I could have been one of Fergie's Fledglings...

"The Year is 1989 and i am 12

All the big clubs in England want to sign me and a scrap for my signature begins"

Well...a boy can dream. I was lucky enough to meet the whole United team at their hotel in Selsdon, Croydon when they played against Charlton at Selhurst Park. How my parents swung it i will never know. I had my pictures taken with most of the squad that day, and Bobby Charlton who said that he had the same tracksuit that i was wearing (hopefully a few sizes bigger than mine)

I had cultured a double chin over the previous year due to one too many cans of coke, and had hoped that Fergie would mistake me for a young Paul Gascoinge and sign me, but alas, I couldn't down 6 pints of Newcastle Brown in half an hour, so my disguise failed.

It was an amazing day, and the two people i most enjoyed meeting were my hero Bryan Robson, and Sir Alex (then known as just 'Alex') In spite of the having a game that day they spent some quality time with me..something i will never forget. Robbo asked if we had tickets for the game, pulled out a wad of them from his pocket and handed us three. They had stamped "Guest of Bryan Robson" on them...i still have them to this day.

I was also offered a seat on the team coach to travel with the players to the match, but my mum said we had the car with us..if i had been the sort of kid to kick and scream it was at this point i would have done so..but i did as i was told and travelled in our Mini Metro to Selhurst Park!

A once in a lifetime opportunity missed..but so so lucky to have this day etched into my memory. Only down side: Charlton beat us 1-0.