I have never been aware of any cliques whilst I was at Whitby. I played for them for quite a few years and a lot of players came and went. You always become pally with the lads you travel with.

In my first season I travelled with Paul Atkinson as he was at university in York. During that season the more senior players knocked about together: Craig Veart, Robbo, Jock Williams, Cammy, Brian Linighan, but that is not to say that they didn’t integrate with the other players as they were all top blokes. The younger lads such as myself, Paul Atkinson, Alex and Liam Gildea, Marc Obern, Dave McTiernan, Anth Ormerod, Scott Nicholson, Neal Bishop, Steve Johnson & Ben Escritt would all knock about together. Afterwards Aron Wilford, Tom Claisse, Phil Brumwell, James Drinkall, Alex Janes, Tom Raw, Danny Brunskill and Tosh Reid (who I am still very good friends with) all came in and I spent a lot of time with them. In my latter years, a young Kev Burgess, Jimmy Beadle, Leon Scott, Rich Forster and Lee Pallendar (another lad I’m still friends with) joined the club. All great lads and some moved on to have great careers in the professional game and in non-league.

It’s a case that I didn’t knock about with any one person. In a football changing room you need togetherness, and I think all the teams I played in at Whitby had that.

Nights out were a weekly event when I played with Tosh Reid and Aron Wilford. Aron was a nightmare at talking you into going out after a game. Nights out with the rest of the team were always eventful. All the lads I played with are brilliant company on a night out. We would all crash at Robbo’s and one night when we got back, I decided to do some vulgar art work on the back of what I thought was a blank piece of paper. It wasn’t blank. It was the back of his UEFA ‘B’ coaching certificate. Robbo later told me this couldn’t be replaced and thankfully being the man he is, he took it well. The rest of the lads found it hilarious, but I have to say I do still feel guilty about that.