Luke Robinson: the internationally capped winger who is a certainty on the team sheet. You’ll find him on the left-hand side of the field, twisting and turning, stepping and strutting as he strikes fear into his opposing right-back.
It’s been quite the beginning for the Bermudan international with an impressive goal record to show for it. But this is where we discover a little more about the man, and less about the silky player dressed in all red.
So, Luke, how have you found things since arriving back in December?
I’ve really enjoyed it! I’ve played for Shaun previously – he’s a proper positive manager to play under, and that just bodes well with me because I always try to keep in a good, positive mindset. He’s always got the best out of me, playing wise; and obviously the group of boys that we’ve got, most of them are local, and the ones that come from a bit further away have really gelled into the group.
I think we’ve got a really good group, and a good manager so it’s enjoyable stuff! You see how many fans are coming to all the games – home and away – and you can’t ask for much more than that.
Take us through your career, and the impact Shaun has had on it.
Shaun was where I got my first experience with men’s football, as I was at Bognor and then went on loan to Haywards Heath and Shaun was the manager at that point. That was my first taste of men’s football, and I was really enjoying it, but I got a hernia, out for two months, played about five games then did my ACL, which was over a year out.
So, my prime years from like 18-21 were sort of just taken from me, and then Covid happened and those two seasons were curtailed so it was just a big period of not playing, and then I got back playing during and after at Staines Town.
I did well there: got Player of the Season, scored a couple of goals and from that came the Bermuda call-up. Went out to Bermuda, that was obviously a really good experience — I’ve got a few games for them now — and then after all of that I had little stint with Horsham, didn’t really work, went back to Haywards Heath with Shaun. Again, I did well there!
But some politics and stuff happened which meant me being let go, but luckily enough the highlights from there gave me a chance at Worthing, and I did pretty well there – still technically on-loan from them! But yeah, I wasn’t getting the game time I needed, so I came here, really enjoying it, feels like home now and I can’t imagine playing anywhere else for the rest of the season so I’m just enjoying my time and the fans here right now!
You mention featuring for Bermuda…how do you think that has helped your development?
Yeah, it’s been unreal! It’s been eye-opening, because I’ve played against some really good players and played with some really good players, like Nahki [Wells]. And you match yourself up and see where you stand, and how far off you are from getting to that next level. You can learn a lot from them, and it’s been really good as when I come back here I feel a lot more confident than before I knew what sort of level I was at.
When you’re only playing non-league, you just think ‘yeah, I’m just a non-league player, this is my level’, but when you play at a higher level you can see that you can actually match up with these guys, then it just makes you think that maybe I could make that jump up if I’m consistent and keep playing well. It’s a good confidence boost and yeah, just really good experience!
We’ve had few last minute goals full stop. But in front of the Din? Against Haywards Heath? How was that for you?
No feeling in the world compares to that! That’s such a good feeling. When it hit the back of the net, like, you don’t even know what to do. You can just hear the fans, even in the video you can just see everyone, all the limbs, fans screaming so it was a really good feeling to be fair.
And obviously there was a bit of a rivalry and history between the two clubs with Shaun, I’ve been let go and a lot of the boys all know each other so it was a good game to do it! It was only like my second game in so I think it was a good way to introduce myself.
You’ve been a bit of a revelation since arriving, scoring and assisting at will. Did you set a goal target before you joined?
Not really, no! My target is always to just play as well as I can, prepare as well as I can and just give everything I can effort wise. Obviously some games you’re going to do well, so you’re going to score goals, stand out. You see at this level with some of the pitches, there’s going to be some games that you can’t impact as much so I’ve sort of had to accept that! When things have gone well it’s been good, but in terms of goals it’s just to score as many as I can, create as many as I can and just excite the fans as much as I can.
