Meet the West Ham starlet taking crucial next step on road to first-team challenge

Braintree Town’s on-loan West Ham goalkeeper, Mason Terry, has just scrambled home a 95th-minute equaliser to send their National League Cup quarter-final against Truro City to extra time.Braintree’s centre-back, Aidan Francis-Clarke, has put his hands to his head in a state of pure bewilderment. He was in such shock that he could not help but laugh.They say you make your own luck, but for Terry, this was no accident. He said after the game he had a feeling he could impact the result in the opposition box, and when he backed up his goal with a 97th-minute assist against Morecambe, his self-assured soundbite was proven to have substance.Those two games provide a snapshot of a career that, at 21 years old, has already encompassed more than 130 senior games, three successive supporters’ player of the year awards and a shot at the Football League this season.Terry is calm, confident and calculated. Every decision in his career has been taken for a reason.It is why, despite offers to be first-choice at several other clubs, Terry has backed himself to challenge for the No1 jersey at League Two side Port Vale this term. This is the next step up - a first Football League loan.But Terry believes it is the inevitable next step for him en route to West Ham and England honours.Step up: Hammers academy graduate Terry will spend the season on loan in League TwoX/OfficialPVFC“Being 21, still young and still learning the game, I think it's a great way for me to learn to adapt and be able to challenge for that No1 shirt,” Terry tells Standard Sport.Read More“I could go anywhere around the country, and you are not gifted it straight away. You have to earn the right. You have to play well.“I'm ready to go show my qualities. I've had three really good loan spells (with Concord Rangers, Hornchurch and Braintree) at each step (of non-league) each year. Now I'm ready to challenge in the EFL.”Terry, who has moved away from home for the first time into shared accommodation with some of his Port Vale team-mates, conducts himself with charisma but also clarity.He knows what he wants from his career, and he has set out a roadmap to try to achieve it.“Having the clarity in my head (helps). I know what success looks like. It gives me a great platform to build throughout the season,” Terry continues.“An ideal season for me would be playing a majority of the games, continuing to build my profile, making a name for myself.“I think West Ham go back up this season (from the Championship). I'm aiming for the club to be back in the Premier League, and I'll be in and around the No1, No2 spot or pushing for a loan another step up the EFL ladder.”Success: Terry - pictured alongside Declan Rice - was a mainstay in the West Ham side that won the FA Youth Cup in 2023ProvidedVisualisation plays a big role for Terry. He and one or two other West Ham academy players previously flew out to Morocco to enlist the help of a mindset coach to implement coping mechanisms at times of high stress.Being a goalkeeper can be lonely, and so staying sharp between the sticks can be a battle - particularly if you are not in the firing line for the whole game.“A lot of people mentally can struggle in times of adversity. It's about how you cope with these mechanisms,” he says.“It's a great way to adapt, to learn how to overcome and understand these challenges when they appear.“Because in life, everyone will face adversity, whether that's on the pitch or off the pitch. But when you have mechanisms to cope with them, you'll know that you're already 5-10 per cent ahead of most others.”In Morocco, Terry works on a number of different exercises, from naval breathing to separation work.Terry reiterates the mantra, ‘separation leads to domination’. The idea is to create a mental barrier between your work and personal life.He believes that if he can mentally remove himself from the in-game pressures he encounters, he can approach high-stress situations with calmness and clarity.Terry, an ever-present in West Ham’s 2023 FA Youth Cup-winning team, which also won the league that year, fills his free time with yoga. He knows how dangerous the endless hours of downtime can be for professional players if they are left to their own devices.“Yoga's been massive for me,” he says. “I've been doing it for probably the last four or five years since I became a full-time footballer from the age of 16, being a scholar, to being 21 now.“The mobility side of it, being a big lad myself, being 6 foot 5, I need to be able to move, to be able to stretch. And doing yoga enables me to make saves that other people can't make, as well as helping prevent injuries.”For all the new-age mindfulness training, Terry’s one great passion, which he won’t be able to pursue as regularly now he’s moved away from home, is shooting. A sport rooted in tradition but one which has served his career as a goalkeeper well.The parallels between the sport his dad introduced him to at the age of seven and goalkeeping are clear. He watches a clay target, gun cocked, the same way he would a loose ball careering into his 18-yard box.Concentrate, hold your gaze, block the outside noise. Terry could just as easily be claiming a last-minute cross into the box as he could be squeezing the trigger of a gun.“You don't just aim at the clay and pull the trigger because you are going to miss it,” he says. “You always have to think how far in front, and there's a lot of problem solving as well.“It's like, right, how do I kill this target? That is already working with your brain. That is getting your brain thinking. When it comes to problem solving in a game, I can go out and deal with the problem.“In goal, you are alone because you are by yourself. And then when you go shooting, you are in that stand, you are on your own again.”Terry has ambitions of becoming England No1 in the future, but he is humble enough to accept that he must be patient, keep developing and take each step as it comes.If his career and life have taught him anything, it is that good things come to those who wait. He has his target in sight, but he will bide his time before pulling the trigger.