THERE is never a dull moment when Darren Bullock is around.

Just mention his name and it brings a smile to your face.

It was great to meet up with him against last week, when he came to do a Question and Answer session with me down at Canalside.

I hadn’t seen Bully for eight or nine nears but we were quickly chatting about the old days and having a laugh.

We had some great characters in that team which went to Wembley twice in the mid 1990s.

People like Bully and my old strike partner, Ronnie Jepson, were just a part of it, but we had window cleaners, plasterers, builders, the lot.

The Gaffer, Neil Warnock, signed people from all over the place, but he knew what he wanted and how they would fit into his scheme.

The great thing was that we weren’t individuals, we were a team, and we had some great times together.

Neil had a lot to do with putting all that together, but everyone gelled and bought into what he was after.

Bully came out of the non-league set-up and I thought he was a great player for us.

When he first came to the club he was very raw and he pretty much kicked everything that moved.

He even kicked his own players some of the time, but you could get away with that sort of thing more so back in those days.

The great thing with Bully was that he learned very quickly and he became a really good player.

He was a really fit bloke, getting up and down the field all the time, and for someone who had the reputation of being a hard man, he was very good on the ball.

It was no surprise to any of us that he became a hero with the supporters here because of his hard work and endeavour and the fact he was always involved in the game.

He soon became a very efficient professional player, one who gave the opposition lots of problems because he could take a game by the scruff of the neck, and I think every team could do with someone like Bully.

The good thing is he is going to come back and, when we play at home on March 19, he will play a half-time five-a-side alongside me, Lee Richardson, Wayne Allison and Iain Dunn, so make sure you don’t miss that.