked it in North Carolina, look, like I want to go and compete. I want to go and win. And they told me at the time, lads, Jam, you'll probably laugh at this, Dom, I don't know if you know. I was like, yeah, right. Like I've heard that before. You're going to invest. That was the thing, right? We're going to invest in the team. We're going to invest in the team.

Jamil Roberts (02:00)
I know what's coming.

Jordan Skelton (02:03)
And I thought, yeah, right. Like, cause some of these, just as a little bit of an insider, like some of those younger lads were on like wedge because they had to give them wedge. So they didn't go to day one schools because they were all getting recruited by like wake and Duke and North Carolina. So like their thing was like, look, we're going to bring you in here. We'll give you his cash because we feel like that user going to make us cash, right? This new contract thing of like, they'll sell them to a team. And then if they get sold again, North Carolina can make loads of Dosh. Right. So, and these lads were good players. really were.

Jamil Roberts (02:28)
Sell on free, yeah, yeah,

Jordan Skelton (02:33)
In North Carolina anyway, I'm going off on a tangent, but I left North Carolina to go to Knoxville because I was like Mark McKeever, know what he's like, I'm comfortable with him. And the lads that he was bringing in, I thought we can win with that group. So when I went into Knoxville, it was like year one, brand new team, which again, not a lot of people will be used to like in England. It's like, when do you get, when can you think of a single team that's in its first year of existence, right lads? But obviously in America, that's common. So.

Jamil Roberts (03:02)
a lot.

Jordan Skelton (03:02)
Just a lot of things to deal with, know, like having got our own training ground, having got our own stadium, kind of sharing things, but it was, it was a really good experience. And basically to answer your question upfront, Dom, we had a really good back line and a really good goalkeeper. So again, going back to the first way back down the line, Jam, when you talked about like communication stuff, I think another thing that communication does is, and to come to yours as well, Dom, about like,

certain lads that don't talk, you stop playing like here and you start playing as a unit. You stop playing just for yourself and you start playing as a unit. And our unit was like, our unit's probably what we've ended up becoming known for, really. It knocks, it's like the defensive side of things being hard to score against. And I think to be fair, I've just been fortunate in where I'm one of the ones that's been thrown in the limelight because it could have been any of the lads in the back line because we've done a...

Jamil Roberts (03:47)
Yeah.

100%, 100%.

Jordan Skelton (04:01)
We've built on a really good foundation of becoming hard to play against.

Jamil Roberts (04:05)
Yeah, and just to touch on that, think obviously, McKeever's not in the role anymore, but that was certainly something that carried over, even when he left the role midway through this past season. It was like, I'm sure that weight and that responsibility fell on you to make sure there were no cracks around you, right? Because you lot were the best defensive team in the league for a reason. And obviously when the gaffer goes midway through the year,

Jordan Skelton (04:17)
Yeah, I'm a-

Yeah, big time.

Jamil Roberts (04:34)
I don't know if this ever happened to you Don but it's happened to me. You know, my team was stinking and then we ended up going 16 games on the bounce. However, for you boys, you were having a decent season, do know what mean? So the wheels could have come off. So I think it's a testament to yourself to keep that group together.

Jordan Skelton (04:45)
I may have hung that that was exactly what

it was jam and you know what it was obviously it ultimately came down to it was almost like a double-edged sword because what ended up what was being our success in the sense of like you know clean sheets being really hard to play against you know the ownership at Knox were like you know we want more exciting football which

Jamil Roberts (05:04)
Ahem.

Jordan Skelton (05:13)
Two faces to every corner, right? You can say, well, hold on, I think we were four points off the top. I think we were sitting in third with a game in hand at the time. So we were right there, you know? And I think that whole thing of like, we want more exciting football, we want more goals. Again, you can say, because that's going to bring tickets in America, lads, isn't it? Like ultimately, it's entertainment, right? So that's that and then the ownership, so the head coach and the ownership kind of had that kind of come together.

And I think ultimately what was said was like, we just want to, they both agreed that maybe there's like a, if they want to go this way, it's maybe it's not going to be these two together. It would have to be someone else. So when Mark and the club agreed to part ways, the new coach came in, it was a lad that was playing the year before. And he just said like, look, like I'm going to be a facilitator here and try and do the best we can. Because he ultimately said his sales pitch was if we win.

It's the most likely everyone will get better contracts. And that just became the target. So it was like, be successful and everyone will be sorted. Because again, you've got international lads that are worrying about visas and worried about contracts and partners and all the rest of it. And we just doubled down, I think, with the idea of like, look, if we keep clean sheets, we've got enough quality where we'll maybe knick a goal.

Jamil Roberts (06:35)
Yeah. And Dom, I don't know if I've ever told you this story, but you talk about goals and you talk about entertainment.

Jordan Skelton (06:42)
here it done! I've been waiting for this!

Come on, Jam! Get the violin out,

Dom Okus (06:49)
Let's hear it, let's hear it.

Jamil Roberts (06:53)
one certain game this year where they happened to score a few. Happened to be.

Jordan Skelton (06:59)
Was

the day, was the game after Mark and the club parted ways?

Jamil Roberts (07:02)
Yeah.

So we've come into the game, right? The gaffer and the club have just gone two separate ways. We've come into it and we just won the week before and we're thinking, right, two wins on the bounce here and we'll start climbing the table. So we've come in and we are on it in the warmup. We are on it. And like, you know the pitch that you lads have been playing on the last two years. It's a carpet, Don. It's an absolute carpet.

Jordan Skelton (07:30)
It's unbelievable.

Jamil Roberts (07:32)
So like we've come from our pitch like Bobble City over to like Carpet FC, right? So we're bopping it in the warm up, we are at it, right? Anyway, three nil down after what, 12 minutes? And...

Jordan Skelton (07:37)
Dublin's Cave to Wembley, mate, that's what it is.

Yeah, it was a quick one.

And by the way, the goalie was having a blinder because he saved two. Like I honestly got ripped from the lads because I could have had a hat trick. Like I had, I had one, like a free kick got whipped in and like felt in the box and I've whacked it. Right. And the goalies just threw up, like threw himself, tipped it over the bar. So that could have been my first goal. Second one.

Jamil Roberts (07:59)
Yeah.

Jordan Skelton (08:19)
Kemp, our German lad, put in a great ball and I've like glanced at it with the back of my head, I'm thinking, that's in. Goalie, bottom right, flicks it around the corner. So we get a corner and then the very next corner, Dom, right? I'm like, right, I'm just gonna absolutely leng myself at this. Cause I'm raging now at this point. I'm like, this keepers taking the piss, right? I'm just gonna throw my entire life at this ball.

Because it's the big Irish boy Mark on us as well and I'm having a bit of banter with him. I'm like, big man, you're going to look at the ball, you're just going to try and kiss me. Like having a bit of banter with him. Ball comes in, right? And I remember I seen Goose and I thought like, I'm just going to run into Goose. That's what I thought in my head. So I've like just thrown myself. I felt it hit my head. Don't know where it's going. And I've hit it. The ball's hit my head and I look up and it's going right to him on the line.

Jamil Roberts (08:54)
You

You

Jordan Skelton (09:16)
And honestly, Jam, I'm going to be dead honest with you. I just think it hit you, right? Don't even think it hit your arm or out. It maybe hit your arm here. Maybe.

Jamil Roberts (09:21)
It did... It didn't... It hit me right

there mate. the shoulder and the arm sort of ridge right there.

Jordan Skelton (09:31)
Dom, Dom I'll give it like... AHHHH AHHHH

Jamil Roberts (09:34)
You fucking palaned!

Jordan Skelton (10:01)
right it's been it's been a good two three minutes of like the Chattanooga boys being like what like what's going on like come on like that's not a red card the referees just like get over there like whatever jam walks to the touch line and then on the touch line i think he just thought right i'll have one more butchers and see if i can reverse this red card takes his kit off absolutely wallops it off the floor

Dom Okus (10:01)
I it.

Jordan Skelton (10:29)
and walks off and I'm thinking the whole time like, I kind of like that. I like Jam I feel bad now. Feel bad. I felt bad. And then I'm like, I'm like, we've all been there with the USL one refs That could have been either way.

Jamil Roberts (10:36)
aww mate

Do

you know the worst thing mate, right? Is... He can give a penalty, right? At the end of the day, there's no VAR, right? I haven't punched the ball out, I haven't done anything like that. And I'm sure we can pull up a clip of it. I haven't punched the ball out, I haven't done anything. I've done my job. I've blocked the ball on the line, right? Give a penalty, that's fine. But...

Jordan Skelton (10:52)
Don't send ya off.

AYE

No, you hadn't like.

I

Dom Okus (11:10)
you

Let's get the violins out shall we?

Jordan Skelton (11:13)
silent night!

Brilliant man! No but Dom, I do honestly because it was one of those things right, I think we were 2-0 up at the time so it was like 2-0 up obviously the lads are obviously frustrated and then it was a apparently under red card and it was like for a very

could have easily not been a red card, right? My thing is we're referees, lads, right? I always think referees in the head. If you do or don't give it, would anybody complain? So if they didn't send Jam off, I'm thinking like, I don't think it would have been talked about beyond 10 seconds. Do you know what I mean? I'd have probably been ranting and raving to try and get him off, but then it would have been like, right, we've got the penalty done. Do know what I mean?

Jamil Roberts (11:46)
Yeah, I think that's the best way to say it.

Dom Okus (11:55)
Yuck.

Jamil Roberts (12:06)
you

Dom Okus (12:08)
Yeah,

yeah, yeah, yeah. So Jam, what did you think? As soon as this hit your arm, do you think, yeah, he's going to send me off here? Like, he's going to be busy?

Jamil Roberts (12:11)
yeah, that was a...

Nah, mate, I'll be

Jordan Skelton (12:17)
No, he was rich.

Jamil Roberts (12:17)
honest. I didn't even think it was a foul. I thought I'd just done my job and blocked the ball on the line. I'll be completely honest with you. But at the end of the day, I'll go back to, that's fine. He's seen it, whatever way. At the end of the day, you're not gonna change the referee's mind. But to give a red card for it, that's where I lost my rag. So anyway, you touch on their scouts where I walked over to the touch line and I've gone back and give it one more. That's because the fourth...

Jordan Skelton (12:24)
Yeah.

Dom Okus (12:24)
Right.

Jamil Roberts (12:45)
has come over to our gaffer and said no I've got to tell him because he can't send him off he can't give a double jeopardy so he can he can give the pen and he can give you a yellow but he can't give him a red yeah so then I'm stood there like a fucking nobhead right right the whole crowd are laughing at me but the fourth told me no no no mate you'll be fine just stay there go on just stay there I'll sort you out so I'm there thinking sound is gonna sort me out here ref's come over he's just booked our gaffer and said

Jordan Skelton (12:47)
no.

You've been given a bit of

Yeah.

Jamil Roberts (13:14)
Get off. And that's when I've turned around and I've just gone, you fucking- I've gone, fucking this, you fucking that.

Jordan Skelton (13:18)
You know what I've... You've been sticking nuts on the ref, sticking

Dom Okus (13:24)
See you soon.

Jordan Skelton (13:24)
nuts on the fourth, Zidane, bof bof, have a bit of that!

Dom Okus (13:29)
I'm so dead.

Jamil Roberts (13:29)
And I've

Jordan Skelton (13:30)
But

Jamil Roberts (13:31)
seen Red mate.

Jordan Skelton (13:32)
it wouldn't surprise me if the fourth told you that, the refs then went over to the fourth and the fourth went, I know he's talking about.

Jamil Roberts (13:38)
Yeah, honestly, honestly, I think he's just said that to try and get our gapper on side But like even the liner I think the liner got it and he's done fuck all wrong. I think the liner cut it I said, what are you fucking do something then?

Dom Okus (13:40)
Yeah, that's what the refs are like.

Jordan Skelton (13:41)
Never said.

Meh.

Honestly man...

we're absolutely legend,

Dom Okus (13:55)
boy.

Jamil Roberts (13:57)
dear, that was a low, that was a low...

Jordan Skelton (13:59)
I don't know what it

is about you boys. I'm just now thinking every time I played against you a lot, the ball just seemed to hit my head.

Jamil Roberts (14:09)
Yeah,

well, just, I'll be honest mate, I mean, the group that we had, was a lovely, lovely, lovely group of lads. just wasn't, I don't think everyone was bought in. I'll be completely honest. I think there was very few of us that really were bought in. And when you, when you talk about moments like that, where it really is who wants it most, I think, I think there's only a small pod of us. And I don't think the lads will even mind me saying it. Like that there was just a small pod that really did want it. And there's a large pod that didn't.

Jordan Skelton (14:26)
Bye.

Jamil Roberts (14:38)
for various reasons.

Jordan Skelton (14:39)
And you know what, at our level as

well, I don't know what you think Jam, at our level, like, it is so close that that's what it sometimes comes down to. Like those little small margins of like, you know, and I think Omaha were probably the best team in the league this year and have been for a while probably. Other than, I forgot to say that last before Dom, so I've left North Carolina, they've said they're going to invest.

Jamil Roberts (14:48)
Yeah, 100%.

Jordan Skelton (15:03)
They go and get like every man and his dog that can play football in League One and they end up winning the whole thing. So it was like, yeah, cheers, Scal. All the best, pal. So...

Jamil Roberts (15:06)
You

And Goosey

who was on about before, who was a trialist, stuck around and got himself a ring.

Dom Okus (15:19)
Head loss.

Jordan Skelton (15:21)
Big A.

Keep your chin up, boy. Keep your chin up. Look it up. Cheers, lads. All the best. So yeah, so was, was, honestly, I think other than, other than that North Carolina, I think Omaha has been one of the best teams for a while. And they're just a proper unit, ain't they? So like, there's not a single ball that, yeah, exactly. There's the gaffer there, he's got them absolutely in tune and.

Jamil Roberts (15:30)
Ehhhh

Yeah, mate, they're well coached.

Jordan Skelton (15:51)
That's obviously, think, at our level what ends up getting you three points more often than not, isn't it? Is everyone being in it?

Jamil Roberts (15:54)
Yeah, yeah.

100 % and I can attest to that with the Tormenta group that I had under Ian in 22. We were just, we were well drilled but at the end of the day, like we all just wanted it so badly. We had a good team. We had a good team. We had a very good team. A lot of good players in that team. Like probably in the pros, my favourite team that I've played for.

Jordan Skelton (16:03)
Yeah man

and had the quality, know, had quality. Yeah, man.

I mean

Cabral, Billhardt Curtis has obviously went on to do well.

Jamil Roberts (16:24)
Yeah, mean, yeah,

Kurti, Kazaya, Phelpsy, Jake Dengler, TJ, I don't know, I, McQuelly, Kingsford, was Chris Heckenberg, you know, even some of the lads that weren't making the squad were players, you know? Like, it was top to bottom, but the thing is we had 25, 26 lads that all wanted it.

Jordan Skelton (16:30)
Sterling, yeah?

Yeah man, all players.

Good players.

All in.

Jamil Roberts (16:53)
And

I think that's the difference between, I think you sum it up well, is that is the difference between winning and losing at our level. And I think that's a good place for us to sort of take on here and sort of talk about the future for you, right? And I think I'll quote Mark McKeever here and saying, Jordan is a player who's desperate for success, right? So we've kind of tiptoed around it a little bit.

Jordan Skelton (17:01)
Bye.

Jamil Roberts (17:22)
But what does success look like for One Knoxville going forward? Obviously you've just committed your future to the club. As the captain leading the team and the club into this next phase of year three and One Knoxville, what does success look like for yourself and for the club?

Jordan Skelton (17:41)
By the way, what a delivery of a question Jamil. Wow. What a delivery, mate. You'll be on NBC, you'll be on NBCSN or BBC before long, mate. What a question. to answer. Laptop closed. So no, honestly, mate, great, great question. So I think, so as you've, as you've touched on, obviously committed to

Dom Okus (17:49)
Super cold, I was thinking the same thing.

Jamil Roberts (17:53)
Hey, it's alright. That's them on the phone now, mate.

Dom Okus (17:59)
Ha ha ha!

Jordan Skelton (18:11)
extending my time in Knoxville and the large part of that is Knoxville is just ledge. It's such a cool city. And the group of lads that are coming back are, it's a really good core group. And I think the club have got the foundation is just to keep going that way, which again is just known USL. There's every chance your club can go that way or go that way. And I can tell when Knox it's one that's going that way. So

Jamil Roberts (18:39)
Yeah, I've seen both

as of you, do know what mean?

Jordan Skelton (18:42)
As exactly mate, exactly.

it's really, it's great city, great group of lads coming back. And to where the, you know, for me individually in the club, it's probably the same thing lads. It's wanting to be in a place where number one, we feel like we're improving, we're growing, we're developing, which is really important for me. You know, and I think that's where I'm, I think that goes back to the

trying to win the day every day you're on the field, you know what I mean? Again, it's a massive cliche, but I think ultimately we all as players, or at least I do, when you walk off a day of graft on the field and you're like, wow, we've got after it there, man. You feel rewarded for it, right? To then leading, getting better and growing and moving forward. then ultimately I think the biggest goal is, lads, is just to be competitive. It's easy to say you want to win. Everybody does.

Jamil Roberts (19:27)
Ahem.

Jordan Skelton (19:41)
Everybody's got the same slogans around the locker room as every other man and dog. So it's like being competitive to be in a place of when we come up against teams week in and week out, can we walk away from the field going like, aye, we've done our gig there, or is it not, we need to improve, we need to do better? So I guess that's the answer to the question, wanting to feel like we're moving forward as a club and as a player, and then trying to be competitive to the point where we can...

realistically say, have we got a chance of winning?

Dom Okus (20:13)
Sick. Sick. And I know Jum mentioned there about Mark saying that he's desperate to win

One of my close friends Paco Craig played under Mark at Young Harris. Baller, innit? He's an absolute baller. So I just wanted to ask, what has been Mark's impact for you? Because I know obviously you played under him a bunch. Obviously now you're under him in the pro game and unfortunately obviously you've moved on and you've got a new gaffer so I want to be respectful to your new gaffer but...

Jordan Skelton (20:20)
Yeah, I'm

What a player!

Jamil Roberts (20:25)
Ahem.

Jordan Skelton (20:33)
massive.

Dom Okus (20:42)
What's marks that big impact been on you as a player?

Jordan Skelton (20:46)
Yeah mate, massive for... I mean to sum that up very very easily, Mark was the guy that I viewed as he's gonna get me in the pros because of what he'd done for Paco, because of what he'd done for a lad called Lewis Hiddleton who, you know, he became my like, he's the guy that gets D2 boys in the pros and I had a, I went into his environment, Dom, and it was just like...

Dom Okus (20:57)
Mmm.

Mm-hmm.

Hmm

Jordan Skelton (21:14)
Mate, I'll never forget he said like, day one of the summer, he went, welcome to the Hunger Games. And I was like, I was like, this is my environment, And it just, he just became a guy where it was old school. Standards here, if you don't meet the standards, you're getting left behind. And he became someone where, I guess he became the benchmark for standards.

Jamil Roberts (21:28)
Ahem.

Dom Okus (21:29)
Yeah.

Jordan Skelton (21:44)
And my college coach, Lee Squires, who was also moving in his world, I kind of had the blessing, I think you could call it, of having Mark in his strengths and having Lee in his strengths, were the two best coaches in my conference, of having his view of the game and his view of the game. I remember two things, for example. One of the biggest things I took from Lee was he had this idea of spec. And he said,

Dom Okus (21:44)
Hmm.

You

Jordan Skelton (22:11)
Don't concede set pieces, don't concede from errors, don't concede from counter attacks and you'll be the best defensive team you can be. And it was like, okay, well there's a good little metric to have. Like obviously it's easier said than done. Do know what I mean? But like take those away, right? And then Mark, I remember Mark when I first went to Mark, Mark had these things of like personal battles, collectiveness as a unit and like...

He had the, it was basically like a double barrel one of like quality and like, what do you, how did he word it, man? was unforced errors. That was the word he used. like, your personal battles be connected as a unit and have quality on the ball forward slash limited, unforced errors. And I thought like, right, pair them two together. You're doing all right. You'd be doing all right. Like, so that was kind of like my experience with Mark and I think.

Jamil Roberts (22:40)
you

Dom Okus (22:56)
Yeah.

Be some player. Yeah, be some player.

Jordan Skelton (23:08)
Paco could probably touch on this as well mate. The intensity that that bloke brought was through the roof. Just being from Scotland and having that working mentality of you've got to graft and you've got to earn the right to win all those old school scenes. He was the kind of guy that left that stamp on me.

Dom Okus (23:31)
I amazing to see.

Jordan Skelton (23:32)
Pago,

Jamil Roberts (23:33)
Lovely.

Jordan Skelton (23:33)
funny enough,

Pago was probably the guy that when I first came in, he was going back with again what was said earlier on, he was the best centre back in the league at the time. So it was like, right, you've got to compete with him, you've got to do what he's doing. And it was like, there's your roadmap. And I remember being like...

Dom Okus (23:37)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Good.

Jamil Roberts (23:45)
Ahem.

Jordan Skelton (23:53)
Obviously I can't beat Paco because Paco is an incredible player, So was like, do I do? I remember he could jump about 14 feet in the air. And it was like, right, how do I become that guy where it's like anything that comes in my box, it's going out like boss in the box. And anything coming in the opposition box can be that center back that gets on the end of things. like, just little things like that as well. So Paco probably had a little bit of a mark on me in college as well, to be fair.

Dom Okus (23:54)
Yeah.

Yep, absolutely.

sick. Now Paco, obviously like I said, he's my mate. So he obviously come from West Ham's Academy. He's really good friends with my brother. And so like, he actually had an impact on me even going out to the US and like giving me advice

stuff. And we stay in contact now. We stay in contact now. He's just putting this Instagram that he's engaged to his missus. I was hanging out with him in Miami last year. So yeah, man. Yeah, shout out Paco, man. I know. I know, I know. So I'm sure we'll get him on the pod sometime, but yeah, Paco, great guy. Yeah.

Jordan Skelton (24:32)
there you go.

Brilliant!

Jamil Roberts (24:38)
There you go. Congrats to him.

Jordan Skelton (24:41)
and he's now in North Carolina.

Jamil Roberts (24:47)
For sure, for sure.

Jordan Skelton (24:47)
I'll be a ledge guest. You definitely should.

Jamil Roberts (24:49)
For sure, man, for sure.

Dom Okus (24:50)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jamil Roberts (24:52)
I think that's a good time for us to move on there. I think we've touched base on a lot of your career there, Jord, but I think it's about time that I pass over to Mr. Ocus, where he is gonna take you through extra time on the Back Stick Podcast. Dom, take it away.

Dom Okus (25:03)
I mean

Jordan Skelton (25:13)
love it.

Dom Okus (25:14)
So now we're in our regular fixture, we're in a groove now, people know what we do in this section. Like I said, on the YouTube, on the Instagram, the Twitter, they're calling me Steve Harvey with a skin fade. That's what they're calling me these days.

Jamil Roberts (25:29)
You

Hey, give him give him some of the other references by the way because he's from England. They'll get him

Dom Okus (25:35)
That's the best reaction I've had to it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So

Jordan Skelton (25:41)
What a

tremble!

Dom Okus (25:42)
they're calling me. Yeah, they're calling me Steve Harvey with a skin fade. They're calling me Black Note Edmonds. They're calling me...

Jordan Skelton (25:55)
that's nice.

Dom Okus (25:56)
They're

calling me the Black Paddy McGuinness. So let's just get into this, man. So...

Jamil Roberts (25:59)
You

Jordan Skelton (26:00)
Blah, buddy McGinnis. No I can't, I can't.

Jamil Roberts (26:04)
you

Dom Okus (26:07)
So to start off, we just take all our guests through four questions in extra time. We're going to roll through them real quick. The first is who is the best player you've played with?

Jordan Skelton (26:07)
Lunch.

gosh. Best player I've played with.

I think this should be quick fire but I don't want to disrespect anybody. You know what? I'll give you two, right? So in England, I'd probably have to say Mustafa Bundu. Because when I was a kid, when I was a young, kid, like, Dan Bar Lasser was a lad that's probably up there doing the best now at Borough. Me and him were always, and I'm talking like a kid, kid.

Dom Okus (26:27)
It's all good.

Jamil Roberts (26:40)
Bundy.

Jordan Skelton (26:51)
He was always one that, but I was too young to know the game there, but he's one on the levels. So Mustafa Bundu is probably the lad that's went on to have the biggest career that I've played with unless I'm disrespecting anybody. And then in America, I probably...

That's a good question. There was a lad, right, you probably know who he is. I haven't played with him but played against him. There was a lad called, there was two at North Texas when I was at Tormenta. I played against a North Texas team that had, I don't want to disrespect his name, I think his name was like Cerritos or something like that. I think he played in that, he played in the final earlier Galaxy the other day.

Jamil Roberts (27:29)
the light.

Jordan Skelton (27:34)
Is that easy to hear?

Jamil Roberts (27:35)
no,

not Cerritos, the one that was at Lex this year, No, no, okay, yeah, yeah.

Jordan Skelton (27:37)
No, no, no, I don't know. I can't

think of what his name is, but he played for North Texas in a team with that Ricardo Pepe up front.

Jamil Roberts (27:45)
Yeah, okay. Yeah a joke

Jordan Skelton (27:46)
And those lads,

that's when again, I'm talking about like, I'm trying to volley Ricardo Pepe in the neck. And he's like, and he's just making me look like a donkey man. Do know what I mean? And that's when you're like, he's, you yeah.

Dom Okus (27:58)
You

Jamil Roberts (28:05)
Hehehehehe

Dom Okus (28:05)
my god. That stunned me in. That actually answers two of the questions because the next question was going to be who's the best player you've played against. So we'll move on to our third question which is if you were going to go on a night out with three teammates past or present who would they be and why?

Jordan Skelton (28:11)
Dom, I'm sorry.

Gustavo? Because he's just the absolute boy in the corner, he's the ledge. Yeah, he's the boy. So there's a lad on the team that I know I'm going to get melted for this when I go back. There's a lad at Knox now who, again, he's just the boy, name's Sylvard Howley. Yeah, big Norwegian derby, yeah.

Dom Okus (28:30)
Yes.

Jamil Roberts (28:33)
It'd be buzzing with that.

the big lad. Yeah, yeah,

yeah. He strikes me as a funny boy on the pitch as well. Yeah, yeah. I've seen a clip of you two in the car actually talking about chocolates. It's funny as fuck, that.

Jordan Skelton (28:54)
He is the boy mate, right? So, Goose!

Have you seen that? Yeah man.

So just to give you some context, right, we're playing a game called Lies and he's like, right, we've got to name chocolates against each other. Like we've got to, so he says that name five, I'll say it name six. We might've seen that. You might've seen the game before. He's like, well, I'll have to do Norwegian ones. No, because you, how are we meant to know what the Norwegian chocolate is, man? You could just be going like, ba ba da ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba

Dom Okus (29:11)
No.

Yeah.

E?

Jordan Skelton (29:30)
So Goose, Fushua, he's a ledge. Sivy, because he's a ledge. Who would be the last one? Who have I had some absolute blinders with?

I think of someone that you might know, Jam.

I'm trying to think of someone from the torment of days because Phelps he's a good boy. Jord Melia. he can go. That lad can go. My gosh. Who else? Who else can I think of?

Jamil Roberts (29:52)
Felpsy, Jordo, Jordan Melia.

Yeah, yeah.

I'll tell you, I said Gustavo and love. Jordan Melia will fucking love that you've just said that. He'd be in the mirror when he fucking- Ace, ace, ace, ace, ace, ace! Yeah!

Jordan Skelton (30:10)
yes. Hey, no, you know, I may be out one.

Dom Okus (30:12)
What's the thing?

Jordan Skelton (30:21)
Shaw Lane, Cook Diamonds, shut up Jord, absolutely smoldering like Dwayne The Rock Johnson in a call out.

Jamil Roberts (30:22)
You

Dom Okus (30:23)
I'm dead.

Jordan Skelton (30:31)
I'm trying to think of someone else. All right, we'll do this, right? We'll go Gustavo, we'll go Sivert Haugley. I mean, I'm gonna do it between, I'm have to go up. I'm killing all your questions, right? I'm gonna give it the last one between big Josh Phelps, because he's the boy, right? Nicolas Molina is a lad that I was with in North Carolina, a big Argentinian lad that me and Goose linked up with a lot and he was the boy.

Dom Okus (30:34)
Brilliant.

Jordan Skelton (31:01)
And then Danny Fernandez is a Spanish lad at Knoxville now that just absolutely loves it. So he'd get put in the ring.

Dom Okus (31:08)
Okay.

Sick, sick. Unbelievable. And to round us out, our last question is a more of a sombre one. What is your biggest achievement so far in football?

Jamil Roberts (31:11)
Love it.

Jordan Skelton (31:23)
gosh, what a question.

Ehhmmm

Cliché, the first thing that jumps to mind straight away is playing for England School boys. If you'd told us I'd have done that when I was going through as a kid, I'd have went, you've got no chance. So that's probably got to be up there. I'd say...

England Schoolboys, winning a national title with Des Moines Menace after going through a tough time mentally with everything in Tormenta. I'd say it would be between those two. Hard to distinguish because I think the Schoolboys ones got the perception of flash, you know? But then winning the national title with the lads with a good group of boys after being in the dungeons a little bit with my mental health.

and letting the game be joyful and positive again, I think also was something I'm really grateful for.

Dom Okus (32:26)
Sick, no sick, sick, yeah, both amazing achievements just for some context. Playing for the England Schoolboys at the time that you did is essentially you're like in the top 18 players that are not in the club for your age in the country. So that's a super amazing accomplishment for people who don't know. Yeah, of course man.

Jordan Skelton (32:39)
Exactly.

Thanks mate. I'm trying to think of some

boys that were in the team. I'm trying to think, the goalie was... I don't think he's went on to do anything. was lad called Elliot Cutts that went to play for Wolves. Adam Curry was a really big player. Mustafa Bundu obviously. There was a few boys, but I'm not lying, a lot of boys from down south, a lot of lads from down your way. Because that's obviously what it was again, as you said. You start off with like...

Dom Okus (33:09)
Yep.

Jamil Roberts (33:10)
Ahem.

Jordan Skelton (33:13)
North regionalized in England, right? And then you all just get lobbed together and then you're down that lily shawl and then it's just like, right, every man for himself, try and get a shirt.

Dom Okus (33:22)
Yeah, yeah, 100%. So that rounds us up. That's the extra time. I've been your host for the most. This is Steve Harvey with the Skin Fade. I'm pass it back to Jam to close us out.

Jordan Skelton (33:32)
See I tell you what Jam, if I'm a recruiting agent, I don't know who I'm giving this to mind, because Dom's just absolutely smashed that bit. So no pressure big man.

Jamil Roberts (33:38)
Hahaha

Hey

At the end of the day mate I've got to facilitate that and I've got to give him his flowers every now and then so There's a reason what there's a reason why he takes full full control of that portion of show because he's good at it That's why he's here. That's why he's that's why he's one half of the backstick podcast

Dom Okus (33:54)
Thanks, I appreciate it Yeah, that's it.

Jordan Skelton (33:56)
Brilliant.

and a cracking fear, I wonder why Jam's got

that cap on but that's why.

Dom Okus (34:08)
Love, bro. Peace out, man. Peace out.

Jamil Roberts (34:10)
Do you know the thing? This

is the first time, my mates normally come on this podcast and I normally batter them. This is the first guest that's given me a bit, so fair enough.

Nah mate, I got all that in the back innit, that's party in the back mate.

Jordan Skelton (34:21)
Nothing but love for you man my guy, nothing but love.

Dom Okus (34:24)
Yeah.

Yeah, it is.

Jordan Skelton (34:27)
mate.

Yeah, he's went for the proper like American mullet, he? By the way, hey, let me just speak about Dom, obviously I've not had the pleasure of meeting you, right? But Jam's a lad, right? You come across these boys on the pitch that you like, have got, like again, you lads were D1 boy, or Jam was a D1 boy. So I had no idea who this lad was, right? But then you just play against certain lads and you're like, he's got a bit, man.

Jamil Roberts (34:33)
Yeah.

Dom Okus (34:33)
Yes.

Jordan Skelton (34:56)
he's got a bit about him, man. And like, just, you then shake hands with each other after the game and you're like, yeah, fair dude. And it's like an unwritten thing, innit? Where it's like, yeah, I just like the way you carry yourself. like the way you play, you've got a bit. And then normally like in the football world, it's like you'll do the whole like chat with each other after a game. And then it's like, might follow each other on Instagram, you know what mean? Like, yeah, we're bad boys now. So it's like...

Dom Okus (35:02)
Yeah, fair play.

Jamil Roberts (35:04)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dom Okus (35:05)
Yeah.

No.

Jordan Skelton (35:21)
I remember with Jam obviously I'd seen him at Torment and played against him few bits this year and I was like, yeah, he's a boy to have in the corner for sure man.

Dom Okus (35:30)
Yeah, man.

Jamil Roberts (35:31)
appreciate

that mate, appreciate that and listen, I'm a free agent so if Knoxville wanna give me the honor...

Jordan Skelton (35:35)
Hello

Dom Okus (35:36)
Yes!

Jamil Roberts (35:41)
Now we'll see man, I appreciate that and I it's not I'm glad that it comes across to be honest from a personal perspective that comes across to lads on that on other teams because I like to feel like I offer a bit of that a Bit of that in me own dress room. So wherever it is next season I'm looking forward to it and and hopefully I can bring a lot of what scouts has just said there but enough about me I think it's

Dom Okus (35:41)
Hahaha!

Jordan Skelton (35:57)
You do boy, you do.

Jamil Roberts (36:10)
It's about time to wrap up the episode there and I think it's safe to say we've enjoyed that one, haven't we Dom?

Dom Okus (36:17)
Unbelievable unbelievable. I know it would be though the energy soon as he came on the call. I was like, yeah, this is gonna be a banger

Jamil Roberts (36:22)
Yeah,

man, I had no doubts with a proper Geordie boy as well. could take it. Yeah, well you've just picked it up from bloody Etsy, you? So... I love it, I love it. But it's about that time, everyone, where we say, if you've made it this far, thanks ever so much for listening.

Jordan Skelton (36:26)
Well I'm glad because it took her an hour and a half to get the flipping thing updated and then my laptop charged and you know.

Dom Okus (36:27)
Yeah.

Huh!

Jordan Skelton (36:37)
Yeah, danger not wrong. Hong Kong!

Dom Okus (36:37)
Yeah

Jamil Roberts (36:52)
From myself and from Dom Scouts. Thanks ever so much for coming on the pod mate really appreciate it

Jordan Skelton (36:59)
I it. Like I said, you have got me hooked. I will be supporting you all the way.

Jamil Roberts (37:06)
Nah, I appreciate it. Love, love. Anyway, as I said, it's about that time, so this is the part of show where I say thank you for listening. You can head over and watch and listen to every episode of the Backstik Podcast on YouTube, on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify. Wherever you get your podcasts will be there. Let us know in the comments.

Dom Okus (37:07)
Appreciate it, man. Thank you.

Jamil Roberts (37:31)
Fire it in the DMs on every social media platform at the backstick pod and let us know who you want to hear from first. If you got any further questions for Scouts, we'll let him know. I'm sure we can get a little little post episode clips going on here. But aside from that, from myself, from Dom and from Scouts, thanks ever so much for listening and we'll see you next week.

Dom Okus (37:55)
Peace.