JOE TAYLOR has gone from part-time non-league player and barman to Premier League footballer — in 18 months.
And the Luton striker could not even break into King’s Lynn’s National League team so was loaned to Wroxham in the NINTH tier playing in front of 100 fans.
Luton ace Joe Taylor was working as a bartender without a passion for football 18 months ago
Yet last month he climbed off the bench at Wembley before a crowd of 85,711 as the Hatters won promotion.
Taylor, 20, was cruelly denied by VAR what everyone thought was the extra-time winner when he pounced on a mistake from Coventry defender Jonathan Panzo before drilling a shot past keeper Ben Wilson.
The ball had ricocheted off his hand to rob him of his first goal in professional football.
But he did score in a tense shootout as the Hatters won 6-5 on penalties.
Yet his fairytale almost did not happen as he wanted to quit football to focus on rugby and cricket at 15.
Taylor, in his first major interview, told SunSport: “I was more a cricket fan as a kid but got signed by Norwich aged nine.
“But I didn’t get my scholarship and that was the worst feeling I’ve had in football, apart from my disallowed goal at Wembley!
“Myself and another lad who was released, Aaron Powell, got trials at Peterborough and were offered deals.
“Aaron said ‘yes’ but I turned mine down because I hated football. I didn’t want to play anymore. I said, ‘Dad, this isn’t for me.’ He asked, ‘So what is?’ I told him, ‘Rugby.’
“So I played full-back for Swaffham as a full-back and did well so I’d play rugby in the winter and cricket for Bradenham in the summer where I was an all-rounder, I had county trials when I was younger.”
Taylor then dabbled back in football by signing for King’s Lynn as a youth player.
And after his 16th birthday, he broke into the reserves and scored more than 20 goals in his first season — prompting the club to give him a contract.
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Taylor then found himself in the Premier League with Luton just 18 months later
He said: “I had fallen back in love with football because I was playing with mates.
“I told the club’s director of football Rob Back, ‘If the gaffer isn’t going to give me a go in the first-team, I’d like to go out on loan’ so I went to Wroxham.
“Former Norwich players Grant Holt, Adam Drury and Simon Lappin were there. Chris Sutton’s son Ollie was the keeper and Darren Huckerby’s boy, Tom, played in defence.
“Wroxham manager Jordan Southgate was the best thing that happened to me as he gave me my chance. I scored 21 goals in 13 games.”
With his exploits attracting EFL interest, King’s Lynn recalled him and he played his only game for the club against Solihull Moors. But within days he signed his first pro contract with Peterborough.
He said: “I was working in a hotel as a barman, which I loved, but when the call came from Peterborough my mind was made.”
Taylor thought he scored the winner against Coventry in the play-off final
At Posh he got off to a flier in the under-23s, was soon in and around the first-team and getting minutes off the bench in the Championship.
Taylor was only there for 14 months and had not even started a game when Luton signed him in January.
Hatters head of recruitment Mick Harford and scout Phil Chapple had been to watch him several times in the under-23s and clearly liked what they saw.
And with Luton fighting for promotion to the Premier League, he walked into a top environment.
He admitted: “It was daunting. I was unproven, hadn’t done much in the game and was walking into a dressing room with experienced players such as Henri Lansby, Cauley Woodrow, Carlton Morris, Tom Lockyer.
“But I’ve always believed, given the right platform, I’ll perform.
Taylor still helped Luton gain promotion as he scored his penalty at Wembley
“I don’t get nervous but on the pitch before the warm-up I got butterflies.
“And then when the teams walked out for kick-off, it was packed, they had the flames going and there was the national anthem. It was a wow moment.
“The gaffer and his assistants Paul Trollope and Richie Kyle kept banging into me, ‘If you come on today, you’re going to score the winner.’”
And when he did eventually come on, he thought he had.
Taylor sighed: “It was my biggest 100 to zero moment. I thought I had fired the team into the Premier League.”
However, he showed nerves of steel to net the second of Luton’s penalties and after Coventry’s Fankaty Dabo missed in sudden death to seal Luton’s promotion, Taylor collapsed to his knees and cried.
He said: “I’m not an emotional person. As a young lad to be part of winning a huge game, it’s the stuff of dreams — especially at the home of football.”
And because Taylor is not 21, he was not able to join the rest of his team-mates as they partied in Las Vegas because in the United States he is under-age to drink or enter casinos.
He said: “The lads kept sending me pictures and videos — rubbing it in!”
