Bradford City centre-forward James Hanson talks us through his football memories

First game you watched live? I went to Huddersfield against Cardiff on a Friday night. When I was playing for Huddersfield as a youngster, I used to get free tickets so I used to go to the games and my dad Michael would come with me. I think the score was 2-2. At the time we had the likes of Marcus Stewart playing up front. First pair of boots? A pair of Diadoras. When I was younger I found them really comfortable so I wore them up until some better ones like the Adidas Predators came out, and then I got those.

I didn’t really tend to try and copy what my idols were wearing, I just went with the comfiest boot I could find and whatever my mum and dad would buy me. First kit? A Leeds United kit, which probably sounds a bit daft now, but it was before I was playing for Huddersfield as a kid.

I pretended that I supported Leeds because they were playing in the Premier League, so I got their kit – which obviously doesn’t look good now I play for Bradford! First professional game? The first game of the 2009-10 season for Bradford against Notts County, when Sven-Goran Eriksson was there.

I was on the bench most of the game and we were 4-0 down, so I came on and made my debut. The final score was 5-0, so not a great day. First goal? It was a weird scenario because I was on the bench for the first four games of the season and we didn’t score a single goal, so the gaffer at the time, Stuart McCall, gave all the lads on the bench a chance away at Cheltenham.

Incredibly, when you consider we hadn’t scored for four games, it was 3-3 at half-time and ended up 5-4 to us.

My first goal came from a corner routine we had been practicing in training, where I would come off the keeper and try to get a run off my man running towards the front post and I just headed into the top corner.

That was the exact goal we’d practiced, so it worked quite well. First red card? I’ve only ever had one red card in my professional career and it got rescinded.

Four seasons ago we were playing against Oxford and, off the ball, their guy thought that I’d elbowed him but I never did. He overreacted and the referee ended up sending us both off.

It was a bit silly as we were 4-0 up at the time and the guy must have just lost his head a bit and ended up reacting, then I ended up going with him.

But when the video of the game came back and showed that I didn’t elbow him, the card got rescinded. First football hero? I’ve always been a striker, except for a couple of years when I was 11 and 12 at Huddersfield and they played me at left-back. I left there at 15 and that was when I used to play Sunday League with my mates, so I could back up front again.

My hero then was Alan Shearer (right). He was the one who was scoring all the goals and trying to get on the end of things, so I looked up to him.