One of the greatest moments of my career nearly came as a result of an injury.  Playing for Blackpool against Leicester City I came out to catch a high cross, was tipped and spun through 180 degrees in mid-air to land on my head, neck and shoulder.  But I did manage to hold on to the ball! 

On returning to my feet I had lost the use of my left arm.  The later diagnosis was a damaged nerve from the neck to the upper arm.  It was the end of my goalkeeping for that day, but not the end of my involvement in the game. 

In those days there were no substitutes allowed.  So they strapped my arm across my body, put Dave Durie, one of our midfielders in goal, and I played center forward. 

There were 30 minutes to play after my injury.  We were leading 2-0.  Leicester scored to close the lead, but we eventually held on to win 2 - 1. 

10 minutes before the end of the game I received a ball with my back to goal, played it wide to our right winger, Mandy Hill, turned and made for the far post and came into centre to meet Mandy's cross.  It was picture perfect as I headed the ball down and away towards the far corner of the net to eliminate Gordon Banks (later to become World's best goalkeeper). 

Banks was beaten, but Ritchie Norman, recovering towards his own goal, got a knee to the ball and managed to deflect it for a corner. 

It would have been the greatest moment in my career.  I probably would have retired immediately after to bask in the glory of that goal, but it was not to be. 

A few days later I was having treatment for the shoulder/arm injury from our trainer, who for litigation purposes shall remain nameless.  He was using Faradism - the application of an intermittent current of electricity. 

This method used an electronic stimulus to the muscle and nerves to produce a contraction.  At best, it helped maintain the muscle definition and presumably helped regenerate the nerve. 

The strength of the impulse was on a scale of 0-10.  Even though I could not use the arm my muscles were in good shape and the injury recent, so we were getting a strong response at Strength 3. 

The trainer took the electrode off, turned the strength to what he thought was zero, applied a saline solution to my shoulder and re-placed the electrode.  There was such a strong reaction it literally threw me off the treatment table.  In thinking it was at zero our trainer had tuned the strength dial to 10. 

After a week my nerve was back working, but I had acute pains in the back of my shoulder.  In their wisdom the club decided an X-ray might be a good idea.  After all, it was only 7 days after the injury! 

It revealed a fracture to my shoulder blade (scapula).  The doctor had never seen a fractured scapula before and couldn't understand how I could have sustained it.  He obviously did not know our trainer. 

I was out of action for 6 weeks.