The Saturday Interview. . .

THE muscles flexed beneath the blue and white shirt, pumping the red rose tattoo into full, threatening bloom.

The burly Blackburn Rovers fan had eyed his target and strode over with all the purpose of a hungry bison hunting down its lunch.

It wasn't exactly what Ashley Hoskin wanted to be faced with when merely visiting a school to do some coaching. Being small was one thing, but a former Burnley hero as well? No chance.

Face to face with his nemesis, he steeled himself for the worst.

"I just want to say," boomed the Rovers supporter, "that I've been watching Premiership football for years and I've never seen a goal like the one you scored at Swansea."

Everywhere he goes, Hoskin is reminded of the wonder strike that thrilled national audiences during Burnley's harrowing flirt with Football League demotion in 1987.

It was so spectacular even the scorer can't remember how many men he left lying in a daze on the Vetch Field pitch.

"Every time I tell the story I add another man to it," he admits.

"Even a diehard Blackburn fan with Blackburn shirt, tattoos, hat, everything, who was there picking his son up from school, remembered it, which was amazing."

But the reason I met Hoskin at Turf Moor isn't to take some sentimental trip down Memory Lane. He is merely knocking off work, sparing some time to talk about his latest venture as manager of Rossendale United.

Clarets fans will remember him as the enigmatic wide man, a pocket action man who, by his own admission, "would never go in for a 50-50 with a big centre half."

However, any doubts that he doesn't put everything into whatever he does these days are dispelled by the way he hauls a bag stuffed with footballs, that almost dwarfs his 5'3in frame, along the Turf Moor trackside in preparation for his next school trip as part of his full-time role in Burnley's Leisue and Community Programme.

It's that type of devotion to the game that secured him his first managerial role, and gives him every chance of making a success of it.

"The chairman has gone on record saying it was my enthusiasm that got me the job," said Hoskin, whose extensive non-league CV, including spells at Accrington Stanley, Barrow, Bamber Bridge and a joint caretaker spell in charge of home-town club Accrington, also helped.

"If people on the pitch put as much into it as I do then we will be alright. People see you train on a Tuesday and Thursday then play on a Saturday but it's not just that, it's every day.

"I got the job two weeks ago and my phone bill has doubled and, with meeting people and talking to people, it's like a full-time job.

"It's about commitment and I want players who want to play for Rossendale. The wage bill's being cut 60 per cent but that's not a bad thing because it will tell me who wants to play, then I know they're as committed as I am."

So while he hopes the players mirror his off-pitch persona, will the famous flamboyant on-pitch style be something he encourages in his men?

"I was known as a flying winger who took people on, sometimes holding onto the ball for too long," he said. "But I coach in a completely different way.

"Pass and move is the only way to play the game. It doesn't matter whether you're playing for Arsenal in the Champions League or the Dog and Duck on a Sunday."

Hoskin's appetite for the spectacular is still unquenched as he says: "If a lad can take two or three players on, I'm not going to have a go at him."

But the strict schoolmaster persona of the coach comes out as he adds: "As long as it's in the right areas."

After all, Hoskin is a 36-year-old family man, living in Accrington with wife Sarah and four-year-old Jake, no longer the carefree, rampaging teenager who sunk the Swans with that mind-boggling solo goal 17 years ago.

But he still needs some guidance himself, and he has it ready-made from Stanley's current manager .

Hoskin said: "It's amazing knowing that John Coleman is only a phone call away. I was arranging a friendly with him and he said if I have any problems, need advice or help, just pick up the phone.

"That's absolutely fantastic for someone with his experience at this level."

Whatever happens, Hoskin will always look around, as he does during our conversation at a sun-soaked Turf Moor, and take in how lucky he is.

What happened when he was released by Burnley in 1991 will always make him eternally grateful that football is now his one vocation.

He said: "When I consider what I was doing when I was at Accrington, this isn't work, it's enjoyment.

"I had seven months out of the game and had my own scrap metal company but it was difficult because I always wanted to be a footballer.

"So coaching was my saviour, because now I get to work outside. It's fantastic compared to getting your fingers trapped in car doors and lying on floors checking exhausts."

But it wasn't all so unglamorous during his spell at the Crown Ground, when the club sent his picture to Phil Collins, convincing the pop star he and their balding winger were separated at birth.

While it was a masterstroke in raising the club's profile with the subsequent support they got from the singer, it also secured his double a backstage meeting with the man himself at one of his concerts.

Hoskin said: "Thousands of people were queuing to meet him but when I walked in he said 'I don't need to ask who you are. It's Ash isn't it?'

"He called me Ash! I didn't know whether to call him Phil, Mr Collins or what. And he's calling me Ash!"

But it's time to snap out of the dreams and get back to reality when Rossendale return for pre-season training in July -- the one thing Hoskin is looking forward to most about his new job.

"I've done that many pre-seasons where you're nearly being sick and you're on your knees, so I'm looking forward to being the manager at a pre-season.

"It will be good when it's hot and I'm in my shorts watching other lads doing the training and I don't have to do it."