'I was seen as Portsmouth's next big star, Leeds, Stoke and Fulham wanted me - but I have no regrets'
The highly-regarded striker from Rowner scored one goal in three appearances for the Blues
It was wonderfully fitting that the performance of Bradley Lethbridge’s life should arrive against Liverpool.
Trailing 2-0 against the club he idolises in the FA Youth Cup, the striker inspired a remarkable Pompey fightback, scoring once and then assisting the equaliser to stun the swaggering Premier League kids on home territory.
Then Bobby Duncan inflicted the agony of a stoppage-time winner on that December 2018 evening in St Helen’s. The Reds scrambled through on a journey which, ultimately, would lead to capturing the coveted trophy.
Nonetheless, Lethbridge’s compelling display persuaded Leeds to declare their interest in a highly-coveted 17-year-old who had previously attracted attention from Stoke and a £200,000 Fulham bid.
Recognising the importance of clinging onto a rising star, League One Pompey resisted, with the Gosport talent going on to announce a first-team arrival by scoring at Oxford United in his third senior outing.
Yet just 15 months after that Liverpool star turn and Leeds approach, Lethbridge was without a club and had fallen out of love with football.
‘I wasn’t enjoying playing any more, I had fallen out of love with football’
‘I should have done more in football with my ability - and I have been told that by multiple people. But I don’t have any regrets,’ he told The News.
‘To be honest with you, I was glad to leave Pompey, I was glad football had stopped. It felt like I was in a toxic environment towards the end. I was so happy to be out.
‘It got to the point where I wasn’t enjoying playing any more, I had fallen out of love with football. I stopped focusing, stopped caring, other things became a priority. Instead I wanted to enjoy my life with my mates.
‘Life after Pompey meant socialising, going out to student nights, having fun with my mates, it was kind of like an escape. You’re young, just go and enjoy yourself - and I definitely did.
‘As a professional footballer you’re fully committed to your career, you have to distance yourself from a lot of things, otherwise you aren’t going to make it. That’s why so many people drop out.
‘Leaving football was a massive relief. It’s a high demand, which a lot of people don’t understand, they think you just get a ball, go and play, but it's not. There's a lot of politics in the game, it’s who you know, not what you know, you need to get into the right groups, otherwise you’re an outsider.
‘Some people do have it in themselves to continue, whether they play in the National League or not. The likes of my former team-mate Josh Flint, who was released and carried on trying. He ended up in Holland and then in League Two with Crawley.
‘I couldn’t, though, my priorities changed. Family came first.’
Hugely promising future
Having initially been spotted at Gosport FC as a central midfielder, Lethbridge’s first stint in Pompey’s Academy spanned just one season, with the club deciding against retaining him at the age of 10.
Having returned to youth football and with his team lacking a striker, the youngster from Rowner volunteered his services up front. Within two years, Bournemouth and Pompey were offering him trials.
Lethbridge favoured a Fratton Park return on account of less travelling, thereby reuniting with an age group containing the likes of future first-team inductees Leon Maloney, Joe Hancott and Josh Flint.
And soon excited Academy coaches were tipping him for a hugely promising future.
He added: ‘That Liverpool game in the FA Youth Cup was probably the best I ever played. That I can remember, anyway. As a Red who loved Steven Gerrard and Xabi Alonso, I was definitely up for it.
‘We had fallen behind 2-0, but it wasn’t over, and we scored twice in six minutes. It began when I took a free-kick on the edge of the box and there was a handball in the wall. I converted the penalty.
‘Next I did an acrobatic overhead kick to put the ball back into the danger area and Joe Hancock volleyed in the equaliser. Then, in stoppage time, Liverpool took a quick corner which we weren’t set for and won it.
‘To be honest, they weren’t even the better team on the night, we were dominant, their keeper actually kept them in it. We were very, very unlucky.
‘That was a good time for me. I was scoring goals regularly while on loan at Bognor, then, after the Liverpool game, I heard about Leeds’ interest. Whether it is true or not is a different story, but I was told that by my agent at the time.
‘Nothing came of it, though, apparently it was closed down by Pompey, they didn’t want to sell, and that happened a few times when I was in the Academy.
‘Every three or four months you’d have a one-to-one with your Academy coaches and, on another occasion, I was aged around 14 when Johnny Ertl told me that Stoke, who were in the Premier League, wanted me to go there on a week’s trial. Pompey said no. At the time it was “Okay”, but as you get older, you start to understand a bit more about what could have happened.
‘Later Fulham put in a couple of bids. Apparently the first was £150,000 and the second for £200,000, yet Pompey wanted £250,000, something along those lines. I was about 16, so I don’t know the ins and outs. I just wanted to play football, my agent dealt with that and would talk to my parents.
‘On another occasion, we won 5-2 against Bristol Rovers in the FA Youth Cup. I scored twice, with Southampton’s Academy manager watching. He was good friends with my agent and it was mentioned I was on their radar, yet nothing came of it.
‘Not that I was looking to leave. Robbie Blake, who was a first-team coach under Kenny Jackett and a former striker, really liked me and, at 16, I was named on the bench for a Checkatrade Trophy match against Northampton (December 2017).
‘That morning I had turned up at Furze Lane to play for the Academy’s Under-16s and I was told to get myself down to Fratton Park instead! We won 2-0 through goals from Gareth Evans and Stuart O’Keefe, although I never managed to get on. But things were looking up.’
Pompey scoring breakthrough
The in-demand Lethbridge was flourishing and, as a second-year scholar, he was handed a Pompey first-team debut at the age of 17 years, 10 months and 23 days, starting in place of the injured Brett Pitman against Spurs’ Under-21s in the Checkatrade Trophy in November 2018.
He once more led Jackett’s forward line two months later in a 2-0 success at Southend in the same competition. Despite not featuring again during a Checkatrade Trophy run which would culminate with a Wembley final triumph over Sunderland in March 2019, Lethbridge still received a winners’ medal.
Amid quickening Blues progress, Lethbridge was also enjoying a season-long loan with Isthmian League Premier Division side Bognor, plundering 13 goals in 41 appearances for Jack Pearce’s men, primarily from the wing,
It was eye-catching progress which saw the attacker rewarded with a third-year scholarship in that same season, having graduated from the Academy, marking another huge stride towards his first-team ambition.
Then, in October 2019, arrived the breakthrough. The striker crowned his third Pompey outing with a maiden goal, netting in a 2-2 draw at Oxford in the Leasing.com Trophy. His career was officially up and running.
Except Lethbridge would never play for the club again.
‘At Oxford, Josh Flint’s shot was saved by Simon Eastwood and I just tapped it in at the far post. The keeper should have done better, in fairness,’ said the former Brune Park Community School pupil.
‘My dad’s a Pompey fan, he was over the moon with it, but for me it was just another goal, even though it was my first for the club. My job is to score goals - and I was doing my job.
‘Kenny (Jackett) didn’t say too much to me afterwards, he was never someone who was a big talker, yet we didn’t see eye to eye.
‘That 2019-20 season had actually got off to the worst possible start for me when I injured my quad on the second day of pre-season training. When I returned, I did my hamstring. I had never really picked up any big injuries before that, just niggles which you played through.
‘Then, in March 2020, the Academy manager Mark Kelly pulled me into the office and said I wouldn’t be getting a new deal. A couple of weeks later, Covid hit and football was paused. It meant I couldn’t even go on trial anywhere.
‘Kenny wanted to keep the first-team group as tight as possible, so only they were allowed to use the training ground, while the Academy had stopped completely. I couldn’t even train there.
‘I was on the outside and wasn’t needed, so I didn’t look after myself. I sat at home and did nothing. I’m not someone who can just motivate himself, I needed to be doing fitness stuff every day and it just wasn't happening.
‘It was little things which affected my relationship Kenny, there were no arguments, but he didn’t like how I was, he didn’t like the shape I was in, which is my issue now. Falling out of love with football was more to do with the people around me, I didn’t see eye to eye with some of the coaches in the Academy as well as the first-team. I liked to have my say.
‘I was putting on weight and I didn’t care’
‘After I left Pompey, I joined Bognor permanently, but things had changed. I was no longer a professional footballer training every day, so I didn’t look after myself. My friends were students and going out - and I wanted to join them.
‘I was eating the wrong things at the wrong time, I was putting on weight and I didn’t care. I wasn’t bothered about portion sizes, while on a night out you’d grab any sort of fast food from whatever is open at 3am. I put on 3-4 stone, it didn’t bother me, football was no longer a priority.
‘I had my first daughter Bella at the age of 20, which meant everything to me, more than football. Football had become something which was now in the background.
‘I went to Bognor, Portchester, Pagham and Horndean. Gosport paid £5,000 for me in May 2021 and I played six times, I just wasn't enjoying myself. When my second child Aria was born, I left Baffins Milton Rovers and didn’t play again this season.
‘My family are more important than football.’
Rediscovering love for the game
Now aged 25, Lethbridge joined Horndean in August, with the Wessex League Premier Division side representing a step up following two hugely productive years with Coldham Common.
With best mate Louis Howie serving as Coldham Common’s assistant manager, the club had revitalised the attacker’s love for football, demonstrated by a remarkable return of 54 goals in 79 appearances.
Meanwhile, with football no longer earning him a living, for the past five years Lethbridge has sold business mobiles for Lee-on-the-Solent based Connection Technologies, a job which allows him to take children Belle, Aria and step-daughter Eva to school every day.
Nonetheless, his footballing dream still hasn’t been shelved.
He added: ‘Something I ask myself is what could I have done differently? Then I think how can I change my mindset to get back playing?
‘There’s always time. If I can sort myself out, I don’t see why I can’t get back to the Football League. You don’t lose your ability.
‘If I could ever speak to myself as a teenager, maybe I would advise me to focus on football a bit more. Perhaps I would listen if it was coming from me. I’m not sure I would if it was from anyone else!
‘I am still playing, I’m still scoring, and I’m probably overweight. I’m definitely not playing at a level I should be, I should be a lot higher, but the higher you go, the fitter you need to be. I realise I need to lose weight.
‘Every week I get told by someone I should have done better, I am told that a lot. It just makes you realise what could have been.
‘Yet with everything that has happened, I’m happy with what I am doing now. I am happy playing where I’m playing, I enjoy my job - and, of course, I have my family. Had I never left Pompey, I may not have met my partner, that’s fate, that’s the reality.
‘There’s more to life than football and my kids are my priority. They come before anything else, that will never stop. How could I complain about anything? Life’s great, I’m happy.’
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