[rowdy]

I ended up being lumbered with managing my youngest sons football team for around 5 years. We had one lad playing with the team that although never confirmed by his parents obviously had autism. He was quite emotional at times and used to get a into a bit of a state now and again, but all the lads in the team were great with him. I have since done some tests and I too have a degree of autism, or what used to be called Asperger’s, so I sometimes didn’t quite know the best way to deal with him but my eldest son used to help out with training and at matches and he was absolutely fantastic with him and was always able to take him to one side and calm him down.

My wife and I opened a gift, furniture and antiques shop in the village and today the lads mother came in and I asked her how her son was. She said he was at 6th form and really enjoying a course on management and had recently managed a football team himself. So, I like to think that as a whole group both I, my son and all the lads had been a good influence on him and in some small way helped him to grow in confidence.
So, that is my smile of the day.