Memories of mum inspire Shaq’s cup run
SHAQUILE COULTHIRST turned away, the ball already beyond the goalkeeper. As he bounded towards the touchline, he pushed his palm towards the stampede of jubilant team-mates as if to warn off the herd.
He dropped to his knees, looked up and raised both arms to the sky. Only then did he welcome the charge of smiling blue.
He had just scored the penalty that would send National League Barnet into the fourth round of the FA Cup and he wanted to share it with just one person.
His mum, Sonia, who brought Shaquile up on her own, died from cancer last September and his celebration was a tribute to her. ‘She was my biggest fan,’ says Coulthirst, 24. ‘She would message me after I scored goals or tell me what I was doing wrong — even if she wasn’t there! I have still got her support. I feel that.’
Just before she died, he stopped playing to look after her. Sonia told him: ‘Go and play’. He did and scored three goals in his next two games.
He smiles as he remembers her excited pride when Tottenham coaches Chris Ramsey and Tim Sherwood came to tell Sonia they wanted to sign her son.
Coulthirst came through the academy a year behind Harry Kane but when Kane got his first-team chance, Shaq had to make a choice. Keep treading water on the fringes or go it alone. He chose to take his own path.
‘How quickly you can go from choosing to leave Tottenham and end up in the Conference,’ he says but that’s not where he wants to be. ‘I believe in my ability. I know where I have come from.
‘You need a bit of luck. It’s not seemed to go my way so far. I feel with time and consistency I will get back to where I was.’
He’s already scored one winner in front of the cameras. Another against Brentford tomorrow night and who knows?