Gillingham defender Shad Ogie’s living the dream and has praised a former team-mate for helping his career progress.
Maidstone United manager George Elokobi – who has made headlines this season after a terrific run in the FA Cup – was an inspiration for Ogie while they were at Leyton Orient together.
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Former Wolves player Elokobi was coming to the end of his playing career at Orient as Ogie was just starting his and proved to be the ideal man to look up to.
Ogie scored his first Football League goal on Saturday and helped the Gills to a third successive clean sheet and said: “Playing alongside good players like George Elokobi helped me growing up
“He was a proper professional…he was raw, basics raw, he has played at the top level as well, at the time I just had to soak up every bit of information while I could.
“I would stay behind after training, just learning the basics, the heading, the channel balls, all of that.
“I feel that going on loan (to Aldershot and Dover) has played a big part in my career so far, those points have all helped.”
Ogie spent a couple of seasons playing League 2 football for Orient before his summer switch to Gillingham. He’s been a regular in the centre of defence alongside Max Ehmer and Conor Masterson.
He’s played 38 games for the Gills, helping the side to clean sheets in 12 of them, and on Saturday he scored his first goal in the Football League, netting the opener against Salford in a 2-0 win.
Ogie nodded in from close range after Ethan Coleman had put a header his way from a corner which had initially been cleared.
He said: “I had been getting stick in training because I haven’t been scoring but I felt that getting it has put a lot of pressure off my shoulders so I’m glad to get the goal.
“It was just about gambling. I have seen Conor Masterson doing that in a couple of games to score, so I knew that just being between the sticks and on your toes, hopefully it would land for me and it did.”
Masterson leads the scoring charts for the Gills with five so far this season.
Ogie said: ”It is good to add goals to your game alongside the defending stuff, he has got both, I am learning from him, an experienced player.
“As a defender, all I care for is a clean sheet. Yes, I am excited for the goal, but it is just a bonus. I don’t get much as a defender but when I do you have to soak it all in!
“I am living the dream at the moment but can’t get too big-headed as we have a game against Tuesday which we will focus on that now.
“We’ve had back-to-back wins, clean sheets, stuff has been going our way and we have to keep going, even in training, if anyone slacks off we get onto them, standards have to be high if we want to be promoted.
“We hope to just keep picking up the points and see where we are at the end of the season.”
