Each week Grimsby Town legend Gary Childs will be writing a column in The Owl. This week Gary has written a short review of the beginning of his footballing career.

So the journey began as a young boy in Birmingham playing locally in a very good team and being spotted at around 12 years of age by various scouts from the Midlands area.

Although there was interest from elsewhere including Aston Villa, Birmingham and Luton Town I was invited to train with West Bromwich Albion where I seemed to feel at home enjoying the family feel of the club.

Things progressed well and in my last year at school found myself playing regularly in the youth team. On leaving school I joined as an apprentice and although I didn't know what had hit me going into zombie mode with the intensity of the full time training, but again things went well and I soon found myself in the reserves long before I expected to. I found myself playing alongside a young Bryan Robson returning from injury and am proud to say I was tasked with the honour of cleaning his boots for a year. (My real claim to fame).

The first team at the time were a great footballing side and included Bryan along with Cyril Regis, Laurie Cunningham and Brendan Batson, better known in the press as the 3 degrees at the time, this is quite ironic as they were 3 of the first black players to pave the way in the premiership under the guidance of big Ron Atkinson who not so long ago was sacked by ITV for making a racist comment.

Knowing Ron he was a larger than life character and a real presence in the dressing room and seeing the banter he had with these players and how he loved them I feel he would have been very misunderstood for the comments he made about Desailly.