Really saddened to hear of the premature death of John, he had a great rapport with the fans. One of his kind acts nearly led to me being arrested at Carlisle on the night of the second leg of the Auto Windscreens Northern Area Final. John as he did on many occasions gave me a bunch of stand tickets to give away to the fans as most people who I approached already had standing tickets they took the stand tickets from me and gave me their tickets. As there was also pay on the day at the away end I proceeded to give the tickets to fans queuing to get in.Only to be approached by a copper who told me he would arrest me if I carried on. I threw the remaining tickets up in the air and beat an hasty retreat. When I next saw John he couldn't stop laughing about the incident, but assured me if the worst came to the worst he would have bailed me out.
My heartfelt condolences go out to his family and all his former team mates. John was a lovely kind man and he will be sadly missed