Gloucester City striker Matt McClure has been playing football at a very decent level for the past two decades, but despite his longevity in the game he’s enjoying it today as much as he’s ever done.

The former Crystal Palace Academy product, who played well over 100 Football League games for Wycombe Wanderers, has been among the goals this season which has made his smile just that bit wider, of course, but the game has always been fun for the soon-to-be 31-year-old.

“I’ve always enjoyed it and I’m still enjoying it now,” he told The Local Answer. “The day I don’t enjoy it I will stop, it’s that simple for me.”

And Gloucester City fans can rest assured that he has no intention of packing up any time soon.

“I want to score as many goals as I can,” he said.

And in turn he hopes those goals will help the National League North club, who returned to their rebuilt Meadow Park towards the end of 2020 after more than 13 years on the road following the dreadful floods of 2007, achieve their ambition of reaching the National League, the top tier of non-League football.

McClure, who lives in Aylesbury, joined Gloucester from Maidstone in January 2020.

“I only had a contract with Maidstone until the January and I was sold the project at Gloucester – new ground, coming home, never played in the league above," he said.

“That appealed to me and I’ve loved my time at the club.

“Promotion is what we’re hoping for, we’ll have to see how it goes but we’ve got a group of players who want to take the club where they’ve never been before.

“Gloucester are a good club and we get some good crowds. This is a big city and if we do the job on the pitch people will soon notice.”

McClure, who was born in Slough, knows what he’s talking about, of course, having been in and around football pretty much all his life.

He was spotted by Crystal Palace when he was playing Sunday League football for Beaconsfield at the age of 11 or 12 and was part of their academy until he was 16.

And it will come as no surprise that McClure really enjoyed his time at the South London club.

“Yes, I did,” he said. “If I’m honest, I didn’t realise at the time how much of a privilege it was. If I’d known then what I know now...

“When you get to 14 or 15 that’s the business end, but I didn’t really see it that way, I was just having a kickabout with my mates.”

And while McClure left to join Wycombe, some of his old Palace mates went on to become big stars in the Premier League.

“Wilf Zaha was the year below me and John Bostock, who went to Spurs, was the same age as me,” McClure said.

“Victor Moses and Nathaniel Clyne were both a year above so there were some very good players.”

And although McClure wasn’t given the opportunity to stay on at Palace, he was certainly grateful for everything they did for him.

“They schooled me really well,” he said. “They had a couple of great coaches and they stood me in good stead when I stepped down. They helped me establish myself at Wycombe.”

He made his first-team debut as an 18-year-old when Wycombe were in League One, but had to wait another 18 months for his first Football League goal.

And while that was a big moment, he admits it was actually a bit of an anti-climax.

“It was against Scunthorpe United but we were 4-0 down at the time,” he said, “I couldn’t even celebrate.”

That was even more of a shame because he had just battled back to full fitness after eight months on the sidelines.

“I dislocated my ankle playing for Hayes and Yeading on loan,” said McClure. “It was my first game for them and I’d scored a goal.

“When I did my ankle I was a bit naïve, I thought they’d just pop it back in and I’d be back in training the following week. Five months later I was just getting on the treadmill and starting to run again!”

McClure said that was a “horrible time” but equally has nothing but praise for the physios who nursed him back to health.

“They were brilliant, but it was tough,” he said. “There are a lot more downs than ups in football, you have to be resilient.”

McClure also had loans spells with Burnham and Wealdstone while he was at Wycombe and he was always happy to make the most of any opportunity that was presented to him.

“If a manager suggested I go out on loan I always said ‘yes’,” he said. “I enjoyed my loans. I saw it as a chance to earn my stripes and score some goals.

“My attitude was that if I had to prove that I’m worth a place in the first-team that’s what I’d do.”

McClure, who was capped by Northern Ireland for the under-19s and under-21s – his grandad was born in Belfast – played 20 games for Dagenham and Redbridge in League Two after leaving Wycombe in 2015, before joining Aldershot Town where he linked up again with ex-Wycombe boss Gary Waddock.

“I got on very well with him, he gave me my first pro contract and my first-team debut,” he said. “Even now he’ll ring me and touch base to see how things are going.”

Richard Dobson, who was assistant manager at Wycombe, is another who has been a big supporter of McClure.

“He helped me as a person as well as a player,” said McClure, who adds, “I’ve never fallen out with any of my managers.”

McClure is very easy to interview, but suggest to him that he sounds like a manager’s dream and he laughs before saying: “Say that to our previous manager Lee Mansell when I was out with a back injury last season!”

Gloucester's supporters, of course, are delighted that the 5ft 10in McClure has started the season in such good goalscoring form.

“I prefer to play in a pair but I think I can do a bit of everything,” he said. “My mindset is, ‘Get it, give it, get in the box, do my job’.

“But I can assist as well, I’m probably a better player than I give myself credit for, I’m quite intelligent.”

He’s also very experienced these days as well.

“I’m a leader in the group,” he said. “I’m not the captain but you don’t need the armband to be a leader, I do it naturally.”

And something else that appears to come naturally to McClure is coaching.

He’s already set up his own soccer school in Aylesbury and has completed his UEFA B coaching licence.

He will soon embark on a UEFA A course and has ambitions to stay in the game full-time when his playing days are over.

So, does he fancy being a manager or a coach?

“That’s a good question,” he said. “I don’t know, I think I’d have to try them both to know. The boys in the changing room say I’ll be a good manager, but a manager takes all the flak! We’ll see, maybe working as an under-18 academy coach, that would be good.”

That’s all very much in the future, of course. For now, McClure is really enjoying playing football for Gloucester City.