John Finnigan is one of those really refreshing blokes who just loved playing football.

Now Cheltenham Town’s commercial manager, he still kicks a ball around today when he gets the chance.

“I loved training and playing,” said the now nearly 42-year-old, who was a professional footballer for the best part of two decades.

And while the training has now been kicked into touch – “I’m not very fit these days,” he chuckled – he’s thoroughly enjoying playing for Cheltenham Town Veterans, who are tearing it up in the Gloucestershire Veterans League.

When former Cheltenham midfielder and captain Finnigan spoke to The Local Answer, the veterans were top of the table, banging in goals for fun and looking odds on to win the title.

And success is certainly something that Finnigan got the taste for back in the day, as he was a key part of three promotion-winning teams – two of them with Cheltenham.

Finnigan’s footballing journey began at the age of nine or 10 when he started playing for a team in Kippax, the village where he grew up on the outskirts of Leeds and just a big Jack Charlton clearance kick from Castleford.

“In those days you didn’t start too early,” said Finnigan, who was a Leeds supporter but with a “soft spot for Liverpool”.

“I played for Kippax from the under-11s through to the under-14s. The best kids would get called up to play district football for Leeds City Boys and that was every young footballer’s dream.

“They’d play teams from Liverpool, Manchester and Nottingham and those were the games that all the scouts were at.”

Finnigan was overlooked for the under-11s, but got in the under-12s’ B team and by the under-13s his combative midfield skills had earned him a place in the first team, a position he held through to the under-15s, which was the final age group.

Noel Whelan, who went on to play for Leeds, Coventry and Middlesbrough, among a host of other clubs, played a year above him for Leeds City Boys and while Whelan was attracting plenty of attention, there was certainly no lack of interest in the young Finnigan either.

“I trained at a host of clubs,” Finnigan said, “Leeds, Bradford, Watford, Manchester United, Sheffield Wednesday, Barnsley, Nottingham Forest. Leeds offered me forms and so did Bradford but my dad always told me to keep my options open.”

When it finally came to decision time, it was a pretty easy one to make, however.

“Nottingham Forest offered me a three-year deal,” he said. “I signed schoolboy forms and had a full-time contract at the age of 16.”

And it was a good contract too.

“Most clubs were just offering apprenticeships – £30 or £40 a week – but Forest were offering much more. I was on £160 a week in my first year, £210 a week in my second year and £310 a week in my third year.”

That was pretty good money for someone still in their teens back then… and he was living in Nottingham, which has always had the reputation for being one of the livelier cities in the country.

“It was hard leaving home at 16,” said Finnigan, “but being a footballer was all I ever wanted to do.

“And Nottingham is a fantastic city with a great nightlife and we made the most of it!

“It was right at the end of the era when there was still a big beer culture in football. There’d be beer in the changing room, on the coach and then you’d go to the bars and nightclubs.

“That beer culture has gone now, of course. In my time I saw both sides and obviously from the football point of view it’s much better now… but we did have a lot of fun!”

So does he regret those early days?

“No, I don’t,” he said, “because everyone was doing it. It didn’t hinder my progress because we were all doing the same thing, although we were probably a bit stupid at times.”

And while Finnigan was loving life off the pitch, he was enjoying things on the field as well.

He was part of a successful youth team and also captained the reserves.

“There were some top players at the club,” Finnigan said. “Stuart Pearce and Des Walker were there, and as a kid I was a bit in awe of them because I’d grown up watching them play.

“I did train with the first team quite a few times but I never got that close to playing for them.

“In those days Forest were either really successful or struggling at the bottom of the table, so it wasn’t the right time to throw a kid in. Don’t get me wrong, if I’d have been Wayne Rooney they’d have played me.”

He may not have been able to get a game alongside Pierre van Hooijdonk, Scot Gemmill, Ian Woan and the like, but there was certainly something the Forest hierarchy liked about Finnigan because he was with them for six years.

Eventually he was sent out on loan to Lincoln City at the end of the 1997/98 season and, typically, he enjoyed almost immediate success. He made his Football League debut just a few days after his 22nd birthday, and within weeks had helped the club win automatic promotion to the third tier of English football.

“I never looked back even though I’ve got a lot to thank Forest, for because they gave me my opportunity and gave me a good grounding,” said Finnigan. “I went straight into Lincoln’s first team. John Beck had tied up the move but then he left and when Shane Westley took over he kept the deal on track.”

He played six games but did enough to impress new boss Westley, who signed him permanently even though he still had a year left on his Forest contract.

Life in the higher division was tough for Lincoln, however, and almost predictably, Westley lost his job.

What was not so predictable was what happened next.

“John Reames, our club chairman, took over as manager,” chuckled Finnigan. “He said he’d sacked that many managers he might as well do the job himself!”

So how did he get on?

“I liked him,” admitted Finnigan, “but that may have been because he liked me. There were a lot of things he didn’t know much about – he didn’t know how things worked in the changing room or on the training pitch.”

Reames isn’t the first and won’t be the last chairman to think he can manage a club – ex-Crystal Palace chairman Ron Noades took charge of Brentford in the late 1990s, while many West Ham fans today will say that co-owner David Sullivan currently wields too much influence on team affairs.

So if it happened at Cheltenham, does Finnigan think club chairman Paul Baker would make a good manager?

“No comment,” he laughed. “I’ve no idea… although you never know, he might be brilliant!”

We’ll almost certainly never know, but what is without doubt is that Baker has poured his heart and soul into the club since becoming chairman 20-odd years ago.

He’s known many good times and some bad over that period, of course, and among the toughest was the collapse of the ITV Digital deal in the early noughties, which left many Football League clubs in deep financial trouble.

Lincoln were one of the worst hit and would go into administration at the end of the 2001/02 season.

And while times like that are tough for the club involved and their supporters, what is often forgotten is the impact it can have on the players and the staff who depend on the club for their livelihood.

“Yes, it was a difficult time,” admitted Finnigan, who was married with a couple of very young children. “I was placed on the transfer list. The club just needed to get players off the wage bill.”

It was then that fate, as so often happens, played a big part in shaping not only the second part of Finnigan’s career but his life as well.

Lee Howells, the midfield dynamo who was doing almost more than any other player to drive Cheltenham towards the play-offs in their third season in the Football League, broke a leg at Bristol Rovers in March 2002.

And while Cheltenham fans were bemoaning their misfortune – and Howells’ – Steve Cotterill showed once again what an outstanding manager he is by acting immediately, bringing in Finnigan to fill the sizeable hole left by Howells.

“I got a call from Alan Buckley, who was Lincoln manager at the time,” said Finnigan. “He said Cheltenham wanted to sign me until the end of the season.

“He said Lincoln would like me to stay but also said they needed to get me off the wage bill!

“I looked at the table and thought, ‘Cheltenham have got a chance of promotion here’. It still wasn’t an easy decision because I had a wife and kids, but I knew Cheltenham was a nice area and I was out of contract at the end of season with Lincoln anyway, so I had nothing to lose.”

And it’s a decision he’s certainly never regretted. He scored in his first game – a 4-0 win over York City – went back to Lincoln three days later and helped his new team secure a 1-0 win, and ended the season running round the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff with a smile as wide as the River Taff, after scoring in the 3-1 play-off final win over Rushden and Diamonds.

“Sometimes players just fit into a club,” he said. “I don’t think I’d scored in my previous 100 games for Lincoln and here I was scoring in my first game for Cheltenham! Alan Buckley gave an interview in which he said I couldn’t even score in training!”

As Finnigan discovered during his time at Lincoln, however, it’s a big step up from the fourth tier to the third tier and like Lincoln before them, Cheltenham managed only one season at the higher level.

Graham Allner was in charge at the start of the campaign before being replaced by Bobby Gould, but it took the arrival of John Ward part way through the 2003/04 season to get Cheltenham back on an even keel.

And Finnigan rates Ward as the best manager he ever played for.

“He had this happy knack of keeping the whole squad happy,” said Finnigan. “Normally when players aren’t playing they’re skulking around with their chins on the floor, but that wasn’t the case with John.

“He was a good bloke; genuine and honest.”

He was a good manager too and after a couple of mid-table finishes he took Cheltenham back up to third tier, again via the play-offs. This time the club beat Grimsby Town 1-0 in the final and once again Finnigan, who by now was captain, was a key player.

So which play-off success did he enjoy the most?

“Both were great but if you put me on the spot I’d have to say the 2006 win,” he said. “I was much more a part of things in 2006. In 2002 the play-off final was only my 15th game for the club, I felt a bit like I’d gatecrashed that final!”

And who were the better team?

“That’s a very good question,” he said. “The 2002 team had that bit more nous, there were some very clever players. The 2006 team had more youth, more legs and were that bit quicker.

“It would have been an interesting game between them, that’s for sure.”

Ask him to recall some of the players and he reels off the names almost without thinking.

“We had Steve Book in goal and then there was Chris Banks, Michael Duff, Antony Griffin and Jamie Victory at the back. In midfield there was Yatesy [Mark Yates], Martin Devaney, Russell Milton and Lee Williams and up front there was Tony Naylor, who was one of the best players I ever played with, and Julian Alsop.

“And we had plenty in reserve as well because we had players like Richard Walker, John Brough and Shane Higgs on the bench. If anyone got injured, someone else just slotted in.”

That was obviously the 2002 squad, so what about the 2006 players?

“Grant McCann, Shane Duff, Shane Higgs, and Jamie Victory was still there, although Jamie got injured before the end of the season,” said Finnigan. “There was Kayode Odejayi, Brian Wilson, Jerry Gill, Craig Armstrong, Steve Guinan and JJ Melligan.

“They were both really good teams and you could see why they had success. They were really good lads and we all believed in each other and trusted each other.”

Cheltenham’s second venture into the higher level was more successful than the first, lasting three seasons before dropping down again.

Their second year in the third tier was notable for two remarkable performances against Leeds United, the fallen giants of English and European football and the club who Finnigan supported as a boy.

“We beat them twice that season – home and away,” said Finnigan.

Sadly, injury ruled Finnigan out of both games but he still has very fond memories of those games, particularly the one at Elland Road.

“I was sat with the Cheltenham fans watching the game with my family,” he laughed. “My son Mitchell, who is now 17, was Cheltenham’s mascot and he got asked by the pitch announcer who his favourite player was.

“‘John Finnigan’,” he replied.

“‘Why?’ asked the man and Mitchell just said, ‘because he’s my dad!’”

Mitchell got that one right, of course, and Cheltenham certainly got it right on the Elland Road pitch that day as well.

“We won 2-1 and we could have won by three or four,” said Finnigan. “It was a fantastic achievement.”

Finnigan was back at the ground made famous by the likes of Billy Bremner and Johnny Giles the following season.

“I captained Cheltenham at Elland Road and that was very nice,” he said. “We lost 2-0 but to lead the team out was a special experience.”

By now Keith Downing was manager of Cheltenham, but when he departed and Martin Allen took over Finnigan knew his days at the club were numbered.

“We didn’t see eye to eye,” he admitted. “I still had a year left on my contract but I decided to join Kidderminster. My old midfield partner Mark Yates was in charge there – Neil Howarth was his assistant – and they were on the fringes of the Conference play-offs.”

It was the type of form that encouraged Cheltenham to come calling, and Yates and Howarth were soon off to the club where they had so much playing success.

It was a big move for them, of course, and it was a big move for Finnigan because he was left in caretaker charge of the Harriers.

“I was in charge for about six weeks,” Finnigan remembered.

So how did it go?

“It was okay,” he said. “There was quite a lot of snow about at the time and we only played three or four games but we won two, drew one and lost one.

“The defeat was against Rushden and Diamonds. We lost 2-1 and Lee Tomlin, who is now at Bristol City, got a couple of wonder goals. Without him I’d have had an even better record!”

But although he certainly did okay as the main man, Finnigan knew that a job in football management wasn’t what he wanted then or now.

“I just don’t think it’s me,” he admitted. “I enjoyed some parts of the job but there were other parts I didn’t enjoy. I can’t put my finger on it. I think the thing is, for me, I just loved playing and training.

“I’ve also done a bit of coaching in schools and at academy level but I didn’t get anywhere near the buzz I should have.

“I just didn’t feel it and players can soon spot that. I wish I did have that buzz but I don’t.”

What Finnigan did still have back then was a desire to keep on playing, and even though the injuries were starting to mount up, he played for both Bishop’s Cleeve and Shortwood United before finally hanging up his boots close on six years ago now.

He stayed in the area and was taken on as a part-time sales executive by Cheltenham Town three or so years ago.

His enthusiasm, general bonhomie and no little nous saw him promoted to full-time commercial manager within a few months, and it’s a job he thoroughly enjoys.

“Cheltenham Town are my club,” he said. “They’re the one I support. I still look out for Forest, Leeds, Lincoln and Kidderminster’s results but Cheltenham is where I live and where I work.”

So what does he think Cheltenham can achieve over the next few years?

“Anything is possible,” he said. “You only have to look at clubs like Bournemouth, Swansea and Burnley. They were all struggling in the bottom division and look at them now.

“Okay so they are a bit bigger than Cheltenham but it shows what can be done.

“Crewe and Yeovil have both reached the Championship. You need a bit of investment and some luck along the way.

“It can also take time. That Cheltenham team that went up in 2006 had had two mid-table finishes before it all came together.

“I think the play-offs are beyond us this season but we finished 22nd last season, and if we improve as much again next season as we have done this season then we won’t be too far away.

“I know Gary Johnson is very ambitious and at one stage this season we were only eight or nine points off the play-offs. If you then string three or four wins together you can get right in it. It’s a very fine line.”

Even though he loves his current job, Finnigan would love nothing more than being out there on the pitch driving Cheltenham onwards and upwards.

He played well over 200 games for the club, scoring 20 goals and was one of the first names on the teamsheet of whichever manager was in charge, pretty much throughout his seven years as a player at the club.

So how would he describe himself as a player?

“I would say I was a combative midfielder,” he said. “I was a box-to-box player and always had plenty of energy. I wasn’t afraid to put my foot in and I tried to keep it simple.

“I was never one for stepovers or fancy footwork – I left that to people like Martin Devaney! – but I was a good, honest midfielder who got up and down the pitch.

“I was a steady player and the managers always knew what they were getting from me, which I think they appreciated.”

They certainly did. He was happy to organise the players on the pitch as well, and the success he and the players around him enjoyed showed he was pretty good at it too.

So, any regrets?

“No, none at all,” he said. “If someone had said to me at 16 that I was going to be a professional footballer until I was 34 I’d have grabbed it with both hands. I’m happy with my lot.”

How refreshing! Good player, John Finnigan; good bloke too.