What is the best moment of your career?
There were some good moments, such as when I was with York and we knocked Arsenal out of the FA Cup, but by far the outstanding one was scoring with a diving header for Coventry in the 1987 FA Cup final against Tottenham, which we won 3-2 after extra-time. If you had a dream as a 10-year-old, my FA Cup final was the way it would pan out. It was perfect: a sunny day, a win and it went down to the wire. I was always fascinated with the competition and when I was a pro at 17 I went down to watch a cup final for the first time. I slept in a car on the M1 at South Mimms and saw Ipswich beat Arsenal. It was utterly captivating: the walk down Wembley Way, the sunshine, the players coming out beforehand in their nice posh suits and the colour and atmosphere. Coventry trained at Wembley a couple of times in the week before the match but I didn’t go because I fell ill. So the first time I went to the ground was on the day of the match. We were walking on air. I scored quite an iconic goal so it was perfect for me. The occasion makes the goal. I played for 20-odd years and scored a lot of diving headers. I remember early in my career scoring a similar goal at Rochdale away on a cold January night but there wasn’t a camera in the back of the net with 98,000 people watching and millions on TV around the world when you do that. It was the first time they had put a camera in the back of the goal, which makes it such a fantastic image. I couldn’t do it now. I would put my hip out or something. That goal turned the game but it was my job as centre- forward to get on the end of crosses and score goals.
What was your worst moment?
My last year, 1995-96, as player-manager at Hartlepool. I was working 24 hours a day, playing and organising training, buses and hotels and even paying for them sometimes because there was no money. I was giving all that and not getting the response back from supporters. They couldn’t see what I was putting in. It left me bitter for quite a few years.
Who was the best player you played against?
The hardest players were when I was at Hartlepool in 1977. You were allowed to tackle people around the neck in those days. I learnt the hard way in the first couple of seasons. Playing at the top level was a doddle compared with that.
What was the funniest moment?
When I was at Hibernian we played Meadowbank in the cup. We had to play the game at Raith Rovers and it was the most Godforsaken place. It was a horrible night. I had a row with the manager and fell out with supporters waiting for me in the car park. We won with a last-minute header, which I scored. I was sitting in the dressing room afterwards and said to the other players, ‘If I ever come back to this place it will be too soon’. Then the draw came out for the next round — and we were drawn away to Raith Rovers.
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Which was the best ground?
The old Wembley was a special place. You could almost see the ghosts in the corridor when you were waiting to go out. My favourite stadium was Hillsborough. That was the perfect stadium to play football.
Which was the worst ground?
There were loads of them. When I first went to Hartlepool I didn’t know there were places like that you could play football. It was falling down. There were little wooden stands and changing rooms. You think there can’t be anything worse than this and then you go to Crewe and there would be a room for two people to stand in. Then Wimbledon came into the league with Plough Lane. That was very aptly named. Doncaster had a wonderful pitch to play on but the facilities were disgusting. I could go on and on. They have all been improved and are fantastic now but in them days...
Where are you now?
I am 50 years old and live near Thirsk in Yorkshire, which is where James Herriot wrote his All Creatures Great And Small books. I used to have a property company but now rent out a few houses in Middlesbrough. I have a contract with Teesside University providing accommodation for students. My wife, Yvonne, has stuck with me through thick and thin. She likes the new, mellow me a lot better than the driven, ambitious one. We have two children and three grand-children. My daughter, Cara, is a journalist on the Sunderland Echo and has a son, Tate. Nothing to do with the sugar or the gallery, I think. My son, Ross, who is in his mid-20s, works in finance and has two daughters, Eva and Orla. I spend a lot of time with the grand-children. I do a bit of coaching in the local village schools and quite a bit of work for the Press Association, doing statistics at matches. I am asked if I miss playing. I don’t, but I miss being 26. As a footballer you knew when you parked your car at the training ground in the morning that you had to get your brain switched on. People have this impression of footballers not being particularly bright but they are the sharpest people in the world when it comes to humour. It was all one-liners. I have seen people being destroyed. You couldn’t be one of the quiet ones. You would go for your car and someone had moved it to the next village. That wasn’t only at Wimbledon. It was everywhere. The first thing that Wimbledon did was dance when they scored. There was nothing more irritating because we were real men, weren’t we? And nowadays goal celebrations have been choreographed for three weeks.