In-depth with new Millwall striker Macaulay Langstaff: People questioning if I can step up in levels only serves as motivational fuel
BY RICHARD CAWLEY
richard@slpmedia.co.uk
Macaulay Langstaff is taking a step into unchartered waters this season. But it is a scenario that he has faced in each of the last three campaigns – and excelled in all of them. No wonder Millwall’s new striker is approaching the start of the Championship with feelings of excitement and anticipation.
The forward was contemplating a career away from football before he scored 32 goals in 44 matches for National League North side Gateshead in the 2021-22 campaign.
His net-busting exploits saw Notts County pay £50,000 to secure his services. But could he do it in the National League? Forty-two goals in 48 matches, promotion and a raft of personal accolades, including National League Player of the Season, was an emphatic and impressive answer.
How would he handle League Two? Golden Boot winner with a tally of 28 goals – 29 in total – and named in the divisional Team of the Season.
Langstaff, 27, has taken his promotions through the football pyramid in his stride. Now comes a jump to England’s second tier with the Lions, who signed him on July 8 on a three-year contract for an undisclosed fee.
If the County Durham-born striker is feeling pressure then it isn’t apparent when we sit down at Millwall’s Calmont Road training ground on Monday.
“It’s a big step up – I know that,” Langstaff told the South London Press. “It’s one I’m looking forward to. It’s not going to be easy.
“But when you talk about my goals in the last three seasons, each time it was a step up a level. Each year there were question marks – could I do it at the next level? I broke the scoring record in the National League. Then people said: ‘He’s done it for Notts County in non-league, can he do it in Football League?’ I won the Golden Boot.
“That is probably my biggest motivation – trying to prove people wrong. Obviously there are going to be questions and I understand them because if I was a fan, or anyone on the outside, I’m be asking the same.
“Some of those people asking that aren’t even critics or criticising me. I believe goalscoring is you against yourself. If you can score goals at any level then you can carry it through the levels because ultimately it is you against your own movement, it’s you against your own instincts and it’s you against your own finishing. Yeah, the defenders get better and stronger – you probably get fewer chances – but it is still about being in the right place at the right time.
“I’m still trying to get into those same areas I did in National League North, maybe not as frequently. But it’s still me up against myself rather than directly up against someone. If I’m a centre-half then maybe I come up against a forward who is a lot sharper and better.
“I still believe that you carry goals up through the leagues.
“I haven’t changed anything from National League North to being in League Two. Obviously there are little tweaks to your game, it becomes more tactical and you’ve got to take in the other side of it – what the manager wants from you.
“In terms of my goalscoring it is the same sort of movements and finishes. My goals haven’t changed over the years.
“People would have said at National League North level: ‘Can he do it at National League or League Two?’ I look at it and that I’ve done it…and more. Why can’t I do that again?”
Langstaff, who sang Oasis’ Don’t Look Back in Anger as his initiation song on Millwall’s training camp in Alicante, finds it hard to pick out a favourite season in what has been a rapid rise up the domestic game.
“They are all different but brilliant in different ways,” he said. “My first real breakthrough was at Gateshead and it was incredible. I finished as top-scorer and we got promoted with a team that was expected to do nothing. We were all best friends, living up in Newcastle.
“I loved that one.
“I’ve got to say the National League season (is the best). League Two was good individually but as a team we underachieved massively to finish 14th. When you can reach the heights individually and as a team as well, that elevates a season above any other.
“To score 42 goals in the National League season, how many times has that happened? It’s not about me lacking optimism but I can’t see that happening again in my career at the top level – because 40 goals in one season is something ridiculous.
“It’s probably a one-off. So breaking the records and getting promoted at Wembley (in the play-off final) – that’s the one place you want to do it – and on penalties as well. Individually and collectively that has to be the standout.”
Langstaff, who had a three-year spell at his boyhood club Middlesbrough before being released at 13, was dubbed ‘the non-league Haaland’. But it is a player that starred for Manchester City’s arch-rivals United which helped inspire the Lions’ new recruit.
“It’s funny because the strikers I love are probably a little bit different to myself,” said Langstaff.
“You look at some of the out-and-out goalscorers over the years and I wouldn’t say they are my favourites. Luis Suarez was one of my favourites. He was an incredible goalscorer but it was his all-round game – how much he wanted to win. I loved watching him.
“I loved (Wayne) Rooney. He was the reason I started playing football. When he played at Euro 2004 it was probably my first memory of football. After that I wanted to be a footballer, because he made me fall in love with the game.
“Being called the non-league Haaland was only because of my goals. In terms of players we are polar opposites – he is six foot four and good in the air, rapid and strong. Just incredible. I’m pretty much about five foot nine-and-a-half, so don’t have his physical attributes to go and beat six-foot defenders in the air. It was a nice bit of publicity and I enjoyed it though.”
Notts County announced in June that Langstaff was their new club captain.
But any plans they had in place for him to spearhead a fresh assault on reaching League One was ended once Millwall made their move.
“It’s a weird one because every transfer window that came around I had scored goals in the prior six months – so I always knew there was a possibility of interest or talks,” said Langstaff, when asked if he had expected to leave.
“Not that I was unhappy at Notts – but with goals comes interest.
“I ended up just sort of getting used to the speculation. When it first happens you think it is nice and it gives you a little bit of an ego boost but, in the end, it was just another club you were getting linked with because I was doing something right and I ignored it.
“There must have been three transfer windows before I eventually left in the fourth one.
“It came to the summer and Notts offered me the captaincy. There had been no conversations with Millwall or any clubs, there had been no bids. I said to Notts County: ‘Look, there is going to be interest but if I am going to be at the football club then 100 per cent I want to be captain’. A club the size of Notts County, the oldest professional club in the league, who wouldn’t want to be? It is a privilege. I’d done it on a couple of occasions before.
“I’ve had phone calls before saying a club is interested in you but you sort of palm it off. But when you hear it is a club the size of Millwall in the Championship then immediately you take more note.
“It was difficult leaving. You never want to leave a club that you’ve had a good connection with, but sometimes you want to join another club – if that makes sense. I was happy there and would’ve been happy staying there but when Millwall came up I wanted to join Millwall.”
Langstaff’s is represented by Scott Barron, who played 107 league matches for the Lions.
“Scotty is local and still lives in the area – he gave me so much information about the club and advice,” said Langstaff. “It helps when you have that shoulder to lean on and ask questions. I had someone very close to me who was a big part of this club. It made sure I didn’t come in blind.”
Langstaff’s football CV has plenty of employment in the non-league game. Millwall have had success with frontmen that they handed a shot in the professional game to – current head coach Neil Harris is the club’s all-time record goalscorer (138) with Steve Morison (92) in third and Lee Gregory (77) eighth.
“It does give you that little bit of ‘if it’s happened before then I can go and do that’,” said Langstaff.
“You look at the names there – Neil Harris, Steve Morison and Lee Gregory – and they are all top names who came up from non-league.
“It helps when Neil Harris is the manager – there is that common ground. You know he has been there, done it and got all that experience.
“We’ve got similarities in terms of the way he played and the way I play. That always helps.
“I can go into his office at any point and ask him: ‘What did you do in this situation gaffer?’ He has been in my shoes.
“I said in an interview previously that if I can be half the striker that he was for Millwall then I have done my job, because he was incredible. You can see the fans love him.”
Langstaff has won back-to-back Golden Boots and scored 103 goals in the last three seasons.
It inevitably leads to a question about what number he has in mind for his maiden Millwall campaign.
“I get asked this every single year and I’ve never once set targets,” said Langstaff.
“I just don’t believe in them because my biggest fear is setting a target – let’s say 15 goals – if I reach that by January then you can always re-assess and set new targets, but there is a worry I get there and take my foot off the pedal.
“I don’t think I ever would, because you never got bored of goalscoring – the more you score the more you want to score, but it worries me about getting complacent if I reached a target.
“The other side of it, if I’m nowhere near my targets then would I get to a point where I’m losing my confidence?
“I’d rather set mini-targets – like it would be nice to have five or six goals by the end of the month. Then at the end of the season I’ll look back at my goal total and decide if I’m happy or I’m not. Not before the season has started.”
PICTURES: BRIAN TONKS AND PA