“I am at a house fire,” Chris Lock tells Sky Sports. “I have a crew of four on my fire engine. There is a fire downstairs, a person upstairs at the window, someone screaming inside the property who I can’t see, and I have to think of the safety of my crew as well.”He uses this example to illustrate the demands placed on him during his 19 years as a firefighter. “You are constantly dealing with people on the worst day of their lives. I still feel pressure, of course I do. And I don’t want to belittle football. But it is still a game.”
And it is a game full of fascinating characters. But a conversation with Lock, Charlton’s U21 boss, who is also working with the most talented youngsters in the country with England’s age-group teams, is not like a conversation with your average coach.
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Lock spent 19 years with the London Fire Brigade after giving up his football dream
When he says “tough decisions have never been daunting to me” you can appreciate why. “The fire service has served me well,” he says. “It prepared me to make difficult decisions and deal with the consequences. As a manager, you do that every day.”Lock’s route back to football is a curious one, because he was once a serious prospect. After working his way up through Crystal Palace, he earned a professional contract with Fulham. “I was quick and inquisitive about the game. I always wanted to know why.”
He has fond memories of Fulham, of little details picked up from Paul Nevin, Steve Kean, Jean Tigana and Christian Damiano. “I started to get interested in the idea of coaching. I was maybe too opinionated at the time,” he laughs. “The exuberance of youth.”
But he drifted from the game, a career in football fizzling away before it had really begun due to a pelvic injury. “It was within touching distance. It always felt like unfinished business,” he explains. Later, life would get in the way of pursuing the dream too.
“If I had kept playing, I probably did have the quality to get back in. But it got to the point where my partner was pregnant and you have to start earning a living. There was the football dream and the reality of becoming a father, having to provide for someone.”
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Lock enjoyed the camaraderie during two decades with the London Fire Brigade
Lock’s uncle, Nathan, was working as a firefighter at…
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2026-04-06 10:30:00
