After his release, Friday returned to Acton, where he had a girlfriend called Maxine Doughan and a baby daughter called Nicola. Maxine was of mixed race. The local controversy surrounding the interracial relationship caused the couple and their circle of friends to be socially isolated, and led to a physical attack on the group one night in an Acton public house. Despite this, and the opposition by both sets of parents—Alf refused to even attend the wedding—they married, both aged 17. Friday did not take his marital commitments seriously and continued to womanise, drink heavily and take narcotics. A friend who played for Walthamstow Avenue, a semi-professional Isthmian League club from north-east London, took Friday along to training one day in early 1971. Friday played well enough for Walthamstow to sign him the same day on wages of £10 per week. Many of his new teammates were asphalters from east London, and Friday soon joined them in that trade.