Ex-Stevenage and Gillingham defender John Nutter talks us through his football memories
First game you watched live?
My family are all Burnley fans, so we went to Peterborough away in around 1986 – I was only four but I was a Burnley mascot that day. I remember being in the tunnel and walking on to the pitch, it was just a very surreal experience in front of nearly 6,000 fans, but even all these years later I still remember the ball feeling really heavy!
First football hero?
My mum and dad were obsessed with Burnley but my hero was Paul Gascoigne. The way he played with complete freedom was just so good to watch – you saw him light up the pitch and, when I was a kid, he played just like you dreamed of doing in the school playground.
First football boots?
I had some Hi-Tec football boots that my mum and dad got from the market – and they were awful! They were about two sizes too big and uncomfortable; they were just terrible. It took me 18 months to wear them in and to get them to fit my six-year-old feet.
First kit?
Definitely a Burnley strip – I had no other choice! We made the Sherpa Van Trophy final in 1988 and played Wolves at Wembley, there were about 80,000 fans there.
My dad got it for my sixth birthday and I loved it, I still have it somewhere and I’ve treasured it for a long, long time, even though we lost.
I kept it when
I left home, for sentimental reasons, and my little ‘un, Cedric, has worn it a few times as well!
First professional game?
I weirdly made my Football League debut at Peterborough – the same place where I was a mascot, and that was the first time I’d been back. It was my one and only game for Wycombe in 2001 – the season we had that awesome run to the FA Cup semi-finals. The Peterborough game came a week before the Leicester City quarter-final so first-team players were rested and I got my chance at 18. It was brilliant, I played well, I enjoyed it, and playing in the league completed an aim
I’d had since being a kid. The result wasn’t as good, though. We were 2-0 up after 15 minutes but by half-time we were 3-2 down. Leon McKenzie scored twice and that was the way it stayed – he was a pretty decent player after that!
First professional goal?
I had a few in NonLeague and was in the Conference for a few years, but my first league goal wasn’t until years later, for Gillingham at Bristol Rovers when we were battling relegation in the 2007-08 season.
Remarkably, it was the only header I scored in my career and my mum and dad were right there in the front row at the end I scored at.
First red card?
I only had one red card in my career – on a terrible, terrible day in the FA Cup for Gillingham against Dover in 2010. We lost 2-0 and it was one of those FA Cup shocks you just don’t want to be part of. It’s a bit of a rivalry and there was some back-story with our manager, Andy Hessenthaler, and some of the staff having left them in the summer. We were two down and one of their lads was running through when I just clipped him as last man – I couldn’t really complain and just walked
off when I fouled him.