I've been too lucky to have any regrets

LIKE all teenage football fanatics in the 1980s, one star-struck young Yorkshireman scanned his wide eyes across the dazzling pages of Shoot magazine.

Amid the in-depth features and thrilling action images of the stars of the day - not to mention the mullet hairstyles and ill-fitting shorts - one man's picture stood out from the glossy layout.

John Barnes? Ian Rush? Gary Lineker? Paul Gascoigne?

Not quite. Try Notts County's Dean Yates.

"I read about him when I was 17 in Shoot," said that very reader, Craig Short.

"He was being tipped for big things and loads of clubs were watching him. Liverpool were even after him to replace Alan Hansen.

"Next thing I know, I was playing with him and rooming with him. I even told him when I met him that I was reading about him in Shoot!"

Since then the career paths of the formidable Meadow Lane defensive partnership have headed in very different directions. Yates's actually crumbled beneath his feet when, shortly after following Short to Derby, he had to retire through injury at 30.

"I spoke to him the other day," says Short. "He's a postman and radio summariser for Radio Notts."

And given that Yates, like Short, is still only 36, it's situations like that that make the Rovers defender grateful for where he is now.

Short said: "People ask if I ever regret not coming here the first time but I never regretted that because finishing my career here is the pinnacle for me.

"How many players can say they finished their careers at a place like this, with these facilities?

"It's been my most successful time as a player, getting promoted, getting a cup and two times in Europe.

"The food, medical treatment, coaching, everything is fantastic -- and I'm living back home in Yorkshire."

Despite all the glamour and glitz that tempts Premiership footballers into a different world these days, it's that last statement that probably gives Short most satisfaction.

He is simply happy that his wife and two young daughters can grow up in a homely family environment, an ethos which probably explains why he has remained so grounded as his career has taken flight.

"I've spent a lot of this summer with friends from school," said Short. "I'm finishing football next year and still want to socialise with people like that.

"I didn't get into the game because of money, I got into the game because it's every young kid's dream to have a career like this and, luckily, financially it is good to you.

"We're a close family and we all live in the same area. My dad is still as keen now as he was when I was 19 and it's nice to treat my parents with things, that's the benefit I get from it. They made a lot of sacrifices."

The possibility still remains that Short could extend his career beyond this season, and while it might not be with Rovers, he is confident he can still cut it it at the top.

Short added: "If my last year goes well and I don't have any injuries I might say 'why not do another year?' I haven't got any plans beyond it.

"I learnt a lot off Dave Watson and Richard Gough at Everton. If you look after yourself as a centre half you can play until you're 37 or 38 and it was good for me that way.

"It's less physically demanding in the Premier League for a centre half than it is in the First Division because if a full back gets it there all he's going to do is stick it behind my head and I've got to chase it because some centre forward is going to chase it with me.

"In the Premier League, the full back gets it, he passes it to the centre half, and I just get a breather.

"If they kick it in the channels, Thierry Henry doesn't chase lost causes, he'd rather let you go back to the keeper.

"Okay, if I get one on one with Henry or Damien Duff I'm struggling, but you have time to position yourself."

But whatever the future holds, Short will always value the fact that he has achieved a classic rags to riches story -- and there's very few in the Premiership these days who could tell a similar one.

"At Scarborough I used to run down to the beach, take balls and cones down and, if the tide was out, play on the surface," he recalls.

"Then we'd run back up, go home and wash the kit -- all for £20 a week. Even back then I thought I'd arrived."

LIKE all teenage football fanatics in the 1980s, one star-struck young Yorkshireman scanned his wide eyes across the dazzling pages of Shoot magazine.

Amid the in-depth features and thrilling action images of the stars of the day - not to mention the mullet hairstyles and ill-fitting shorts - one man's picture stood out from the glossy layout.

John Barnes? Ian Rush? Gary Lineker? Paul Gascoigne?

Not quite. Try Notts County's Dean Yates.

"I read about him when I was 17 in Shoot," said that very reader, Craig Short.

"He was being tipped for big things and loads of clubs were watching him. Liverpool were even after him to replace Alan Hansen.

"Next thing I know, I was playing with him and rooming with him. I even told him when I met him that I was reading about him in Shoot!"

Since then the career paths of the formidable Meadow Lane defensive partnership have headed in very different directions. Yates's actually crumbled beneath his feet when, shortly after following Short to Derby, he had to retire through injury at 30.

"I spoke to him the other day," says Short. "He's a postman and radio summariser for Radio Notts."

And given that Yates, like Short, is still only 36, it's situations like that that make the Rovers defender grateful for where he is now.

Short said: "People ask if I ever regret not coming here the first time but I never regretted that because finishing my career here is the pinnacle for me.

"How many players can say they finished their careers at a place like this, with these facilities?

"It's been my most successful time as a player, getting promoted, getting a cup and two times in Europe.

"The food, medical treatment, coaching, everything is fantastic -- and I'm living back home in Yorkshire."

Despite all the glamour and glitz that tempts Premiership footballers into a different world these days, it's that last statement that probably gives Short most satisfaction.

He is simply happy that his wife and two young daughters can grow up in a homely family environment, an ethos which probably explains why he has remained so grounded as his career has taken flight.

"I've spent a lot of this summer with friends from school," said Short. "I'm finishing football next year and still want to socialise with people like that.

"I didn't get into the game because of money, I got into the game because it's every young kid's dream to have a career like this and, luckily, financially it is good to you.

"We're a close family and we all live in the same area. My dad is still as keen now as he was when I was 19 and it's nice to treat my parents with things, that's the benefit I get from it. They made a lot of sacrifices."

The possibility still remains that Short could extend his career beyond this season, and while it might not be with Rovers, he is confident he can still cut it it at the top.

Short added: "If my last year goes well and I don't have any injuries I might say 'why not do another year?' I haven't got any plans beyond it.

"Learnt a lot off Dave Watson and Richard Gough at Everton. If you look after yourself as a centre half you can play until you're 37 or 38 and it was good for me that way.

"It's less physically demanding in the Premier League for a centre half than it is in the First Division because if a full back gets it there all he's going to do is stick it behind my head and I've got to chase it because some centre forward is going to chase it with me.

"In the Premier League, the full back gets it, he passes it to the centre half, and I just get a breather.

"If they kick it in the channels, Thierry Henry doesn't chase lost causes, he'd rather let you go back to the keeper.

"Okay, if I get one on one with Henry or Damien Duff I'm struggling, but you have time to position yourself."

But whatever the future holds, Short will always value the fact that he has achieved a classic rag to riches story -- and there's very few in the Premiership these days who could tell a similar one.

"At Scarborough I used to run down to the beach, take balls and cones down and, if the tide was out, play on the surface," he recalls.

"Then we'd run back up, go home and wash the kit -- all for £20 a week. Even back then I thought I'd arrived."