In my younger days I was a left-back, more because of my weight and age. I wasn't as physical as I was later on in my career. I was naive and got pushed about a bit. Eventually I got put into midfield. I know I'm not one of the technically-gifted players on the ball, so I put myself about and get into the technical players as soon as I can. I never go out to hurt anyone deliberately or anything like that. Some players love to see little flicks and tricks, but I like to see a tackle and some aggression. The more we go on the more that side of the game is going out. Maybe it's a good thing for the younger generation - everything's a lot more about tactics and technical ability than giving lads a bloody good bo*****ing. Some lads, I thought if I give them a bo*****ing, they might sulk and mope about the pitch and feel sorry for themselves. Clarkey used to give good old fashioned team talks like Alex Ferguson used to give. I haven't had one of those for a while, but when I was young, you had your Clarkey's, your Martin Grays, your Bob Scaifes, it used to be every week. You've got to have the good cop and the bad cop. If you've just got the bad cop, he's going to constantly come across the wrong way and disappoint the wrong people. Behind closed doors, it's quite a good thing, it's also good to have the good cop in the technical guy, up to date with the times of the game. I'd love to see more old school managers though.

If any football player's honest with himself, he knows when he's having a good or a bad game. If any manager tells me that it can wake me up, it angers me and it makes me want to turn things around and not disappoint myself and my employer. I don't like managers who say "some players aren't playing very well"... name the players. Because some players think they've had a good game and they haven't. It also stops lads talking between themselves and going "who does he mean?"

Harry [Dunn] was a touch of old school but without the fire in him. He was very good at research. More of a cool head, he knew what he wanted and he was committed. He knew the game inside out and he found out about the other team too. He'd go through the full team and give you a 5-10 minute briefing on each of their players. You can guarantee they had a little nippy striker who scores goals for fun! We never used to find out the team from Harry either as he'd get us all in to get changed then send us out and we'd find it out from the tannoy!

I was with Tommy Cassidy at Blue Star so he knew what I was about. I think Tommy saw me as more of a left back. He was very similar to Harry Dunn but he did have a little bit of fire in him and sometimes he had a bit of good cop bad cop with Tony Elliott. Tommy again was old school as he wanted to go back to front quite quick and go from there.

Chris Hardy is very calm and collected and he does his research. He's a very nice bloke who loves the game. Bully's also a good coach and he also knows the game.

Team of my time

Nick Liversedge

Richard Forster
Kev Burgess
Alex White

Dave McTiernan
Dale Hopson
Jimmy Beadle
Tony Hackworth
Leon Scott

Danny Brunskill
Karl Charlton