Billy Bingham and Martin O'Neill: The two men who shaped my love of football in 1980s and 1990s

​It’s the first game I can remember with any great vivacity and a spectacle which caused me to ask, ‘Can I go to a real football match?’

My Granda Bobby obliged and a few weeks later I was at Ballyskeagh to watch Glenavon take on Distillery. With five minutes to kick off I asked Bobby when the crowd would arrive.

‘This is it,’ he said, bringing me back to reality with a thump. There would be no Mexican waves, but as far as I recall there were plenty of goals… I was hooked.

As I child it didn’t occur to me that it was a huge deal for Northern Ireland to be at the World Cup – two in a row in fact. I watched those matches in Mexico believing we were going to win. I cried when Brazil put three past us, innocent to the roles of nailed-on favourites and perennial underdogs.

Now I realise how important a role Billy Bingham played in building a team capable of making nine-year-olds believe we could beat Brazil.

Years later in the mid 1990s Martin O’Neill did the same with Leicester City when he assembled a collective with as much steel and spirit as the man who had made him NI captain.

My love of Leicester City stems from the team O’Neill built – Izzet, Elliott, Lennon, Guppy, Savage – unknown gems that he turned into household names.

Today I thanked him for making me a Leicester fan, despite its ups and downs. He accepted graciously.

It was fitting to meet such a trailblazing player and manager on the day of a memorial for his mentor – another trailblazing player and manager.