THERE is not a football writer around who couldn’t tell you of a run-in with Sir Alex Ferguson. As shown by the reaction following his brain haemorrhage, there is a widespread and enormous respect for him, though.
He has always been generous to Non- League, and never begrudged Exeter City, Burton Albion and Crawley Town the revenue from FA Cup ties against Manchester United that facilitated their campaigns to reach the Football League.
The Tiverton Town manager Martyn Rogers once asked me if I could arrange a meeting with Sir Alex for him. He had reached his own 1,000 games in charge ...