CONTINUING our City Favourites series with part two of the JAMES HANSON interview.

BEST MANAGER

“I’ve got to give a special mention to Stuart (McCall) because he was the one who took a chance and signed me from non-league.

“I’ll never forget as well that Stuart had my back when I was leaving and all the things that Edin (Rahic) was saying about me.

“He was coming out with all sorts and Stuart took all that pressure off me. He didn’t have to but that’s the sort of guy he is.

“I’ll always thank him for that and for bringing me into the game in the first place.

“Obviously football is about luck and timing and Bradford were cutting the budget back then. Stuart was after a couple of non-league players and Mega (Mark Ellis) helped with getting me there on trial.

“Stuart looked after me really well and I’m grateful for that.

“But the main manager in terms of what he did for me was Phil Parkinson.

“I was an average League Two striker when he came in and he built me up. Bringing in Steve Parkin and Nick (Allamby), the fitness guy, really helped.

“For a big lad, I had a weird body if that makes sense. When I was younger, I wasn’t really moulded into my body.

“Nick did a lot of fitness and strength work with me and that was probably the fittest I’ve ever been.

“I’ll never forget that Stuart had my back when I was leaving

“Phil was strict but everyone knew how well Nahki (Wells) and I played together when we were on it.

“Don’t get me wrong, we all have our off-days but I think they were few and far between. Phil wouldn’t allow that.

“He’d be the first to pull us in and we’d be having an hour’s DVD on why we didn’t make that run or do this or that.

“We were young fit lads and he’d seen us running round the track so we didn’t we have any excuses. We just had to run for him and then everything else fell into place.

“I still believe if we’d kept Nahki in League One, we’d have probably gone up again.

“One thing with Phil was that if you went into office complaining of a tight hamstring or a little knock, he’d had every injury you could ever think of and played with it!

“He’d make you feel that when you came out of that meeting, ‘yeah, I can play on with it’.

“I think I played 59 games in one season. Looking back if I’d been with a different manager and said I’d got this knock or that, it would have probably been around 35 or 40.

“He used to say that 80 per cent fit was good enough for him, as long as you were out there. I got so many games in because of him.”

FAVOURITE TEAMMATES

“I obviously spent a lot of years with Darbs (Stephen Darby), Rory (McArdle) and Mezza (James Meredith), who I roomed with. What a guy he was!

“Mezza used to love his phone, he was always on it. Nick used to tell me to keep an eye on him because he was always on to his missus and there were break-ups left, right and centre!

“We had an early kick-off in London and had to be down for breakfast at 8am so we could get our pre-match (meal) in as well at 10.

“I set my alarm for seven and left Mezza on his phone that night sat straight up on his headboard as he does.

“This was about 10.30pm – when I woke up to use the bathroom just before the alarm was due, I looked over and Mez is still in the same position. I do not believe he’d been to sleep!

“Nick obviously asked me how he was and I didn’t want to say that he’d been up all night – and then Mez went out and was man of the match! That’s him in a nutshell.

“I also got on really well with both ‘Clarkeys’, Nathan and Billy. I still play golf with them now when we can.

The lads used to cane him for it but he’d say they were his ‘comfies’

“Rozza is another great lad although he wasn’t the best dressed at the club. Billy would come in all colour coordinated but Rozza was the opposite.

“He hated winter because he just loved his pair of basketball shorts that he wore. The lads used to cane him for it but he’d say they were his ‘comfies’.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s still wearing them at Harrogate!

“It’s so sad everything that is going on with Darbs because he’s such a great guy.

“We used to play golf all the time and he could drive the ball miles further than any of us.

“We played a couple of years ago when the lads hadn’t seen each other much and we wondered how it was going to be with him.

“But Darbs broke the ice straight away. He hit the ball about 200 yards off the tee, whereas before he’d be hitting it 300 plus.

“We all hit our drives and just got past him – and he turned and laughed, ‘finally boys, you can outdrive me now!’ It set the tone and it was laughs and giggles after that.

“I played with Billy Clarke again at Grimsby and (Ian) Holloway used to call him ‘wild Bill’ as soon as he signed. I knew from before that he has got a bit of a short temper in training and stuff like that.

“We played golf last summer and he was talking about doing some lessons. Someone had told him to change his swing and he wasn’t having the best of days.

“About halfway round, he hit a bad drive and threw his club away. Just his luck, it landed on a small path nearby and the end snapped!

“So, he stormed off home while a mate and I carried on playing. Later on, when he’d calmed down, he realised what he’d done and went back to try and find it that night but it had gone.

“I spoke to him a few weeks ago and asked him if he’d play golf since. He said no, he still needs a new driver!”