On 25th February 1967 – three days before my 14th birthday, I went to see a football match. Although it lasted only 30 minutes or so it became one of those things that have you asking yourself ‘did that really happen?’

The match was Highgate United v Enfield. The occasion was the quarter final of the now-defunct FA Amateur Cup. Enfield, from London, were aristocrats of the amateur game. Highgate were, and are, a modest club knocking around the minor leagues of the English Midlands. They were having a good season though and had done superbly to get to the last eight of this big national competition.

Highgate play on a bleak sort of pitch outside Solihull, completely surrounded by picturesque farmland. In expectation of a crowd larger than the usual handful, temporary stands had been erected and the pitch roped off. I dumped my bike in a hedge and…