The phone call came as I was heading up the M1 with Gary, who was driving my car. I answered and a guy with a distinctly north eastern sounding accent introduced himself. It was Harry Dunn, manager of Whitby Town – the same Harry Dunn that Kevin Simpson had mentioned was looking for a centre half about 18 months earlier.

It turned out Jim Collis had alerted Charlie Woodward, Whitby Town’s club secretary, to my progress earlier in the season and they had since had me watched. They were also tracking Kevin Smith as it turned out, and Harry was ringing to ask me to go through and play in a friendly for Whitby against a local team as he wanted to look at us and a couple of other triallists as well as give some of his players a run out as they had a free midweek.

Kev Smith wasn’t driving at this point so I drove, and Lisa came too. Though she wasn’t too interested in football, she probably sensed this was quite a big opportunity for me. The game itself was a bit like a training game and I don’t recall playing particularly well. What I do remember quite clearly was that I had to leave the pitch to go and sit on the toilet. I had eaten a couple of bananas before the game for energy and I think they just went through me. I can only begin to imagine what Harry was thinking and I felt quite embarrassed. Thankfully he didn’t seem too fussed as he was using rolling subs in order to get a good look at everyone. It has never happened to me again thank goodness – I don’t know what I’d have done if it had been a serious game!

I didn’t really get to experience the club in all its glory that evening and if anything, it was a bit of a disappointment. There was virtually no one watching, the team Harry put out was pretty low key and I didn’t feel like the game was a huge step up in terms of quality, fitness and intensity. The drive through was long, about an hour and twenty minutes over the bleak North Yorks Moors from York and a journey I would soon become very familiar with.

We drove home after the game not really sure how we had done but we didn’t have to wait too long to find out. Harry rang the next day and asked us both to play in a league game at home to Droylsden the following Wednesday. Having been bottom at Christmas, the team had gone on a long unbeaten run and was now sitting comfortably in mid table. This gave Harry the opportunity to blood a couple of young players towards the end of the season and so there wasn’t a huge amount of pressure on us.

I distinctly remember spending the days approaching the game reading every bit of info I could find about non league football, Whitby, Droylsden and the league in which they both played. The Unibond Premier was at that time level 2 in the non league pyramid, just one step below the conference. There was no conference north or south and so promotion meant a massive leap into a national league with about half of the clubs in it being full time. This was all pretty exciting, but I really wasn’t sure if I was likely to belong at that level of football, so I was acutely aware that this might be the only chance I’d get if I had a bad game.

The drive over the moors that evening was pretty bad as the weather was atrocious. Kev seemed pretty calm about it all, he was that sort of lad. I’ve always thought I’m pretty laid back but Kev is just horizontal. I never saw him get fired up for anything, he just took it all in his stride. It was difficult to tell if he was even that bothered, and in comparison with me, its fair to say he probably wasn’t. The game could easily have been called off that night as the pitch resembled a quagmire, but with it being near the end of the season, the prospect of re-arranging looked difficult, so the game went ahead. I’m a bit disappointed that I can’t remember more about the build up and the game itself, but like many big occasions that you build up in your mind, much of it seemed to fly by.

Droylsden were mid table at the time, as were we so this was billed as a bit of meaningless game really, though the crowd under the lights at Upgang Lane seemed pretty big to me – about 400 which was the average crowd the club got at the time. My research had told me little about the opposition, only that they had a big bruiser up front called Andy Green. When I first saw him, I remember thinking this fella doesn’t look like one you’d want to meet in a dark alley. When he closed you down or chased after you to try to win the ball back, you could hear him almost grunting. His strike partner was a little fella called Wes Kinney who was quick, skilful and very clever in terms of his movement. I was pretty happy to be picking up Green, and I think its fair to say I did ok against him. When you prepare for a game as a centre half, your main concern is always who is playing “up top” for the opposition and how you will deal with them. Over the years, I’ve preferred to play against the big units rather than the tricky little players who have pace and intelligent movement. Sometimes at this level of football, I encountered players who had it all and this often resulted in me raising my game but if I look back on the best games of my career, they were usually against sides who had a big target man.

We won the game 5-2, and amazingly I even managed to get on the scoresheet with a header from a corner after about 10 mins. I say amazingly because I haven’t been the most prolific when it comes to getting on the scoresheet over the years. I’ve scored quite a few goals in Sunday football and below level 5 at the start and end of my playing career but at any decent standard of non league football, defences don’t give a lot away and as a big centre half, I’ve often been marked by the opposition’s best defender. To say I was pretty good at attacking the aerial ball in defensive situations, I really didn’t do as well as I should have done in then opposition’s box, and I know that frustrated a couple of my managers. One thing I do remember clearly was talking to Lisa after that game and her saying well done. When I asked her about my goal, she looked at me with a blank expression. It turned out she’d been into Whitby in search of some of the seaside town’s famed fish and chips, and hadn’t taken her seat in the ground until 15 mins into the game, by which time the debutant had already notched! I felt I’d played ok, and also thought Kev looked at home at that level immediately. His touch was great, he held the ball up in advanced areas of the pitch and managed to create chances for himself, though didn’t get on the scoresheet. The other lads in the side all seemed fairly happy with our contribution too, which was important as I could see how serious they all were about the game – if they weren’t happy, they soon let team mates know.

The next part of Kevin Graham's story will be available to read tomorrow.