ONE-TIME Millwall loan star Ben Marshall has signed for North West Counties League Division One South, Eccleshall FC.
Marshall, 34, joined the Lions on loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers in January 2018 and helped propel them towards the top six.
He scored three goals and registered five assists in sixteen games as Neil Harris’ side finished just two points off the play-offs.
Millwall wanted to sign the winger that summer, but Norwich City came in with a much higher salary offer and he signed a four-year deal with the Canaries.
Marshall only made four Championship appearances for Daniel Farke’s side, none of them after August of the 2018-19 season, and was back on loan with the Lions in the next January window.
It was a less successful spell at The Den this time, with only one goal in sixteen games as Millwall just survived relegation to League One.
The 2018-19 season was his last in professional football. His Norwich contact was cancelled by mutual consent in the summer of 2019 and he has since played for Stoneclough and Darwen.
Salford-born Marshall explained in an interview with the Eastern Daily Press why it didn’t work out at Norwich.
“The conversation I had was that I didn’t really want to go to Norwich because it’s the other end of the earth,” Marshall said.
“I said to my agent that I want four years and a decent whack [of money]. They said yeah. So I went up and from day one, I knew from walking in [that it wasn’t going to work].
“Days off would class as being in on a Sunday and then being in at 3pm on a Monday. It was 24 hours and that was a day off. It didn’t click really and he (Daniel Farke) wanted to play me right-back.
“I actually started the first three games at right-back and I got torn up. But at Blackburn, I got player of the season playing at right-back and scored nine goals or whatever it was. It just didn’t click.”
“I was living by myself in this ‘castle’. When I got home from training, all I wanted to was to do was sleep. I didn’t think anything of it until the doctor pulled me in and said ‘you’re showing signs of depression.
“At Blackburn, even if I was rough, I’d still be the perky one. At Norwich, I’d get in, have a coffee and just sit there on my phone playing Candy Crush. I was in the middle of nowhere, I didn’t know anyone.”
