Barry Bannan advice, rejecting Lee Bullen and learning from an ex-Sheffield United man: Life after Sheffield Wednesday for Liam Waldock

The Sheffield Wednesday assistant manager, not long into the job alongside Garry Monk, was matter-of-fact in telling the young midfielder he would be making his professional debut that evening in an EFL Cup tie against Premier League Fulham. Waldock had earlier been told he was to fill the bench amid injuries in a tight-knit squad.

“Liam, you’re starting,” he said. “Good luck and enjoy it.”

The butterflies bounced from every corner of his belly. He was rooming with Liam Shaw, already confirmed to start at centre-half. With Alex Hunt complaining of a knee injury, Waldock was in to play alongside his great mate.

“It was incredible,” Waldock said. “It was such a shock to be told and I can’t tell you how nervous I was but it was such a great feeling and I loved it.

“I wish fans had been there but it was in Covid so that was a bit weird, but to play for Wednesday was amazing and against a team like Fulham.”

Up against the likes of £25m Ivorian international Jean Michaël Seri and Danish international Joachim Andersen, Waldock impressed.

But it was to prove to be his one-and-only outing for the senior Owls. Having joined the club at the age of eight, he was released last summer and joined Northern Premier League side Gainsborough Trinity, where he’d spent two months on loan the previous season.

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“I had a feeling it was coming to an end,” Waldock told The Star reflecting on his final weeks at Middlewood Road and a summer that saw him turn down the opportunity to re-join his former Owls youth coach Lee Bullen at Ayr United - now challenging for a place in the Scottish Premiership.

“I was pretty relaxed about it because I knew I needed to go out and play games, if I was going to be released I’d just take it on the chin and see what came up.

“I went to Ayr for a week’s training and really enjoyed it but for a number of reasons it didn’t work out. I wanted to stay a bit closer to family and Gainsborough were a good fit. I knew the lads, I knew the manager and the club and I wanted to get sorted before pre-season. I absolutely do not regret anything one bit.

“It’s part-time, Tuesdays and Thursdays. It was difficult coming from full-time but I’ve adapted. I do a bit of coaching now part-time using the badges we did at Wednesday to tick over and that’s a great experience as well.”

A little older, a little wiser, one thing that has changed in Waldock’s game since most Wednesday fans will have seen him is his goal threat.

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The now 22-year-old has 15 goals playing higher up the pitch than he did in blue and white and learning both on and off the pitch from former Sheffield United striker Clayton Donaldson, who himself is well in the goals this season.

Vastly experienced, 38-year-old Donaldson also counts the likes of Birmingham City, Bolton Wanderers and Bradford City on his CV in nearly 400 EFL appearances and has international caps for Jamaica.

“It’s been great learning from him,” Waldock said having grown a close relationship with a player 16 years his senior.

“He’s had such an incredible career and he loves his football, you’d be mad not to learn from him.

“He’s just one of the lads, the nicest guy I’ve met in football. He’s doing some coaching and is always giving advice to us because we’re a young squad. With his advice, we’re always listening to him and it’s very good advice.

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“It’s so important to have someone like that to learn from I think and it’s making me a better player.

“It’s going well. Playing every single game was so important to me, getting games under my belt and that experience and I’m really enjoying my football at Gainsborough.

“At Wednesday I was always a deep midfielder. I always wanted to play further forward and show my energy to get up and down the pitch. That was something Gainsborough said to me when I signed and I loved the sound of it.

“It’s a good club with good people. The fan base is great home and away and it’s just a really good club to be at.”

It’s not the first time Waldock has leaned on the experience of senior players to improve his game.

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At Wednesday, the midfielder was one of the youngsters most receptive to advice and speaks glowingly of his time spent with Monk’s first team.

“It was an eye-opener, training with people like Barry Bannan, it was amazing,” he said.

“Training with them day-on-day makes you so much better and I’ll always take those memories with me. Bannan and Luongo were great with me especially, giving me advice.

“They’d come to under-23 matches and they’d take the time to speak to us either straight after the match or the next day about what we did well and what we could do better. After training if we wanted to stay on and work on something, they would sometimes stay on and work on stuff with us and help us.”

A return to full-time football and the EFL is of course an ambition of Waldock’s, but for now his focus is lasered-in on all things Gainsborough.

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“I’m just taking things game by game and concentrating on what we’re doing here,” he said. “We’re doing well and I’m just trying to improve in every training session and with every match.”

With goals added to an already impressive set of technical attributes, Waldock is attracting attention.

It seems there’s every chance the former Owl will get a chance to add to his big league experience in the coming years.