THE secret to Billy Kee's lethal form in front of goal for Accrington Stanley this season would leave most sports scientists recoiling in horror.

The 26-year-old has netted seven League Two goals this season, firing Stanley into the top three ahead of today's clash with promotion rivals Luton Town.

But the honest and engaging striker, who spoke so openly in May about his battle with depression, believes he's not the same player if you take away his beer and crisps.

You might not find it in many coaching manuals, but it's worked for Kee and Reds chief John Coleman is happy for his striker, who he describes a 'throwback centre forward', to continue tucking in, as long as he devours League Two defences along with it.

Spend time listening to Kee and you'll soon find the stereotype of your average footballer blown out of the water. He's at his most comfortable in a week during those 90 minutes, his 'outbreak', but has no interest in the game aside from that.

And Kee is happy to be the man who proves not all footballers have to be the same to enjoy success on the pitch.

"We’ve just moved house and I walked in with a bag of crisps and you get told ‘you shouldn’t be eating them, you’re a footballer’," he said.

"You go down the pub and have a pint and it’s the same. You get it all the time, but we’re just normal lads who want to live a normal life sometimes.

"When you’re on the wages we are you just want to live a normal life. You get stereotypes but I think every footballer, when you get to 18, you start to be yourself."

Kee has tried to kick the crisps and beer into touch previously, but revealed it's never worked out for him, and while Coleman might not encourage him to go down the pub, he is one of the few managers who has understood how to get the best of the striker.

"I think they’re what I am. I’ve tried knocking it on the head, I did at Scunthorpe and I got paid off, I did it at Burton for a bit and I got injured," he said.

"I’ve tried it a lot, but the gaffer here tells me not to lose too much weight, he says if you do lose too much weight you’re not going to be the player you are.

"When I have lost weight he’s telling me to put it back on but that’s what he wants from me as a player.

"It’s not so much him saying ‘eat crisps and drink beer’. He wants you to live as professionally as you can, but he’s a manager who understands me and he’s not going to change me from who I am, and that’s what I respect about him."

Kee came through the ranks at Leicester City and his first spell with Stanley, on loan at the age of 18, was the moment he realised that a Premier League future for him wasn't going to happen.

But with the demands required of players at the top of the game now, he doubts he could make those sacrifices.

"I take my hat off to them because I couldn’t do what some of the Burnley lads do," former Burton Albion striker Kee said.

"I couldn’t live like that, I couldn’t not go down the pub with my mates or not go out for an Indian with the missus.

"But that’s how they live, they go to the cinema and don’t eat sweets and have a bottle of water. I go and get an ice blast and popcorn."

Kee's form in September saw him nominated for the League Two player of the month award, but he admits away from life at Stanley football isn't for him, and he takes little interest in the game outside of the battle for success in the fourth tier with the Reds.

"I am at my most comfortable when I’m playing, it’s like an outbreak, it takes your mind off everything when you're playing football and sometimes getting beat up for 90 minutes by the big centre half. It’s nice and rewarding to come off the pitch after it," he said.

"Life without football is nothing, I’ve tried that. That 90 minutes is an outbreak and it’s rewarding knowing the gaffer is picking you.

"I focus on the win, I just want to win, because if you win that can make your whole week a nice place, and a loss can make my partner’s life hell.

"I’m not one to watch football, I don’t really enjoy it and it’s strange, but I love being around it and playing it.

"I don’t know why I don’t really enjoy it. The last four or five weeks I’ve tried watching it more, but it just winds me up.

"At the end of the day it’s my job and it’s better to have a job you enjoy than a job you hate, and sometimes you have to take a step back to realise what you’ve got in life."