"I'm lucky. I played non-league for a few years and went to university and did a degree in sport so I know how to keep myself fit. I've always been a sporty lad. I can't sit still. "Even on a day, off, I'm like a five-year-old. I've got energy to burn and that's the way I've always been. "My mum and dad brought me up to be competitive and if you're going to do it, do it right.
"The lads jokingly cut out a story from the paper the other day about the cricketer, Andy Flintoff, and put it on my locker. It said 'you have to listen to your body sometimes you have to know when it's time to finish.'
"I accept the fact one day that will be me but I think I've plenty still to give. "I played at Oldham alongside David Eyres and he was 42. I'm not saying I can play until that age but he was still a good player. Andy Liddell is 36 and he can still do a bit in this league. "Not by any stretch of the imagination am I the fittest at this club, but when I run onto that pitch I run until I drop. Some people have that in them and some don't. They can be the fittest but they might go onto the pitch and keep themselves within their little safety zone. "I just give everything I've got and when I come off I feel like I've been shot.
He says keeping fit and the enjoyment of the game could see him going on untill he is 50 !
"If my professional career was to finish tomorrow, I'd play non-league until I'm 50. I enjoy playing football and running around and keeping fit and it's because I enjoy all those things that I've kept going as long as I have."
The move back to Rotherham has not gone without some inconvenience for his family:
"I left this club four years ago but lived in Rotherham for another couple while I played for Oldham. "After signing for Yeovil, I moved my family to Somerset and swore to the missus that I wouldn't move her again and that I'd sign for another year at Yeovil and then maybe play for Cambridge or Norwich. But nothing materialised and I signed here. Now the missus is moving back up here with the kids again. "She's not over the moon about that but she's come to grips with it. She's got a lot of friends here and is very close to Richie Barker's wife especially. "She likes the area. It's just the fact we've had move my boy from the school he was in down south to one up here in Tickhill. If I play here only one more year then we'll have to move school again to one down south. We'll settle in Norfolk because that's where we're both from."
The contract offered to him by Yeovil would have been on reduced terms:
"They gave it the age excuse and I didn't think that was fair," he went on, "The offer was on the table for ten weeks and I was in no rush to sign.
After the offer was withdrawn, I spoke to Brighton and Oldham and they said come in and see us after the weekend but then my old mate Rob Scott suggested I speak to Mark Robins. "I rang Robbo up and I told him, 'I'm not ringing you because I'm weak and decrepit but because I'm looking for a club.' "He rang me straight back saying he'd OK'd it with the chairman and had organised me an hotel so I could come in for training. I did that and he offered me a deal within two days. You want to go where you're wanted, not where you're having to twist someone's arm."
Being back with some familiar faces at the club makes the move exciting for him:
"It's no secret that it's not a massive financial deal," he says. "At 36, it's not the case. I could have made just as much money playing non-league so it's not like I've come here to make the numbers up or screw the club for cash. I want to play every week if I can and win every week. "I'll take the challenge on and see where it takes me. "I'm excited to be back with the likes of Nick Daws, Mark Robins, Denis Circuit and John Breckin. "I've worked with those guys a million times and it's just like a home from home here and I don't feel like I have to win any fans over. "I just enjoy playing and as long as I can play, the better. I don't want to go out into the real world, if I'm honest. Until someone tells me, enough's enough, I'll carry on."
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