Ex-Tranmere, Everton and Blackpool winger Ben Tollitt: I shouldn't have been at Portsmouth, it was mad. I was a Liverpool builder who played Sunday League living the dream

Such nagging self doubt was understandable, despite later establishing his worthiness, albeit largely from the Blues’ bench.

The slightly-built winger embarked on one of the more unorthodox career routes to Fratton Park in July 2015.

Tollitt was a 20-year-old builder from Liverpool, employed by his dad fitting windows and doors in conservatories, yet football was his true calling.

On Saturdays, a dual registration enabled him to turn out either for North West Country First Division side Widnes or Evo-Stik Northern Premier League outfit Skelmersdale United.

Sunday mornings were spent on pitches in the Liverpool Business Houses Football League, representing Walton-based pub side The Seymour.

Then arrived a life-changing phone call from the son of a customer whose patio doors Tollitt had recently fitted.

He had been fixed up with a week-long trial at League Two Pompey.

Subsequently, Blues boss Paul Cook was sufficiently impressed to snap up the former Everton youngster within four days.

And, six-and-a-half years later, Tollitt still marvels over the curious circumstances behind a move which would ignite his football career – and earn him 18 Pompey appearances and one goal.

‘I remember doing a recovery session after a Havant & Waterlooville friendly, jogging up and down the pool and chatting away to Gary Roberts, who’s also from Liverpool and helped me settle in,’ Tollitt told The News.

‘I told him “I shouldn’t be here”, to which he responded “No, don’t think like that”.

‘But you really can’t help thinking like that considering where I had come from. I kept saying to myself “This is mad”.

‘I was a 20-year-old from Liverpool who a few weeks earlier worked for my dad fitting patio doors and windows, while playing Sunday League. Now I was a Pompey player.

‘Talk about living the dream, my dream. I was in the right place, at the right time, incredible really.

‘Earlier in the summer of 2015, we were fitting this guy’s patio doors in north Liverpool and got chatting to his son about Liverpool, my team, who were playing that night.

‘He asked if I played. Well, I had been on Everton’s books as a kid, while turned out for Widnes on a Saturday and also did a bit of Sunday League.

‘He responded with “I know a couple of people within footy, I’ll see if I can get you a trial”. I was thinking “Yeah, whatever”.

‘As it happened, he fixed me a trial game at Tranmere, which featured loads of lads who had been let go by clubs. I remember there being a 19-year-old who had been at Aston Villa.

‘Anyhow, my team won 4-0, I scored one and set two up. Tranmere didn’t want me, though, so it was back to work that afternoon.

‘Then, a few weeks later, I was halfway up a ladder, passing a window frame to my dad, when the phone rang in my pocket. I handed the frame to him and answered.

‘It was the guy who got me the Tranmere trial – this time he had arranged for me to go to Pompey!

‘The message was: “Can you get down to Portsmouth next Wednesday and go on trial there?”.

‘The club booked my trains from Wednesday to Wednesday, I managed to get a week off work, and was told Pompey’s analyst, Enda Barron, would pick me up from the station at Portsmouth Harbour.

‘Now I had no idea what he looked like, but when I arrived I saw this guy in a Pompey jacket so thought it must be him and I walked over there.

‘He dropped me off in front of the Royal Beach Hotel – and within five days I had signed for Pompey!’

Tollitt had trained with Pompey for two days before finding himself on the bench for a pre-season game against the Hawks in July 2015.

The Westleigh Park friendly marked the opening match of the Cook era, following his appointment as manager from Chesterfield earlier that summer.

He had overhauled a squad which finished 16th in League Two the previous season, recruiting the likes of Roberts, Michael Doyle, Kyle Bennett, Kal Naismith, Enda Stevens, Christian Burgess and loanee Jayden Stockley.

A number of triallists also turned out for the Blues in the 1-1 draw including Gareth Evans, Ben Davies and Liverpool full-back Connor Randall.

In addition, a player listed only as ‘Tollett’ on the team sheet was among the substitutes – and granted a four-minute cameo in place of Conor Chaplin.

The following day, Ben Tollitt signed a one-year deal at Fratton Park, with a 12-month option.

He added: ‘I never thought I would get a deal at Pompey, the idea was I’d come down for the week and hope for the best.

‘I trained on the Thursday and Friday, then we played Havant & Waterlooville. I remember coming off the bench and thinking “I’ve got a few minutes to show what I can do, there’s nothing to lose”.

‘At one stage I squared the ball and someone missed it, then I had a chance where I cut in and shot, with it just going wide.

‘The following day I received a phone call from the club – they wanted to sign me. It was like “Wow. All right, sound”. So I made my way round to the stadium from the Royal Beach Hotel and joined Pompey.

‘I had been at Everton as a kid, yet let go around the age of 15. They told me it wasn’t anything technical, but explained I wasn’t going to last playing under-16s and potentially going into the under-18s.

‘I was 5ft 5in and so, so small for my age compared to other players, who had obviously developed a lot earlier physically.

‘I then did my A-levels, before becoming a teaching assistant, working with the PE teachers at Chesterfield High School in Crosby, my former school.

‘I had a duel registration with Widnes and Skelmersdale, while also played for a Sunday League pub team called The Seymour, with all that aggression and mad stuff which goes on on the sidelines.

‘When you go from that to facing Bournemouth in the Fourth Round of the FA Cup in front of 18,901, it’s brilliant.

‘I weighed 67kg when I signed, I’d have been blown over by the wind! I reached 74kg within the space of three months, reaching the levels of physicality Paul Cook had set me to cope with the Football League.

‘I was earning more working for my dad, but money didn’t matter. Pompey covered my accommodation and living with Matt Clarke off Albert Road. All I had to pay for was my car, my car insurance and my phone bill.

‘To me, it didn't matter how much I was earning. When that opportunity came along, I wasn’t letting that go.’

Tollitt made his Pompey debut as a substitute in a Capital One Cup triumph over Championship team Derby in August 2015.

In his second league outing he assisted Caolan Lavery in a 2-2 draw at Carlisle, then, in his next appearance, netted in the 6-0 demolition of York at Fratton Park in November 2015.

Tollitt featured 16 times during his maiden Football League season as the Blues finished sixth in League Two, before eliminated at the hands of Plymouth in the play-off semi-finals.

However, he would feature just twice more before joining Tranmere on loan in September 2016 – only to never return to Fratton Park.

He said: ‘I was on the bench at Home Park for the play-offs. It was goalless, heading towards injury time, and I was told to go and warm up.

‘I was stretching by the corner flag and watched Plymouth score with a header. That was it, game over. It was a killer for my first season at Pompey.

‘That summer, Cook added Milan Lalkovic and Carl Baker to his squad, while he still had Kyle Bennett, Gary Roberts and Kal Naismith.

‘I wasn’t really a starter – and now there were more players in similar positions to me. I was never really going to play, that’s just the way footy is.

‘Then one day I turned up for training, got changed, and was signing in outside the manager’s office when Cook noticed me and asked “What are you doing here? Tranmere have come in for you, you know?”.

‘This is how naive I was, I replied: “Okay. Since I’ve got changed, do you want me to train and then get off afterwards?”.

‘The manager said: “No, get changed and go to Tranmere, I’ll be in touch”.

‘It turned out they had lost three wingers to injury in one game, so recruited me on a month’s loan. That was extended and, before Christmas, they bought me.

‘When I left Pompey, I never thought I was leaving for good, it was a loan, but that changed.

‘I was playing every game for Tranmere and basically told Paul Cook: “I like my footy here, playing every week, and you can’t give me that. I’m a young lad, I just want to be playing”.’

Recruited for an undisclosed fee, Tollitt would spend almost three years at Tranmere, although his time was blighted by three serious injuries to his right knee, totalling 16 months on the sidelines.

It restricted the winger to 40 appearances and six goals, before joining Blackpool on a free transfer in June 2019 under his former Everton youth coach Terry McPhillips.

He would later turn out for Wrexham (loan) and Macclesfield, before settling at AFC Fylde in June 2020, with the Coasters presently topping National League North.

Tollitt is back in his native Liverpool and engaged to Grace, with the pair having a two-year-old son called Reuben and expecting another child in May next year.

And he still reflects glowingly on his time at Fratton Park which ended in December 2016.

The likeable 27-year-old said: ‘Pompey were my first Football League club, I’m so grateful for that. It’s always going to have a special place with me.

‘I actually came back last summer for the first time since I left in 2016. I’d never been able to get back before then.

‘With our holiday cancelled because of Covid, we did a little south-coast trip, which took in Cornwall as well as Portsmouth, seeing a couple of friends there as well.

‘I looked around the place with my fiance and son, showing them the sights and what my life was like back then.

‘I love the area and even my partner, Grace, said how nice Portsmouth looks. Honestly, it’s a boss place.

‘How many people coming out of non-league can say that Pompey were their first Football League club? How lucky was I.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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