As the lads finished their swimming relay session and were returning to the changing rooms we walked past assistant manager John Gorman in the baby pool with Junior Bent trying to teach the winger to swim.
Junior, bless him, a chirpy fella from Yorkshire, had Bob the Builder rubber bands on that he had borrowed from a young child and you can imagine the roars of laughter from the players on seeing this.
I must tell you another funny story that again involved Junior, who by the way was one of the quickest players I ever played with. When I first signed for City we used to train adjacent to a golf course and one Friday the then manager Russell Osman was speaking to the squad after training in the build-up to an important FA Cup tie the following day.
The squad were all gathered around Russell listening intently to what he had to say. Then, all of a sudden Junior fell to the ground as if he’d been shot. A few seconds later he gingerly got to his feet, rubbing a big swelling on his head – he had been hit by a wayward golf ball. Poor old Junior.
In my time as a player we used to joke that the only time the balls came out in pre-season training were to run around, but it’s not like that any more.
Yesterday I bumped into two of my neighbours who I both played with at Bristol City – Rob Edwards (now at Exeter City) and (Bristol City captain) Louis Carey.
Both had their respective first days of pre-season training yesterday and I asked them how it went. “It was fine,” said Rob. “The balls were out this morning and we had a little five-a-side.”
“How about you Louis”, I asked. “Much the same,” he replied. “A light bit of ball work and some stretching.” How times have changed!
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