One game really sticks out for me in this period, the 2-0 away victory at Emley. They played at Rugby League side Wakefield Wildcats’ Belle Vue stadium, a pretty big and impressive ground compared to many of the grounds in our league, and the playing surface there was one of the best we played on, despite the fact it was primarily a Super League venue. I marked spent much of the game marking Mick Norbury, their well travelled former Doncaster Rovers’ front man. It wasn’t the last time I played against Mick and though he was getting towards the end of his career he was a handful, to say the least. Mick had been inside earlier in his life, had tattoos on his neck and knuckles(before every Tom, Dick and Harry followed David Beckham’s example) and was probably the nastiest footballer I’ve ever played against – I later realised that he just scared the shit out of most lads he played against. The first time the ball was played into his feet, I got tight and tried to strongarm him. It didn’t work, as I just bounced off him. Despite not being that big, he was well made and very strong. He also had some of the best technique and touch when it came to the ball being played into his feet, knowing exactly where the man marking him was and rarely giving possession away. He was strong in the air despite being a couple of inches shorter than me. Despite all this, I had what I consider to be the best performance of my life that night. Harry wasn’t actually there that night, but Logie, who by now was player coach, apparently told Harry I’d had a great game which meant a lot. I doubt many watching that night noticed me, but I didn’t make a mistake, won maybe 85% of the aerial balls and every challenge I made on the ground. My distribution was very sound, and I didn’t resort to just playing the ball into the channels as I often did. I just felt in complete control, and if Mick rared up, I just kept my mind on the game and made sure I went in even harder the next challenge we went for. Despite his aggressive nature, I loved playing against him because I won’t give an inch on the football pitch and I’m happy to play against anyone who likes a battle.

The only lad I played against who was may have given Mick a run for his money was a big fella called John Crayke who played Sunday football in York. We played his side in a cup match one Sunday morning and his rallying cry to his cronies was – “this lot are all counties lads (ie all semi pros which most of us were), let’s fuckin’ kill em”. The ref was scared of him and then you know you’ve got a problem. The rest of our boys were scared shitless but I just thought it best to play my normal game. He was bigger than me, had more tattoos than Robert De Niro in Cape Fear, and just wanted to fight all game long. At one point, I caught him with an elbow through the back of his head and whacked me as he turned around – one of our younger lads saw it and said it would have knocked his head clean of it it had been him. Luckily I took it, looked at him and just carried on as if nothing had happened. We beat them in the end and after the game he came up to me with a rolled fag in his hand and shook my hand, saying it was a good battle. That was one word for it!

That Emley game gave me a massive confidence boost, and I soon received another one as Logie got injured in the next game and I had a little run of 3 games as skipper. This underlined the fact that Harry saw me as a senior player and a leader. My fitness levels were also now very high, having played in 6 games on the bounce. We played exceptionally well in the first of those three games but were very unlucky to lose to Vauxhall Motors 2-1 at home, meaning we still needed another point to be guaranteed safety from our last 4 games. We got it straight away at Hyde, one of my favourite grounds. Both Man Utd and Man City have used the ground for reserve team games in the last few years, which says a lot about the quality of the set up their. Ewen Fields has excellent stands on all 4 sides, with the main stand housing a decent hospitality set up with viewing areas from the suite inside, and the pitch has always been like a billiard table there. They were below us and in real danger of getting relegated, so there was a lot riding on the game. We didn’t play our best football but Goochy and I put our bodies on the line time and again as they pushed for a winner in the last 20 mins and we ground out the point we needed. Their star striker, Simon Yeo, who went on to play in the league and score a hatful of goals for Lincoln City, got very badly injured in a challenge with Dave Anderson. There was no malice in it, but Dave’s knee went straight through Yeo’s face as they challenged for a ball that dropped in our area and Yeo had to go to hospital in an ambulance. We were certain to avoid relegation now, and the next game was at home to Accrington Stanley.

Accrington were seen as the moneybags side of the league, with probably the biggest budget in the league after Burton. Their front two, Paul Mullin and Lutel James, were reputedly both on over £600 a week. James had been a pro and was till a top non league goalscorer, small with quick feet and great instinct in and around the box. Mullin had been bought the year before for about £15,000 from Radcliffe, was big, strong and scored goals for fun at every level for Accrington as they progressed from Unibond division 1 up to the football league – they walked the league the year after this – and is till scoring goals in the football league as I write this. I played against Mullin three times, all of which we won, keeping two clean sheets away at the place, the Crown Ground. We won beat the 2-1 on this particular day, and I have to say that I felt very proud as the skipper to walk off having beaten them. They didn’t have a huge amount to play for but we were on a winning run and played with a lot of confidence.

The final game of the season, a 1-1 draw at Bradford Park Avenue in which both team and my own personal performances were again very good, on a Friday night was followed by a brilliant end of season trip. We went out in Wigan after the game, arriving in the town at about 11pm having dropped our stuff at the hotel and got a taxi into Wigan. We went a bit daft that night, getting in at about 3am. My first memory of the Saturday was Logie, stood at the end of my bed in his horrible y-fronts with a bottle of bud in his hand – it was 7.30am and he said something along the lines of – “come on kid, get up. We’ve got a big day ahead”. It was very big. Logie had organised it all through a couple of scouse mates he knew from his time in the pro game.

We were picked up by a minibus and taken to what looked like some shops in the middle of a dodgy area in Liverpool. When we got there, the shutters came up from one of the units and we were taken through to this big bar which dominated the centre of this big place. In the seating all around the outside of the room were fellas – some well connected scouse fellas including, apparently, some of the former world snooker champion, John Parrott’s mates – tucking into big fry ups washed down by pints of lager, with copies of the Racing Post laid out at each seat. It was only about 10o’clock.

We then got taken to Haydock racecourse where we had a great afternoon. I rarely win any money when I go to the races, but this particular time proved to be a nice change and I was well over a ton up by the time our minibus picked us up and dropped us off at our next stop. It was called The Fantasy Bar – I don’t need to say too much more! The owner of the place knew Logie, and we were treated like royalty. We then moved on to the pubs and clubs around Festival Square in Liverpool and had an absolute belter of a night. Liverpool is probably my favourite place for a night out.

Logie had played a blinder, it was a great end to what had been a terrific season, though we did actually have one more game, the North Riding Senior Cup final against Middlesbrough. They only put a mix of reserves and youth team out but it was a perfect way to round off the season for me, as an avid Middlesbrough fan. We drew the game 3-3 in front of a decent crowd, but unfortunately got beat on penalties – I didn’t take one!