I WAS always for the outdoors; you could always find me playing out, whether it was playing football, other sports, or just as kids mucking around.

We’d go all around but there was one place we’d gravitate to more often than others and that was ‘the Square’. Its posh name was ‘Nelson Square’, but it was only a piece of waste ground, so I don’t know why it had a posh name as such!

Dad worked down the pit at Huncoat Colliery which sadly closed down in 1968 in the Bevan Closures.

Mum had a few jobs but the one I remember most was when she worked at a local factory called Rist Wires which had a predominantly female workforce; of a morning, dad would be up and out early, mum would get me and my older sister, Anne, ready for school and then get ready for work herself.

Six years after me, our younger sister Louise came along, too. We were able to just walk around to our local junior school which was only three or four streets away.

It was Sacred Heart Primary, situated in an old Victorian building which has since been knocked down and replaced by a newer school adjacent to it.

We had a good childhood, there was always food on the table and clothes on our backs.

I grew up in Accrington on Russia Street – my mum and dad still live in the same house today.

In a female-dominated household it has to be said that Saturday afternoons with my dad were special – even with more girls than boys, I think they often got a bit annoyed with us as we would do what dad wanted to do most of the time.

We’d spend much of the time together, though, taking in as much football as possible. Burnley on a Saturday afternoon, but also the youth team games and reserve games as well. I can remember being there for a midweek game when Manchester United came to Turf Moor, I think it must have been around 1970.

Their fans took over the entire ground, and I think United won 1-0.

As well as supporting Burnley I know dad really enjoyed it when he got to see the best teams and the top players and at the time there was no reason to think Burnley couldn’t have been part of that.

They were dubbed ‘The Team of the Seventies’ at the time although it never really turned out that way. They had players like Ralph Coates and Martin Dobson, good players, and Burnley got as far as the FA Cup semi-final in 1974 when they played against Newcastle, but sadly they were beaten by a brace of goals from Malcolm Macdonald.

I remember going to Hillsborough to be there for that great occasion; it was enjoyable watching them, and though they’d never quite reach the potential they were tipped for or the greatness they’d experienced when I was just an infant and they won the league in 1960, it was always entertaining at Turf Moor.

It seems funny to suggest it now but at the time it was Burnley or Blackburn as your local team, and Blackburn were struggling, so Burnley were the more attractive choice. It helped that they had glamorous European nights welcoming the likes of Napoli, especially in those early days of continental competition.

Around this time I passed my 11 plus which gave me the opportunity to go to St Mary’s College in Blackburn. It was a school with a wonderful reputation both on and off the sports field. There were plenty of opportunities to participate in as many sports as I could, with the guidance of the PE teacher Mr Duckworth who was really into his sports, be it swimming, athletics or football.

I’d always played football, even in primary school, and managed to be selected for the Accrington town team which was really good. I can still remember some of my team-mates from that time and I do see them around town still.

It was through playing for the school that I began to get attention from professional clubs; there weren’t academies, or the same kind of youth set-up as it is these days.

You’d either get picked up from playing trials held for local boys at the clubs or from being watched or noticed by a scout when you were playing for the school.

We had some teachers involved at some of the local clubs as well, which helped some players get picked up, and you would always sort of know when scouts were coming and which club they’d be from.

Personally, I never let myself think that they were coming to watch me and I think that was for the best; knowing me, having that on my mind would affect my performance.

Regardless of my own desire to shut it out, it happened anyway, and scouts would approach dad and talk about me, asking if it’d be possible if I could go for trials. That sort of attention began to come when I was 12 or 13 and when it came to holidays, I’d go and spend a couple of days at different clubs.

Burnley was one I was naturally holding out for, being my club.

They also had a great reputation for developing young players and giving them a chance but the funny thing is that I never even went for a trial there. I don’t even think they asked – I’m sure if dad had been asked, then I would have gone there.

I went to Blackburn a few times, Rochdale a couple of times. Everton and Liverpool made enquiries – it was mainly the north-west clubs, though I was asked to go down to Arsenal and Norwich, too. It was just too far.

Manchester United didn’t really come in to the picture right until the end, funnily enough. In fact, had fate twisted a different way, I might well have ended up at one of their most hated opponents.

Myself and a lad from school named Peter Betts, a big, strong lad, were invited up to Liverpool to watch a game and offered us schoolboy terms.

We both signed them at Anfield, but in order to complete the agreement, we needed our school headmaster to sign off on it.

The day after, we came away and thought about it and I felt a little bit uneasy about it.

The reality of moving to Liverpool and staying in digs was something I was contemplating and it wasn’t a prospect I was really looking forward to (no disrespect intended to the city!).

I had a few sleepless nights and I ended up speaking to Peter – it came to light that he felt the same as me, and so, encouraged by the confidence in unity, we told our parents and the headmaster that we didn’t want him to sign the forms.

My dad rung Liverpool to inform them of my change of heart.

You never know how things might have turned out!

  • The autobiography of Mick Duxbury: It’s Mick, Not Mike (ISBN 9781785310492, published by Pitch Publishing) is available now from Amazon, Waterstones and WHSmith.