“Why not?” he says of the talk of extending his stay. “I’ve no plans to stop. We’ve got a young squad. We’ve got legs. Well, I haven’t. But I’ve got players round me to do my running for me.”  His enthusiasm for the game, he believes, remains buoyant in part because he had such a delayed start, not signing his first professional contract until he was 25. Before his late flowering, Hayles had played non-League, juggling his game with a job in the building trade. It was the FA Cup that first gifted him wider attention. In 1997, he was playing for Stevenage when the television cameras caught a glimpse of his explosive talent.  “The Cup’s such a fantastic platform for the non-League player,” he says. “I mentioned to the lads what put me on the map is when Stevenage played Birmingham. They beat us 2-0 but we gave them a good game. With a bit better finishing from me we might have won. But after that game people started making approaches.” Even so, things did not immediately take off.  “Bristol Rovers came in for me, but couldn’t agree a fee,” he recalls. “I stayed another season and Stevenage won the Conference but we were banned from going up because the ground wasn’t up to scratch. I was 25 and thought that was it, I’ll never make it into the League. Then Bristol came back. And I was away.”  Hayles has to compete with defenders more than half his age  After a fine spell at Rovers, he went on to Fulham, Millwall, Plymouth Argyle, Leicester City, conducting a one-man tour of the country. And, after starting in non-League he had no fear of dropping down again when full-time contracts dried up in his late thirties. Since 2010 he played for Truro, Arlesey and St Albans before arriving at Chesham to take up a job as player-coach.  “I never really realised the impact I could bring,” he admits of his coaching credentials. “I knew I’d been around a bit, but I was surprised by how much the players listened to what I was saying. I’ve found what that experience of playing higher up gives you is that you see things earlier. The manager likes me standing alongside him in the technical area because I can see things.” And when he goes on the pitch, Hayles is quick to share his experience.  “I’m vocal,” he smiles. “I played Tuesday, when I came on I felt we weren’t physical enough. So I gave it a bit of, you know… let’s just say I clashed with one of their lads. From there they kind of shrank. And we went on to get the winner.” Though Hayles insists he has been obliged to tone down his physicality since his early days.  “When I started at Stevenage and we played a League side in the Cup, it would be make sure you leave something on him first tackle: nail him, slow him down. You could call it intimidation. But nowadays you can’t do that. Referees won’t allow it. When we play Bradford we will have to be more canny.”  Hayles is perhaps best known for his time at Fulham  So Hayles and the other coaches have been working with the Chesham players in their twice-weekly training sessions on shape and speed of intervention.  “It’s matching up. Taking the game in segments, staying with them for the first 20, then the next 20 and so on,” he says.  What the team will need to do against their League One opponents is what they did against his old club Bristol Rovers in the last round: compete for the full 90 minutes.  “That was emotional,” he says of the tie. “I got a fantastic reception from the Bristol people. I was involved with the winner and people said to me after, ‘I see you didn’t celebrate’. It wasn’t that. The thing was the lad who scored dashed off by himself and I thought I’ll never catch him.” Besides, there was no holding back in the post-match celebrations.  “We enjoyed the day, ordered a load of drinks in the changing room, when we’d finished them we found a bar in the stadium. But there was nobody in it. We thought surely someone must still be here. Not a soul. What we want is an empty bar like that in Bradford on Sunday night.”  And if that comes about, he points out, then some of his young colleagues could find themselves attracting the attentions of a League club. “For these lads, this could be the chance to get noticed. Though I suspect at my age even if I score a hat-trick it won’t be me getting a move.”
Interview: Oldest player in the FA Cup hopes to take Chesham into the third   round at the expense of Bradford City