Alfie May on joining Charlton, how Millwall release affected him, loving work as a carpenter and earning praise from Manchester City stars

BY RICHARD CAWLEY
richard@slpmedia.co.uk

Alfie May is happy to embrace the pressure and expectancy following his Charlton Athletic transfer.

The 30-year-old has been one of the hottest attacking talents in League One in the previous two seasons – scoring an impressive 46 goals over that period.

And now May, who completed a £250,000 switch to The Valley at the end of last week, has taken on the number nine shirt previously worn by Lyle Taylor, Andy Hunt and Jason Euell.

The Kent-raised frontman netted 22 times last season for Cheltenham Town, adding to the 26 he notched in the preceding campaign.

And there will no dialling down of his personal targets after signing for Charlton, who he scored against in his final appearance in a Robins shirt.

“I want to go and hit 20-plus again,” May told the South London Press over a Zoom call from the club’s Spanish training camp on Tuesday afternoon. “The pressure is probably on me now to do that. I know strikers can have bad spells. But the best thing I’ve done in the last two years – it probably sounds a bit big-headed or people might take it a little different – is that I walk on to that pitch and I say to myself that I want to be the best player on there that day.

“If I’m not, then my mindset is that I am going to be the best player in the next game.

“My wife said to me the year before, when Cheltenham were in League Two, that I needed to start believing in myself a little more. The love I have for my children – the drive they give me every day – makes me want to try and be a better person and better player. I want to be succcessful to give them the best life, ever. I’ve got the best people behind me to drive me.

“I want to go and get 25 goals or 30 goals, if I can. Hopefully I hit the ground running and it will be a good season.”

May’s family are from Dartford. He signed for Millwall at the age of nine but was released at 14.

His older cousin Ben was also in the Lions’ academy and played nearly 100 first-team matches before transferring to Scunthorpe in 2007.

“They said if I’d had his size then I’d probably have made it,” said May. “They asked me to come back, to keep training, but I wouldn’t have played any games.

“As a kid you are trying to live your dream and all I knew was football. It took a couple of weeks to sink in and after that I didn’t want to go back. I wanted to give up football.”

May still played for his school but then took a liking for cricket. He started off at Wilmington before they shut down and he signed for Farningham, who he is still registered with.

“I haven’t played any games recently because of living away,” said May. “It’s nice to be back home and I’ll try to get to a few Sunday games, have a watch and see the lads again.

“Cricket is my favourite sport. It’s a weird one – because I play football and people would think that would be the one. But if the cricket is on TV then I’ll always choose that over football.”

May went into full-time work for his brother’s company at the age of 16. A broad smile breaks over his face as he reminisces.

“I was a chippy, a timber-framer,” he said. “My cousin was in it too. You had my eldest brother working and a few friends.

“I remember my first job, I was up at 4.30am and we were going to Portsmouth. It was different.

“My brother is a big role model in my life. He didn’t give it to me easy. I started on £20 a week. I was just a labourer for the first couple of years.

“I loved it. I would be lugging wood around and they would be screaming and shouting at me. I was good at it – I like to take things on. I started to get into using the chopsaws, the saws and nailguns, slowly building myself up.

“At about 21 my brother trusted me with jobs. One of the ones I did when I was running it didn’t go too well. I think he went bust with it, the company didn’t pay because I over-ran on a job. But he still stuck with me.

“People would think getting up at that time would be bad. But I got to work with my brother and cousins, it was good banter.”

May drifted back into football with local clubs like Corinthian, Chatham Town, Bromley, VCD Athletic and Erith & Belvedere.

While at the latter he was the subject of a seven-day approach from Hythe Town, in Isthmian League Division One South.

Matt Longhurst was his boss at both Corinthian, near Sevenoaks, and Erith & Belvedere.

“Matt got me loving the game again, because he gave me a platform,” said May. “Hythe Town came in for one of my friends – Ryan Johnson. He used to play for QPR.

“Ryan was with us at Erith. I had my two brothers, Sam and Luke, playing  there along with of my best mates, Ben Wilson. It was just a close club, we were all friends.

“When Hythe came in for Ryan, RJ said: ‘Bring Alfie and you need to get Sam as well’. I know what RJ was thinking, we all lived in Dartford at the time and Hythe Town is a good 50 minutes away – so he’s thinking about petrol money, sharing a car.

“We ended up going to Hythe. It was a shame because Matt Longhurst has done a lot for us, in the game. But they were offering more money, and in non-league when you get a seven-dayer, in that scenario, you take it!

“We were rock bottom of the table. We got all new players in and we had this togetherness, a strong changing room. We had experienced players. I was only young. I hit the ground running.

“That first year we all signed about 10 games into the season and got to the play-offs. It was down to probably the changing room and gaffer (Clive Cook) there – just bonding us together and telling us to believe in ourselves. He believed in me. That was a big factor.”

May was finally back in the professional game in 2017, signing a two-and-half-year contract at Doncaster. Rovers’ team-mate Matty Blair advised him to drop into League One with Cheltenham in January 2020 to kickstart his career and gain regular football.

The £5,000 transfer fee proved a snip. And May’s impeccable service for the Gloucestershire club was the reason they had a gentlemen’s agreement they would let him move on this summer if an acceptable bid was tabled.

May became their all-time leading scorer in September 2022, his 40th goal pushing him ahead of Julian Alsop. His final total is 67 in 165 matches.

One of those finishes came in the FA Cup fourth round, against Manchester City. Cheltenham took the lead at  the Completely-Suzuki Stadium but lost 3-1 in January 2021. May was described as “exceptional” by Pep Guardiola while England international Phil Foden embraced the Town talisman at full time.

“I know they are the best team in the world currently, but back then they were really good as well,” said May.

“When you go out in the warm-up and see who you are playing against then it is a bit surreal.

“With Ben Tozer’s long throw we always seemed to score or get a chance. The minute I saw the flight of the ball, I knew I had to attack it.

“When it went in, all I could think of was my grandad. He’s sadly not with us now. He took me to every game at Millwall and was so proud of what I achieved. Unfortunately he didn’t get to see me play a professional game, but I know he’ll be smiling.

“Foden came straight up to me after the game, gave me a cuddle and said: ‘I thought you were class today’. We got in the changing room, he knocked on the door and said: ‘Here is my shirt’. Because it was Covid at the time, we weren’t actually allowed to do that.

“We were out in the tunnel with the City players, talking to them. They had time for us. Big respect to them for that.”

Part of Cheltenham’s farewell included footage of all May’s goals for them.

There were plenty of bangers and shots from tight angles which seared into the back of the net, including his audacious touch and monster lobbed finish from near the touchline against Peterborough United in March.

“I try and do it in training, I’m always scanning to see where a keeper’s starting position is early in a game – to see what I can do,” explained May.

“Sometimes you get moaned at if you try it and it goes out of the stadium.

“It’s an opportunity to score. That Peterborough goal, I was the furthest forward Cheltenham player. When I took the touch over my head, naturally I knew where the goalkeeper was standing. I knew he was high, because he was playing as more of a sweeper-keeper. I hit it sweet, you just feel it on your boot.

“I probably will try it again, in a Charlton shirt.

“It’s got to be my favourite goal but the Wycombe one, where I’ve taken it down over my head and lobbed the keeper, that runs it really close, because the touch makes it better.”

When a sighting of goal presents itself, he seems greedy. That’s meant as a compliment.

“If you don’t shoot you don’t score,” responded May. “That comes from Michael Duff, when he was at Cheltenham. He gave me that freedom to do that. It’s probably why I succeeded under him and did it again under Wade Elliott.

“I know I’m greedy. The boys at Cheltenham used to say that. If someone is in front of goal and I know they are going to score, I’ll square it. But whoever plays up front, you are in the team to score goals. If they are shooting from the angles that I do and they miss or they score – good on them.

It means they are getting in positions where they can get chances, that’s the big thing.”

Now May needs to deliver under a bigger and brighter spotlight.

It is jarring for Charlton’s fanbase to see their club – once more than capable of holding their own against England’s elite – struggling to even mount a promotion push from League One. If May does break that 20-goal barrier for a third season in a row then it bodes well.

“I’ve signed for this big club and I want to succeed myself,” he said. “I know I need to work harder and, with the gaffer here, I can learn a lot more as well.

“Going from Cheltenham to Charlton is going to be a big difference – crowd-wise there is a lot of fans here.

“I want to get this club to the next level. That’s why I really wanted to join – the fanbase and stature of the place. It shouldn’t be in League One.”