Fleetwood Town promotion hero on life after Highbury

He also gives his thoughts on the present set-up at Highbury as Joey Barton’s side prepares for the play-offs..

He takes up the story: “In the summer of 2012 Fleetwood Town were ready for the next stage of their adventure, having won a place in the Football League, but my journey with them was over.

“At 32, I moved back into the Conference North, where my three years at Highbury had begun, and joined Halifax.

“My main memory of my season there was scoring the quickest hat-trick in the history of the FA Trophy.

“It was against Altrincham and was timed at two minutes 37 seconds.

“I spent the following season at Chester. I was in my 34th year but still scoring goals regularly and then out of the blue came the call from Gary Neville.

“Gary and a group of his ‘Class of 92’ team-mates from Manchester United had just taken over Salford City and Gary asked me to sign for them.

“The whole thing was quite surreal. I scored a hat-trick on my debut, stayed for two seasons and we won promotion in both campaigns to take the club up to the Conference North.

“There were obvious comparisons with Fleetwood in that they were rising in non-league and had ambitions to go into the Football League.

“Fleetwood were the inspiration for them and they wanted me to bring some of the spirit of that Fleetwood side to Salford.

“I know Gary and the others were very impressed by what Andy Pilley had achieved at Fleetwood and Gary contacted him a lot.

“They visited the Fleetwood ground and the new training centre, and they always wanted Andy’s advice because he had done so well. I know Andy was a great help to them.

“When I left Salford I was 36 but the temptation to play one more season was too much.

“I joined Ramsbottom, but although I was still scoring goals, my body found it tough.

“I retired three times over the course of the season but I got to the end of it, then took the step to become a football agent as I’ve previously described.

“I always enjoy going back to Fleetwood and Andy always makes me welcome.

“I represent a couple of the players, so I’ve watched them quite a few times this season and have seen for myself how brilliantly they’ve done.

“Joey Barton has done a great job. He has managed the expectations really well and the players all speak very highly of him.

“He’s very much his own man doing his own thing and he won’t be told what to do.

“He gets the best out of the players because he expects them to match his level of intensity and commitment.

“In that respect he does remind me of Micky Mellon when I was a player there.

“Micky’s standards were unbelievably high and, sometimes, as a player it seemed he was asking too much.

“When you step outside and look back, as I can now, you realise he only wanted to get the best out of everyone and he succeeded.

“Micky was a brilliant manager for Fleetwood and I think Joey Barton is too.”