Everyone raised their game and then you start to realise after six or seven games that they do raise their game. Modern players don't know how pampered they are. They think the game is faster than it was 30 years ago, but we were drinking, fighting and playing every three days, not getting our hair done in the salon, having a massage or cheating the public by rolling on the ground." Most Read And while he doesn’t regret the red cards (“Iwas wholehearted but I never set out to intentionally hurt anybody”), and is philosophical about the boozing and womanising (“it ain’t big and it ain’t clever, butit got me attention”) he knows his was ultimately a career of ‘what if’s. Look at Joey Barton - he got a 12-match ban for losing his rag, but he isn't notorious because he's hard. He has become notorious for being a p****.

The striker was playing for Southend at the time, while the current Middlesbrough manager was a midfield enforcer for Newport County. But I was one step ahead and could see Robbo running with the ball, which meant the game was still active and referee Paul Vanes was distracted.Joining Walsall was the biggest mistake of my life,” 60-year-old continued. “My debut was against Swindon and I got man of the match. You knew what buttons to press and when you’re in the dressing room, you’re always looking for those buttons to press at the right time. I struggled to come to terms with that. I knew I was good enough to play for that Birmingham side. But instead I was in the Third Division with Walsall.” The 53-year-old, originally from Olton, Solihull, built a reputation as a fearsome striker or centre-half who took no prisoners on the pitch.

The truth was, McDonough hadn’t been a‘soccer boss’ for more than a year, and the ‘best pal’ in question is now his wife of 16 years, who, he says, saved his life.But he has not worked in football since his departure from Layer Road in early 2003, and nor has he wanted to. He used his family connections to win a trial at First Division club Birmingham City, and was signed to an 18-month apprenticeship after he scored four goals in two trial games. [8] He went on to sign professional forms with the club, and made his debut in the Football League in a 1–0 defeat to Sunderland at Roker Park on 7 May 1977. [9] Despite another relegation, McDonough’s penultimate season with Southend finished with a bang. On the final day of the campaign, some on-pitch verbals with Bristol Rovers’ Ian Holloway spilled over, sparking a 16-man brawl in the players’ lounge after the game. Reduced to the role of bit-part player in his final season, McDonough still managed to get sent off in a League Cup tie against Spurs, and again the one time in his career he was made captain – the latter for an alleged stamp on Burnley’s Roger Eli. “Most of my red cards werefair enough,” he says. “But that one was a f**king howler. I never touched him.” We had little Mark Kinsella and Gary Bennett – the only way to play was to pass teams to death, which is what we did.

I’m not proud of the record cards by the way, but there’s a lot more to me than that,” he insists. “For a start I played for three managers who’d won the World Cup.” Indeed he did. When he was a 17-year-old local prodigy at Birmingham City, Sir Alf Ramsey gave him his debut. He then moved to Chelsea where he played under Sir Geoff Hurst. It was not a relationship charged with mutual respect. The Newport County midfielder had ‘got right under’ McDonough’s skin during a previous encounter and he was looking for his opportunity to ‘even things up’ He went on to Colchester to make some 88 appearances, scoring 24 goals in his first spell at Layer Road before moving to local rivals Southend United in 1983. In 22 appearances for the "Shrimpers" between 1984 and 1985 he scored 4 times.His altercation with the now Middlesbrough manager came when Roy was playing for Southend. He and Pulis, then an uncompromising midfield enforcer with Newport County, had squared up in the previous league game, a face-off during which, Roy claims, Pulis had spat at him. In the dressing room before the rematch, Roy had warned his manager Bobby Moore that there may be trouble ahead. If you went to the manager with problems, he'd say 'he's a wet lettuce' and get you out of the club. You are left to deal with it on your own. You have to be a tough guy, but I'm not really a tough guy - I've had one fight off the football pitch in my life.