Cheering on the sidelines, I watched the football pitch swarmed with excited children.
Beside me, my dad Dean, now 66, and mum Joy, now 57, whooped as they watched my son Zach, then seven, control the ball.
It was Zach’s seventh birthday party at Goals, a sports centre in Doncaster, on Sunday 26 June 2022.
And of course his grandad – a huge Scunthorpe United fan and Zach’s biggest cheerleader – was there to watch him play.
Playing football with Zach in the garden every evening and cheering him on at his Broughton Ravers matches, football ran in the family.
‘How about a kids versus adults game?’ the party host Louis yelled.
The kids screamed with excitement as the parents were dragged onto the pitch.
Zach bounded over to us.
‘Are you playing, too, Grandad?’ Zach begged.
Dad would never say no!
‘Just remember you’re a lot older than some of these lads,’
