If we watched football as a young boy or girl, we would most likely have had a favourite player or "hero". Over the years there may even have been more than one. My first-ever match as a nine-year-old was Crystal Palace v Hitchin in the FA Cup and after just ten minutes Palace's No.10, Johnny Byrne, gave them the lead and "Budgie" - so called because they say he never stopped talking during a game - became my first football hero. When I kicked a ball around in our back garden in Purley, I used to pretend to be him.

Johnny scored 30 goals in that 1960-61 season as Arthur Rowe's Palace finished second in the Fourth Division table to secure promotion. He was clearly destined to play at a higher level. He was called up by England while still a Palace player and then signed for First Division West Ham United. To this schoolboy the transfer fee of £65,000 seemed enormous at the time.

More than 30 years later I found myself speaking to my hero on the 'phone. He was calling the FA from South Africa to enquire about Euro 96 tickets and had come through to me in the library by mistake. We had a very nice conversation and it was a real lump in the throat time for me. Suddenly I was that schoolboy Palace fan again.

Watching Redhill regularly in the mid-1960s, my favourite non-League player was the Reds' centre-forward Micky Harrington. Quite small for that position and with very short fair hair, he was one of the bravest strikers I ever saw. He would happily take a boot in the face if his effort on goal ended up in the net. When we last lifted the Surrey Senior Cup in 1966, Micky fittingly notched the extra-time clincher against Sutton United.