“You don’t always know where you stand with people, so to read them all was very overwhelming,” says Danny Livesey, after sifting through a deluge of messages that greeted news of his retirement.
Livesey has always been an honest and self-deprecating soul across his long career, which included an emphatic decade as a battling central defender with Carlisle United. That remains the case even at the time fans are coming together in great numbers to say thanks.
“I think people were being overly nice,” he adds. “Sunday [the day of the announcement] was very emotional. I had so many messages. People I’d not spoken to for ages were taking time to text me. I was trying to show my lad – ‘See, I wasn’t that bad after all’. But he wasn’t that interested…”
This weekend’s game for Chester at Brackley Town in National League North will be Livesey’s last before hanging up his boots. At 37 he has decided enough is enough, and one of the longest-serving and certainly most hardened careers involving Carlisle United will be over.
🗣️ “I think I’ve given every last bit that I can and that my body will let me. I'm gutted."
— Chester FC (@ChesterFC) May 1, 2022
🔵 Danny Livesey has confirmed he will retire at the end of the 2021/22 season.
Thanks for everything, Danny. 💙
He has a new job to look forward to, working for Manchester United’s foundation in a high school, but that is not the only reason he has stopped playing. Something in the recent past has not sat well with a player as long-standing and determined as Livesey.
“I’ve had some fans saying that, with the way I’ve played in the last couple of games, I’ve still got loads left in me. But that’s not the debate. When I play I feel really good. The issue is I’ve put 19 games together this year. That’s not good enough.
READ MORE: Chester's former Carlisle United favourite Danny Livesey announces retirement
“If you’re at a club, part of a team, you’re letting people down there. It’s not acceptable. As much as I probably do have another year in me, what’s the point in playing a handful of good games, letting people down in the others then being injured for 20-odd? It doesn’t sit well with me.
“Plus, I’d rather go out now than people saying, ‘Wow, look how bad he is’. Or not even being able to get into teams and squads. I’d rather call it a day early than go one too far.”
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Livesey, of course, went to the limit in a Carlisle shirt in a 333-game spell which included two promotions and season upon season of committed defending – not to mention golden moments such as the penalty against Aldershot which sent United to the 2005 Conference play-off final, and the strike at Rochdale in 2006 which helped deliver the League Two title.
Supporters have been remembering such days since his retirement news, and it is as engrossing as ever to go back over it all with a man whose name sits proudly among United’s top ten appearance makers.
“Coming from a rugby league family – my dad was a rugby leaguer, never into football – there was never any pressure,” says Livesey, who comes from Salford and started at Bolton before joining Carlisle in December 2004. “It was a case of, ‘Find your own way, figure things out’.
“My youth team and academy coaches, people like Jimmy Phillips, Frank Stapleton and Jamie Hoyland, were very good. They would basically say, ‘Do what you’re good at’. I stuck with that the whole way through.
“Let’s be honest – I was very limited in my abilities, and what I did I had to do really well. If you do the basics well every single game, and aim for a seven [out of ten] every game, it looks better when everyone else is on a five or a six. And when two or three get nines and tens, you go under the radar.
“I’ve always believed in that work ethic – if I do the basics well, mentally I’d be strong enough to carry on. When I first came to Carlisle there was some stick [from fans online] but I just believed in the process, in doing one step at a time: if you’re not playing well, just turn the ball into the channel, clear our lines, play yourself into the game.
“Young players now, when they’re struggling, go a different route. They overcomplicate it. You think, ‘What are you doing? Just hoof it into the stand, hoof it into the channel, and before you know it, next time you’re a bit more composed and build your way back into a game…’”
With these straightforward principles in mind, he made his Premier League debut for Bolton aged 17 in a 3-2 defeat against Liverpool. “[Emile] Heskey, Milan Baros, [Steven] Gerrard…not bad. I’d been in the squad before but never on the bench. I was basically tea boy on the coach. I’d go with the squad, do the warm-up on these good pitches and then watch a game of football.
“The Liverpool game was the first time I’d got in the matchday squad. I wasn’t expecting anything, so when I was thrown in, I wasn’t nervous because there hadn’t been any build-up.
“The truth is, though, I probably let myself down [at Bolton]. I wish I’d believed in myself a bit more. You need that confidence right from the start and it's something that grew into me. That was my only sort of regret, that I never gave it a proper go at feeling part of the whole team and squad.”
Livesey was certainly a central part of things at Carlisle, once he recovered from a shaky start midway through the Blues' Conference season. Amid the headline memories, the defender produces a more modest one which reflects how he turned himself around for Paul Simpson’s Blues.
“It might seem something of nothing, but it was a game against Leigh,” he says. “I remember really struggling, not feeling I was fit enough, but then something clicked. Someone was through on goal, and I chased him down and tackled him. After that I was like, 'That’s me off and running'. Just a mad little innocuous situation – and it completely transformed my Carlisle career in that one game.
“It’s a small part of a massive career, but if I hadn’t taken confidence from that one game, come the end of the season I would have been out of the door, and where do you go then from the Conference?
“Simmo had brought me in and given me a massive chance. He allowed me those eight or nine games where I was probably stinking the place out. He stuck by me and believed in me. I’ll always be indebted to him for that."
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By the end of 2004/5, the improving Livesey had already written his name in United folklore. The wild evening against Aldershot, when a play-off semi-final went this way and that, erupted when, in a penalty shoot-out, Matty Glennon’s saves teed up the possibility of victory.
Fans spilled onto the pitch, having forgotten Livesey still had a sudden-death kick to take in order to seal Carlisle's win. It took some time to clear the surface before the moment of truth. How did the then 20-year-old handle the prolonged wait and all the crazy tension?
“I’ve said this before – it was better that there was a pitch invasion,” he says. “It would have been worse walking up with everyone watching you. All that melee took everything off me. By the time it had cleared, I had the ball on the spot and was waiting for it.
“As for the penalty – I always go that way [to the right]. Grandy [Simon Grand] knew straight away. I never cottoned on that the keeper dived the same way every time - it must have been a percentage game he was doing - but I think Grandy knew before everyone else it was gonna be a goal.”
Given that United went on to secure promotion in the final against Stevenage, and return to the Football League after only one season in non-league, Livesey’s penalty was one of the most important in the club’s history. Has he reflected on the weight of that moment?
“I haven’t, really, until you just said that. But it’s true – and that league [the National League] has become harder to get out of. We were the first team to come straight back up, which shows how hard and important it was.
“Before you know it you had Lutons, Wrexhams and the like down there…and you are stuck there a while. Looking now, it’s a big moment, but one that we fully deserved. Once we got a settled team, Simmo had put his influence on it, we felt a little bit of momentum and carried it right on, and for about five years, we were riding real momentum. We could have been in the Championship [come 2008] barring a few bad games…”
Livesey felt United were “comfortable” in the 2005 final against Stevenage, when Peter Murphy headed the Blues to promotion, and enjoys reliving the post-match exchanges when he and captain Kevin Gray tag-teamed the opposition loudmouth Dino Maamria. “Kev stole my line, about not knowing who he [Maamria] was, just some Conference player…Kev wasn’t quite as witty back then. He was normally a bit more blunt. So I’ll let him keep that one!”
The following season, United magnificently won League Two. It was a resurgent time at Brunton Park and Livesey was a major part of it. “We played some unbelievable football, and we were very solid. Early in the season we had that bet with [coach] Billy Barr, when we said if we keep so many clean sheets we’ll get out of this league.
“We had goals everywhere – Karl [Hawley], [Michael] Bridges, goals from midfield, Murph getting a few, the back four chipping in. I think the turning point in that season was the weekend we were away somewhere and had Soccer AM on. They had three Wycombe players on and they were saying they’d as good as won this league, and it was Christmas.
“That galvanised everyone – ‘Nah, we’re not having that’. As a team we watched thinking, ‘Let’s go and chase these down’. It gave us motivation, a target. We were relentless for all that season, churning out results. For example, going to Northampton, beating them 3-0 when they were close to us – we just did a job on them.”
The title was sealed when Livesey and Murphy scored in a 2-0 win at Rochdale, but Simpson’s departure for Preston that summer, and the appointment of Neil McDonald, brought about challenging new times for Livesey.
“He had been coach at Bolton, and it didn’t end too well there for me. As soon as Fred [Story, United’s owner] went, ‘You’ll be pleased who’s coming in – he’s been an academy coach, first team coach in the Premier League’, I thought ‘No, it just can’t be...’
“When it got announced, I thought, ‘That’s me done’. My phone went wild with people saying I’d have to find a new club. I knew it was gonna be a battle. So in many ways that was one of my best seasons. With about four months to go, he had to play me, I was playing that well. I see it as a personal achievement of mine that he actually played me week in, week out.”
After United finished a creditable eighth in League One, they retooled for a challenge in 2007/8 – and Livesey got himself in peak shape for the best season of his career. “I’d gone to Gran Canaria with the wife, ran two or three times a day, lost a load of weight and thought, ‘I’m gonna prove him wrong’. I wanted to be at the front of the running instead of the middle or the back, and I was.
“We played Newcastle in pre-season [a 1-1 draw in which Livesey scored] and afterwards, Sam Allardyce [Newcastle’s manager who had previously been at Bolton] said about me: ‘He might make it in the game yet...’
“I remembered that. I thought, ‘Right, let’s give it a go this year’. It was just a really good season, I felt really good, really positive. It was just a shame we couldn’t consolidate it with getting up.”
United’s bold promotion campaign under John Ward, who took over when McDonald was sacked one game in, foundered late on, and then Leeds crushed their Championship dream in the play-offs. It was a deflating experience but Livesey, who often captained the side, still came out of the season with great credit.
He was named in the PFA League One team of the season by his peers, something that still gives him pride. “We’ve filled in those teams, and it’s usually the same old names, people you know, or popular names who are always getting pushed in the paper – that’s as much thought as you put into it.
“So for me and Westy [goalkeeper Keiren Westwood] to break into that, when people are picking it and we know the process…people must have remembered us rather than just picking out the usual lot. It was amazing.”
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United did not get as close to promotion again, but Livesey remained a committed figure for several more seasons. In 2010 he was the width of the crossbar from putting Carlisle ahead in an FA Cup tie at Everton - "after a few pints I convinced myself it had gone in" - while the 2011/12 campaign under Greg Abbott was a promising one, Carlisle just missing out on the play-offs and Livesey marrying his usual committed defending with an iconic, airborne assist for Lee Miller in a barnstorming win over Huddersfield. “Not a lot of people see that pass,” he joked…
“I loved every single minute – living up there, going out walking into town, when I was staying with Ange and Liam, my sponsors at time,” he adds of his United career. “We took the twins up there, moved into our house, embraced everything about it.
“The only disappointment was the way it ended [in 2014].”
Livesey’s departure indeed felt a let-down for a man of such service: loaned to Wrexham at a time the team was descending into chaos and towards relegation under Graham Kavanagh. He eventually learned of his release on the club website.
“I don’t care what you say, having a kid on loan [in your defence] when you’re near the bottom doesn’t make any sense,” he says. “Whatever you think of me as a player, it would have mattered more to me to try and stay in that league than some kid.
“We went through something like 44 players in a season. We were playing a right-back at centre-half. I know it’s petty, but I’ve never put a relegation on my CV, because I think I played seven games that year. I didn’t feel a part of that team or squad. I went on loan to Wrexham, came back the last week and recognised about three people. There were just kids everywhere.”
Livesey’s career took him to Barrow, under Darren Edmondson, then home-city club Salford and finally Chester. “I absolutely loved it at Barrow,” he says. “Their fans took to me, I’ve been so lucky that, wherever I’ve been, they’ve always took to me. I’ve never really understood it.
“People usually like flair players and goalscorers. Maybe there is a space for someone who just does the job and keeps head down. Barrow was brilliant – we were building something. The club brought in 15 new faces at the start of the season and expected to win the league, which is probably the hardest time to do it. So it was unbelievable to do it with them.”
Livesey played alongside Simon Grand at Carlisle, Barrow and then Chester, whom he joined in 2018 on loan and then permanently in 2019. The two have been inseparable for much of their time in the game.
“He’s been brilliant,” Livesey says of his fellow defender. “I texted him on Sunday night saying, ‘Thanks for always being the ball player out of the two – but more importantly, thanks for the laughs’.
“We’ve laughed for 20 years, even when no-one else is laughing at the daft stuff we’re laughing at. I’ve just been a lucky man, doing that with your best mate everywhere you go, winning trophies, winning leagues. We know each other’s game. He’s some player, too, and I hope he gets the send-off he deserves, whenever he comes round to doing it.”
If Grand continues without Livesey next season, how strange will it be for the two no longer to be sharing a changing room? “I think I might have to drive to his house every so often, and sit in his front room for a bit,” Livesey says.
“It felt like there were only two of us there at times anyway, because only we were laughing at our jokes. Although we managed to suck Brendan McGill in – he used to hate us at the start, but before you knew it we had a trio of us laughing at rubbish jokes. We were dead proud we managed get one of the more professional players involved…”
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Earlier this season, Livesey had a stint as caretaker manager after the departure from Chester of Anthony Johnson and Bernard Morley. He enjoyed aspects of it, but it did not give him the bug to return to the hotseat.
“For the managing side, I’m not nasty enough and I know that,” he says. “It might be different if I was going into somewhere where I wasn’t surrounded by friends. But I found it difficult leaving people out…
“I did love the coaching, though, and the parts during the game. I had lads texting me saying they really enjoyed it. We just tried to make everything as positive as possible.”
Livesey says he now wants to give his full attention to his new job, although he is conscious of the need to adjust to a life when getting his boots on for battle is no more.
“Maybe next Monday, when I’ve got nothing on that week, might be when it hits home,” he says. “But I’ve had a few months to get my head around it with all the injuries I’ve had this season.
“I’ve always done it. It’s been part of my life. And hopefully still will, once I’ve taken a little break and seen what options out there in coaching, or even playing for fun…”
And yes – Livesey has found it fun, despite the fact few players at Carlisle kept the physio busier. Frequently there would be a head needing to be bandaged, cotton wool to be stuffed up the nose, bruises to be attended to, twists and scrapes and scars sorted.
You could not keep going back for more of that without, on some level, relishing it. “Academy football, when I was coming through, wasn’t what it is now, where it’s all skill,” Livesey says. “You had five or six flair players, the passers and engine room, then defenders who just wanted to defend. There was a place for them.
“I quickly realised at 16-17 that was my place, where I wanted to be. No point trying to be something I’m not. I’ve had a lot of credit for getting cut heads and stuff…but I quite enjoy it, putting my head in there and getting booted. I enjoy tackling, booting it into the stand in the last minute. It never bothered me when fans were booing because I couldn’t keep it this side of the pitch – because I thought, ‘They might put me in their team, though’.
“That’s what I had to keep going back to. It was about the team. It’s never ever been about me. I was just a cog in every team I’ve played in."
The other evening, Livesey sat with his son, Ty - a promising young player in Blackburn Rovers' academy - and showed him the Aldershot penalty on YouTube. That heady night in 2005 was back in the eyes of the scorer. "He loved it. He was right into it. It was nice for him to see. He was asking me if we [Chester] get one on Saturday, will I take it? I said, 'Why would I? I took my one, scored my one, don't need any more..."
It is sweet to think that this warrior of good Carlisle United times, as he contemplates the end, has taken just the one spot-kick in his entire career, never having the inclination for another. "It wasn't worth it. It felt like I'd be cheating on Carlisle..."
READ MORE: As Danny Livesey retires, a tribute to the defender's defender: a bruised Carlisle United hero
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