Why, having scored more than 200 goals for Spennymoor Town and having established himself as a non-league great, has he never played at a higher level?
He’s had his fair share of opportunities. Lincoln City once had a crack at signing him, as did Wrexham before the Hollywood arrival of Ryan Reynolds and co.
Regrets? Nothing of the sort.
The story of Taylor’s career is not one of a lack of ambition. Instead, it’s about family and balance. And the joy of playing for a club he loves. His club.
And on Sunday, on the day of his 35th birthday, Taylor will walk out at Wembley, hand in hand his two young daughters, Grace and Sophia, ahead of Spennymoor’s FA Trophy final against Aldershot.
“They’ve been singing Que Sera Sera,” for weeks, laughs the striker, who works as a teacher at World Alternative Education, in Durham.
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Spennymoor can laugh now at the fact they once allowed Taylor to leave. He was a youngster at the time, barely getting a kick for the first team, and he left to join Ashington, where he was born and grew up.
“Ashington bought me but they couldn’t afford it, so I deferred my wages for six weeks to pay the rest of the transfer fee,” he says.
“I went there and scored a good few goals so Jason (Ainsley, now Spennymoor’s head of football but then manager) was back on the phone.
“It was a big decision really to come back. I didn’t have fond memories the first time, but I’m obviously pleased I made the leap in the end.
“I remember meeting with the Ashington manager to say I was going back and he said, ‘well you’re probably going to be in the reserves’.
“That always kind of spurred me on. I remind him of that every time I see him!
“It was a free transfer back as well. But I’d like to think I’ve repaid the faith the club and Jason showed in me. I’m pretty happy with what I’ve achieved at the club so far.”
Since his return in 2015 Taylor has scored and scored and scored. The previous club record of 140 goals was broken in 2022 and Taylor has barely slowed down since. He moved beyond the 200 mark earlier this season.
It’s no surprise, then, that scouts have regularly visited Brewery Field over years and Taylor has found himself with offers and options.
So why were they rejected? Why did he resist any urge to leave and move up the football ladder?
“I always get asked the question,” he says.
“I think it was just a case of how it fitted with family at the time, and also my career as a teacher.
“I’ve got a good career and family came first at the times when I’ve been doing well in football, and it just never made sense to go.
“I didn’t like the risk of leaving what I was comfortable with. I was 27 and had scored 30 league goals that season and there were a few serious clubs interested. Lincoln City were League Two at the time. The biggest club was probably Wrexham.
“But the chairman here offered me a new deal that I was happy with and me and my wife had been going through IVF for two years.
“My little one had just come along, so it just made sense. I didn’t ever really listen to offers from clubs. Who knows what could have been, but the last thing I was going to do was leave home at that time. My wife is a teacher as well. The money you’d have earned in League Two was never going to be enough to be life-changing to justify it.
“Everything just made more sense to stick around. I love playing for Spennymoor as well. It’s like my club now. I’ve been here ten years and everything just made sense to stay.”
Does he ever think he’ll look back and think about or wonder what might have been?
“People from the outside might look at it and think I lack ambition or I’ll regret it, but I can genuinely say I’m comfortable with that decision,” he says.
“To leave a solid career and a great football club as well, to go somewhere for a year’s contract, just after having a little one… then you start to think of my wife’s career and when she can take holidays and that not coinciding with when I can take holidays, so you can’t have family holidays.
“There’s a lot more to think about really than just, ‘I want to be a professional football player because that was my dream when I was a kid’. I’m really comfortable with the decisions I’ve made. Then to think now I’m also getting that big Wembley moment anyway, it feels amazing.
“Whether you have a chance of being a professional football player or not, we all grow up dreaming of playing at Wembley. To have that moment, and hopefully win it, it will be amazing.”
When he was a kid, Taylor was briefly at Newcastle’s academy but left when he was 10 and played for local clubs. He almost stopped altogether when he was 16 but was then spotted as a sixth form student by a Northern League boss who was “running a lunchtime club”.
“I was just playing with my mates really but he asked me if I wanted to go training,” says Taylor.
“I went and he was honest that it might take me a couple of years to get into the team, but within six weeks I was playing in the Northern league at 17. That was at West Allotment.”
That was at the very start of his career. Now, his age would suggest he’s coming to the end, but his form and his goals don’t.
He says: “When you get to this stage of your career you do start to think about the fact you won’t be able to do this forever. You’ve just got to back yourself. It’s a bit emotional really.
“To get to this moment now, be turning 35 and still doing it and still scoring is massive. This will be the biggest game I’ve ever played in. I’ve played in play-off finals, but nothing will compare to this one on Sunday.
“It’s not the end of my career, but it’s still nice at this stage to do it, especially at Spenny where I’ve got all the accolades. Obviously when we beat Rochdale and you knew you were playing at Wembley, that felt like the prize. Now it’s getting closer, you want to go and win don’t you.”
