John Cockerill

Tony's Verdict:  Universally popular ex-player, son of an ex-player and brother of an ex-trainee. Short professional career was entirely with us, his home town club, and was ended by a knee injury in Brighton on Bonfire Night 1992. A back room boy ever since, with a month long period as Caretaker Manager in 1996 when Brian Laws was eventually terminated with extreme prejudice. All reports say that "he's a really nice bloke", so appears the natural foil for Alan Buckley. Nobody is too sure what he actually does, but on match days he stands next to the manager and nods his head a lot. But he does it really nicely.