"Why I'll always be grateful to Cheltenham Town" - Former Southampton defender Will Ferry on Robins spell and Dundee United move

Will Ferry was thrown in for his Cheltenham Town debut a matter of hours after joining the club on a two-year deal.

The left wing-back had barely introduced himself to his new teammates before finding himself 5-0 down at half-time against Exeter City. The EFL Cup first round tie at Whaddon Road finished 7-0, making it the most difficult start imaginable.

“I remember going back to my hotel and thinking “what is happening here?” because I was in a bit of a panic,” Ferry recalls. “It was embarrassing to lose like that and I didn’t know any of the players or much about the team. I probably remember more about that game than any other in my career. The gaffer (Wade Elliott) said to us at half-time ‘you’ve got yourselves into this position, go and get yourselves out of it and play for a bit of pride’. It wasn’t great.”

Ferry had been told he could leave Southampton in the summer of 2022 and despite an impressive loan spell in League Two with Crawley Town, League One offers did not come flooding in. “I was desperate for a club and didn’t have any options,” he says. “I had a few sniffs in League Two, but when Cheltenham made contact, I had to take it.

"I had a call with Micky Moore (director of football) and he told me how we played and what he wanted me to do. I got the impression I wouldn’t be coming in as a pivotal part of the team, but more of a squad player. Then came the infamous Exeter game and suddenly within the space of two or three days I’d gone from training with Southampton Under-23s to that baptism of fire. But two years on, I'm definitely glad I said yes.”

Fortunes certainly improved for Ferry, who made 36 appearances in his first season with the Robins, helping them to a 16th-placed finish in League One - the second highest in their 137-year history.

He was a central midfielder as he progressed through the youth ranks at hometown club Bury, where he was the standout performer in his age group. Ferry was on the fringes of the Shakers’ first team before he’d completed his GCSEs and although he was denied a first team debut, his impressive performances for the Under-18s alerted the attention of both Southampton and Derby County.

He agreed a deal with the Saints and moved down to the south coast at the age of 16, but he was hampered by a foot injury and then a back fracture during the first year of his scholarship. After a gruelling summer of rehabilitation, he propelled himself towards the first team picture during his second year with the club, turning professional on his 17th birthday.

Southampton converted him from a left winger to a left-back towards the end of his second year and for a period he was effectively understudy in that position to England international Ryan Bertrand. Although he was selected for the first team squad for the post-Covid return, Ferry’s senior chance at St Mary’s never materialised.

He was named on the bench several times, including trips to Manchester City, Everton and, on the final day of the 2020/21 season, West Ham. “Just to get on the pitch for a Premier League game could have changed so much and that’s one of my biggest disappointments,” he says. “Ralph Hasenhüttl had earlier told me he didn't really fancy me, but because I was a bit of an athlete, he wanted to try me at left-back.

“So I went back to the Under-23s and had to learn the position. I felt I was playing really well and I had a lot of interest for a loan either in Scotland or League One, but they kept me around and said that would be better for my development. A lot of lads around me did get a chance, which made it worse, so when the 2021/22 season came around, I was desperate to play first team football.”

A loan move to Crawley Town followed, where Ferry played under John Yems, making a total of 38 appearances for the League Two club. “If you did well for him, he’d look after you and I’d say he saved me really,” Ferry says of the controversial Reds manager.

“In one game against Hartlepool at home I was taken off after about 20 minutes and I answered back to him, which didn’t go down well! I lost my head a bit and although I admit I was playing rubbish, it was humiliating. I had to ring him to apologise and it was another lesson for me. I was in the team the next game and he looked after me really well to be fair. We had a team of proper senior players who wouldn’t take any nonsense, but they were all brilliant with me and it was the best decision I’d made at the time, in terms of a learning experience.”

His first season at Cheltenham was affected by injury. After completing 90 minutes at Sheffield Wednesday in considerable pain on October 8, 2022, he was sidelined until Boxing Day. But he became an increasingly influential figure in the fine run of form that lifted Elliott’s Cheltenham away from relegation trouble from early March onwards, including sparkling performance at Peterborough United and at home to Forest Green Rovers.

“I don’t think Wade gets the credit he deserves for that season because we were definitely punching above our weight,” Ferry says. “He was a very different character to Darrell Clarke and we had a few little disagreements, but he kept us up. Alfie (May) scored loads of goals, but we kept 17 clean sheets, which for a team where we were in the table was ridiculous. Marcus Bignot (first team coach) helped me a lot too, going through a lot of clips and being brutally honest, which I respond better to.”

If Ferry’s first appearance in Cheltenham colours had been a shock to the system, what he experienced at the start of his second season with the club made history for all the wrong reasons. Cheltenham failed to score in their first 11 League One matches, the worst start the EFL has ever seen. Elliott was sacked after eight of them, with belief in the camp long since drained away.

“The whole of last summer felt a bit mad, wondering who was going to be next to leave,” Ferry admits. “Any team that loses Alfie’s goals will struggle and the fixtures we had at the start of the season didn’t help, although we certainly can’t use that as an excuse for what happened. It was just the perfect storm and we were pretty rubbish. We’d get in after a game and all be saying ‘this is nowhere near good enough’ and the general consensus was that it was embarrassing.”

Ferry was moved into a right forward role for Elliott’s penultimate match in charge, a 1-0 defeat at Exeter City. “It’s so hard to try and keep belief when you haven’t scored, let alone won,” he says. “Own goals were flying in and it felt like when you are down, you are down – it was crazy how much went against us, including refereeing decisions. But again, we were horrible, garbage, but we did have a lot of seriously bad luck too and I don’t think that evened out over the course of the season.”

Before Clarke took over, Kevin Russell oversaw two games in caretaker charge. “My confidence was shot to bits, but I had a good heart-to-heart with Kev, who knew he was going, but wanted to try and help me,” Ferry says. “He also made an explicit point to about half the team that we weren’t lean enough and we couldn’t argue. I certainly wasn’t in bad shape because I was getting through 90 minutes, but after his comments I really stepped things up and I did notice a difference. But it’s a balancing act because if I lose too much weight, I don’t have the power I need.”

Clarke’s reign began with a midweek 2-0 home defeat by Fleetwood Town, which was followed by chants of “you’re not fit to wear the shirt” from disgruntled Robins fans. But a 1-1 home draw with Derby County on the Saturday lightened the mood and ended the long, long wait for a goal as Rob Street found the net in the 39th minute.

“The gaffer (Clarke) got me playing with confidence and made me believe,” Ferry says. “We all had respect for him and knew he was genuine, with a real purpose about him. He didn’t beat around the bush and he was honest, telling us there would be no passengers in his first speech to us at the training ground.

“We all genuinely believed we’d do it. The fact we came so close to staying up after 11 games without a goal shows it was a good group, even after the start and any player who has played for him would play for him again at the drop of a hat, which shows the type of manager he is.”

Cheltenham took their battle against the drop to the final day, but a 2-1 defeat at Stevenage saw them fall two points short. “In a way, coming so close made it 10 times worse to take,” Ferry reflects. “Everyone had written us off, but we were so confident as a group we could do it. When Tayls (Matty Taylor) scored, we had chances for a second goal and it’ll always stick with me.”

Ferry says it was a highly emotional changing room immediately after the final whistle, with the squad’s most experienced player Curtis Davies making a passionate impromptu speech. “Davo’s speech really set me off,” he says. “It wasn’t a case of everyone being in floods of tears, but it was very emotional and just so sad that it ended like that. It’s my first relegation and hopefully the last because it was an awful feeling.”

Ferry was one of five players to be offered a new contract, but all of them have since departed. Being under 24, a compensation fee would have been involved if Ferry had joined another EFL club, but two Scottish Premiership clubs made him offers. He opted to join Dundee United, signing a three-year deal.

“It’s been a slightly stressful time, trying to decide your future, and I think the compensation factor limited me a little bit,” he says. “You are competing with free agents and loan players from top level clubs, plus you have been at a team relegated, but it opened up the chance to go to Scotland and Dundee United made me feel very wanted. They had really done their research.

“One of my best mates played there for three years and I know the left-sided centre-half Ross Graham well through him. I also believe the manager (Jim Goodwin) liked me when he was at St Mirren and I was at Southampton. I’ve had a lot of good feedback about the club and like I was made to feel by Micky when I joined Cheltenham, I feel I have the potential to grow with the club.”

Ferry also hopes playing at the top level in Scotland can thrust him into the Republic of Ireland senior picture, having represented them at Under-19 and 21 level. “It’s a fresh start and I want to find a house and settle quickly,” he says. “Seeing friends and family will be rare now, but it’ll be all about the football and being even more professional. The training ground is at St Andrew’s and it’s a great facility and a nice place to have a coffee or a round of golf too!”

He will stay in touch with many of his former Robins teammates, but he was particularly close with goalkeeper Max Harris and midfielder Liam Kinsella. Ferry, who was based in Gotherington during his time in Gloucestershire, lists his winning goal against Port Vale as a highlight, along with the 2-2 home draw with Sheffield Wednesday in March 2023.

“I think the Cheltenham fans took to me, even if they thought I was Aidan Keena at times,” he jokes. “The noise they made at Stevenage gave me goosebumps and they made it feel like a home game, despite not having a huge amount to cheer during the season.”

Despite the disappointing finale, he still reflects on his two-year stay in Cheltenham fondly. “I consider myself a proper senior pro now, with the amount of League One games I’ve played,” he says. “You end up learning so much, through good times and bad and I’ve experienced two very different managers and different ways of playing.

“I doubt I’d be in the position I am now if Cheltenham hadn’t given me the opportunity to prove myself and in a way, the club saved me, so I’ll always be grateful for that.”