Reality TV star turned professional footballer Mark Wright and younger brother Josh speak to Sky Sports News about silencing the doubters and realising a lifelong dream of playing alongside one another
Friday 15 January 2021 19:35, UK
There probably hasn't been a more talked about stoppage-time cameo all season.
As League Two Crawley Town closed in on the shock of the FA Cup third round having established a 3-0 lead over Marcelo Bielsa's Leeds, they summoned TV personality and DJ Mark Wright from the substitutes' bench for a long-awaited professional debut at the age of 33.
Released as a youngster by Tottenham, he then, by his own admission, "felt out of love with the game" before being offered one last go by Crawley manager John Yems.
Despite proving his worth in training and behind-closed-doors Under-23s games, Wright expected the debate that followed about his and the club's motivations for the signing, but would a side in the mix for automatic promotion with a constrictive budget really add him to their squad just for a bit of exposure?
"Not everyone's suggesting it's a publicity stunt but you're going to get a bit of that, of course you are, but when you think about it it's a ridiculous statement," Wright told Sky Sports News.
"Do you really think a manager who hasn't had the job that long, coming up to a year now, who wants to succeed and wants to do well himself on a personal level is going to put his career on the line?
"It's an inner drive and passion I have that I'm born with. It's not proving people wrong, it's proving myself right and it's setting myself challenges.
"I know I should have played at a level. I know I quit when I was young I know I had an attitude I've not got now and I disappoint myself looking back at what I did. I want to go back and rewrite that wrong."
While Crawley's famous victory was the first game of one Wright's professional career, the contrast came with another second-half substitute - his brother Josh, who had arrived earlier in the week after leaving Leyton Orient.
The midfielder has more than 400 professional games under his belt, experience his brother called upon "non-stop" during his early days with Crawley as he battled to get up to speed in his new surroundings. For Josh, the opportunity to play alongside Mark was difficult to resist.
"It was the icing on the cake the fact that Mark is there, not just to help me settle but growing up together dreaming of doing this one day, a dream that we maybe felt had sailed and gone," he said.
"For it to happen with Mark being 33 and me just turning 31 you think 'Is it ever going to happen? Probably not' when you think of where Mark's life has taken him to.
"So of course it played a part it, played a massive part in terms of 'Come on then, we want to make this happen'. But at the same time, Crawley are doing fantastically well this year."
FA Cup shocks aside, Crawley are unbeaten in their last 10 matches in all competitions and lie just three points off an automatic promotion place.
A cold wintery afternoon in Bradford may feel like a long way from the glitz and glamour of a televised cup tie, but it's a game Josh feels carries more significance as Crawley look to return to League One for the first time in six years.
"I've come into a group that are galvanised, they're together, they've got fantastic ability and experience and youth - boys that are just hitting the scene and new in the game.
"Sometimes you go to a football club and you can sniff and smell an opportunity; I can feel that there's a great chance here this year.
"Because of the pandemic more so, I think anyone could win in any league this year. In this division what I've seen so far in the first half of the season is there's no runaway leader, no one is going to finish 15 or 20 points clear and it's anyone's, or certainly anyone's within a group, and we certainly go in that group."
There is a chance that Josh may play a greater role in the coming months. His late corner was converted by Simeon Jackson to seal promotion from League Two for Gillingham in a play-off final way back in 2009, a game his brother watched at Lineker's Bar in Marbella, but Mark now has a reignited desire to be part of something similar.
"I've never actually broken it down that that could be another career highlight for me and if I'm a squad player and I'm in and amongst it, that's still going to be a buzz because it's still my team and I was part of a side that got promoted and I honestly think we can do it.
"Some people said to me when I started 'How can you be bothered?' Some people said to Josh at Orient some of his teammates 'Is he having a laugh? Why does he bother doing it, what does he need to do it for?'
"It's the love for the game that you can't ever replace - I lost the love for the game when I was 17, 18. When I started getting paid to play the love when out of it.
"Being among the dressing room, the ups, the downs, the winning in training, the competitiveness - if you've got that attitude, that competitive attitude and that football heart and football brain, it will never leave you.
"This has been the best few months I've had in the last few years."
