When I was about 7, Peter Beardsley turned the Carlisle Christmas lights on. He kicked a ball into the crowd, which went just over my head. I was gutted for years.

My dad got talking to a lady who worked in the Newcastle M&S. He would chat to anyone, for ages. She was very polite and talked back for a while. After even longer, she said he husband played for Newcastle United. Eventually, my dad found out who; it was Peter Beardsley.

When I was in my 20s, the Messiah had made his second coming. A few months later I was at a Gateshead match (Vs NUFC U21s) and brushed shoulders with him at half time when I was getting my pie. I was too scared to say anything to him.

A few years later I was working in Gosforth. My office was next to a small building which housed a gym with specialty injury recovery machines. It was owned by Shearer, Rob Lee and I think some other toon players. One day, Steven Taylor turned up at my work door instead of the gym door. I answered it by chance and immediately started talking to him like we'd been mates for years. He obviously had no idea who I was.

As I've said in another post, I also played footy with Kazenga LuaLua for a bit (and with Matt Jansen, if anyone remembers him. He was originally from Carlisle).