Celtic keeper Joe Hart reflects on 20 years since key career moment

But if you really want to get Joe Hart talking, ask him about Exeter away 20 years ago. It’s a whisker over two decades since a 15-year-old aspiring goalkeeper was plucked from school of an afternoon to join the Shrewsbury Town squad for a four-hour jaunt down to Devon.

Hart’s role that day was simply to fill a space on the bench. It’s fair to say he’s come a long way since.

There have been individual accolades, four major international tournaments, forays into the Champions League and now a stint at Celtic which has given his career a serious shot in the arm. But it takes a reminder of a fateful day in 2003 to prompt a trip down memory lane, recalled with the same youthful enthusiasm that no doubt bounded out through the school gates all those years ago.

“Really?” he replies to a colleague’s reminder of the anniversary. “Exeter away, I had to come out of school for that. That’s awesome. That’s made me smile that. That’s cool.

“Exeter is a long way from Shrewsbury. League Two at the time with the majority of the games, if it was under three hours you would travel on the day, but with Exeter a really long way we went the day before. It was an amazing experience. I had to get special permission from the school. I wasn’t training regularly with the first team at the time but it was needs must down at League Two at the time. I think it was probably a case of two injured goalkeepers…which is one too many for a squad the size we had. I was the next best thing and that was pretty special. 

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An imposing figure at 6ft 5, it’s difficult to picture Hart as a skinny kid drowning in a jersey and goalie gloves, eyes wide as he joins Shrewsbury’s senior campaigners on the team bus. That’s probably because he never was. Even at 15, there was all 6ft 3 of him, but he admits his stature belied the fact that first team football was all a bit much for him at that age. 

“I had maybe another inch of growth in me so I was about six-foot four, I reckon,” Hart said. “I was nowhere near ready to play. Jeez, when I really think about it, it would have been frightening. Well…I don’t know. I didn’t see football as a professional game.

“When I was 15 and from quite a sheltered background it was just a game of football. The more time I spent with the guys the more I realised there is a lot more to it than that. I was just a naive kid just buzzing, high on life. 

“It really imprinted on me, especially with it my home town. It was my Everest to be a part of my club Shrewsbury Town. I watched a lot of the guys playing and then being on the coach with them. Some things I’m not good memory-wise but now you have mentioned that, it has really made me smile.”

Could he have envisaged then any of what has transpired for him since?

“Nope, not at all,” Hart admitted. “And I’m glad I didn’t. I’m glad those weren’t my goals, I’m glad I just tried to get the best out of it that I could.”

Hart is usually very much of the ‘here and now’ mentality in front of the media microphone, preferring not to look too far back or too far forward, so it’s refreshing to see him pause to reflect on a milestone moment in his career. But as for that here and now, things could hardly be better.

Hart has kept consecutive clean sheets for Ange Postecoglou’s team. Last year, his total of 12 would have earned him another Golden Glove, if the Premiership had such an equivalent to England’s Premier League. But the 35-year-old insisted such stats don’t mean an awful lot to him compared to being ‘in love with what the team is doing’ – which he very much is.

“To be honest, stats and stuff don’t even register at the time, he said. “I didn’t know I was winning those awards. They have only become relevant now with social media and everyone becoming and agent an everyone becoming a scout. Your standard 14-year-old who watches football now is a scout now. You get what I mean?

"I’ve worked my best when I’ve been in love with what the team is doing, and really heavily involved with what we are trying to achieve. I have been lucky enough that with those campaigns, a lot of clean sheets have tended to come because we are in a good place and pushing hard. But I’ve never take that for granted.”

On Sunday, he will line up across the pitch from Remi Matthews in the St Johnstone goal. Former Crystal Palace keeper Matthews previously revealed idolising Hart throughout his early career, the two exchanged shirts and the Celtic star imparted some wise words upon his opponent the last time they crossed paths back in October

But even as his years advance, Hart seems uncomfortable with the notion of being a sage elder statesman of the goalkeeper’s union.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “But stuff like that is a good feeling. We are all one or two friends away from all knowing each other. I knew boys from Crystal Palace. Someone got in contact me to let me know that Remi wanted my shirt and I now a little bit about his career because I had an interest in goalkeepers. He’s had a top season, he’s doing really well for them, and I’m looking forward to playing against them on Sunday. There is a special relationship between goalkeepers. Not everyone, and that’s fine. But a lot of us just want the best for each other and to push each other on.”

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And pushing on is what Hart is keen to keep doing. 35 need not be a twilight year for goalkeepers these days; domestic rivals Craig Gordon and Allan McGregor have continued into a fifth decade.

Hart maintains following suit is not currently on his mind and, to be honest, that’s fair enough – what 35-year-old wants to spend time thinking about being in their forties, anyway?

“They [McGregor and Gordon] are exceptional and fair play to them,” he said. “But at the moment I don’t think about that because I just want to focus on everything I have on playing at 35 and coming up on 36. You deal with those things as they come and your life changes. Righ now I’m just enjoying playing as a 35-year-old.”