John McGovern spent just over two years as a Hartlepool player in the sixties and we discovered recently that he still treasures his time spent at The Vic.

Having found an old photograph of his time at Pools, McGovern was desperate to pair it with a programme from the same game for a framed memento of his period in the north east.

And when he called the Club, he was lucky enough to be put in touch with Ron Harnish who was able to provide him with the issue he needed.

"We were cleaning things out and I discovered a photograph which is signed by all of the players on the back," McGovern explained.

"I thought it would look nice in a frame with the actual programme from the game because that's the year we won promotion."

The photograph came from the last game of the 1967/1968 season - a 2-0 win over Swansea City in which McGovern scored one of seven goals for the Club.

"The promotion season was great, it was the first time in the Club's history and I am very proud to have been part of that.

"All of the players got a promotion bonus of £40 and the Chairman Councillor Curry came and told us that next year we'd all be wearing Club suits.

"We were all delighted, but then they took £20 off our promotion bonuses to pay for them! They were awful too, you'd wear them once and they were creased beyond repair!

European Cup winner

"It was great to be part of it all and we had great team spirit at the time."

Handed his First Team debut as fresh-faced 16-year-old, the diminutive McGovern has special reason to remember the first ever time he pulled on a Pools shirt for the Reserve side.

"The first Reserve game I played, the 'v' of the shirt was hanging right down and the shorts were down to my ankles - I had about a dozen safety pins keeping the kit on me!

"This is where I first started my career - I had only played one season of junior football before then. I played cricket and rugby for three years and I wanted to be a tennis player because I was a big Rod Laver fan!"

After spending two seasons as a regular at The Vic, Clough snatched him away after taking the hotseat at Derby County - and it wouldn't be the last time that Old Big 'Ed swooped for the Montrose-born midfielder.

He also joined Clough at Nottingham Forest where he had the honour of lifting the European Cup in 1979.

McGovern during his days as a Leeds United player

These days McGovern - who celebrated his 57^th birthday on 28^th October - is keeping himself occupied with radio work, after-dinner speaking and even a bit of writing!

"I've been busy writing my book recently so getting my hands on this programme has come at a good time as it has some useful dates and details in it that I'll be able to use in the book.

"I've just started writing the book, which will probably come out next Christmas. I want to do most of it myself so it will take longer but I'd rather do that than have a ghost writer.

These days he's spending his time as a guest speaker and radio pundit, while penning his autobiography

"I wanted to give it my own feel, even though my grammar might not be to academic level - I thought it would be better in my own language.

"I cover all Nottingham Forest matches for BBC Radio Nottingham, home and away and I do some after dinner speaking."