He was the hometown boy who did well, very well.

Keith Knight, born and bred in Shurdington, was the footballer who lived the dream in the late 90s as Cheltenham Town took the non-league footballing world by storm, winning the FA Trophy at Wembley and following up 12 months later by climbing into the Football League for the first time in their history.

They were massive achievements, of course, and as someone who has lived in the area for the majority of his 50 years – Knight still lives in Shurdington today – he is rightly very proud of the role he played in those heady days some 20 years ago.

It’s clearly what he’s best remembered for but it’s also fair to say that Keith Knight was a lot more than just a two-season wonder because his was a stellar career that saw him win England Schoolboys caps, get signed as a teenager by Reading for whom he played more than 40 games and also play professionally in Holland for two years.

Knight’s is a story of a footballing talent – he was quick and had a good right foot – matched by a fierce determination to succeed. Anyone who has come across him on a sporting field – he still plays cricket for Shurdington and Gloucestershire Over-50s – will tell you of his almost legendary competitive edge and that coupled with his talent took him to places that others just couldn’t reach.

But he also had a love for football, a love that saw him continue to play the beautiful game to a very good standard well past his 40th birthday, more than 10 years after he had waved goodbye to Cheltenham Town for the third and final time.

Not that he ever cut his ties with Cheltenham altogether, far from it, because he is still a keen spectator at a fair number of their games, as he is quite a few of the non-league clubs he played for over the years.

As he says: “I like to keep my eye in, I think I can still spot a player.”

And he certainly had an eye for football from a very young age. In the early days Knight learned his football on the playing fields of Shurdington which were just a long goal kick from where he lived.

“I played on the village green with my mates,” he said. “We were out every day after school, there’d be 15 or 20 of us.”

They were all different ages and sizes as well and Knight reckons those early days stood him in very good stead for what was to come.

“It was very different back then,” said Knight, a former pupil at Shurdington Infants’ School, Shurdington Primary School and Chosen Hill.

“There were no football academies in those days and there wasn’t much organised football at school.”

But that certainly didn’t hold Knight back and he was soon showing some of the bigger boys in Shurdington that he could play a bit.

“They realised I had a chance of being a decent footballer because they couldn’t get the ball off me,” he recalled. “They used to kick me black and blue!”

That was a tough upbringing but the young Knight knew what to expect because he used to watch his dad Billy, who was a decent player himself, play in the local leagues.

Knight junior’s first taste of ‘proper’ football came with Swindon Falcons Under-12s – they were run by his dad’s work colleague Terry Coates – and he said: “When I first started I was a centre-forward, I was very quick and I scored a lot of goals.”

The goals continued to flow when he moved to Cheltenham Saracens Under-13s, a team that were managed by Paul Collicutt, a former Cheltenham Town star from the 80s who went on to enjoy great success as manager of Bishop’s Cleeve.

“I’ve always got on very well with him,” said Knight. “I was very competitive even at an early age although Paul did try to curb it.”

So did he succeed?

“Probably not,” said Knight with a chuckle.

By now Knight was also playing in centre midfield as well as up front – “I was more involved in the game,” he said – and his football was certainly developing at a fast rate.

“I had a year at Collum End Juniors where Ken Skeen was manager and I also played for FC Lakeside for a season,” said Knight.

“I also played for St Mark’s under Jasper Cook, we had a fantastic team, we won everything.”

That was the St Mark’s youth team but the teenaged Knight had by now been playing adult football for a number of seasons.

“I played my first game for Shurdington Rovers when I was 13,” he said.

Knight has never been the biggest but he looks back fondly on those days when he was cutting his teeth in the adult world of football and he played his first game for Cheltenham Reserves under Roger Thorndale at the age of 16.

“It was a bit of an eye opener but I never shirked the physical side,” he said of playing against the men. “It was a good grounding, you don’t get it these days.

“Today all the better players are in academies and it’s not until they’re loaned out to a non-league team that they realise what adult football is all about – welcome to the real world!”

Knight was in the real world back then, that was for sure, and even though he clearly had something as a footballer he wasn’t prepared to throw away his education to pursue his dream of playing the game professionally.

“I was offered the chance to do a YTS at Cardiff City but my dad was very keen that I stayed at school,” said Knight.

And that turned out to be a very wise choice because although Chosen Hill was very much a rugby school, Knight managed to persuade the powers-that-be that he be allowed to attend England Schools Under-18 football trials.

“I got picked,” he said proudly. “I played seven games, against Holland at Blackburn, Wales at Wrexham, three games in Zurich, one against the Combined Services and one against the Combined Universities.”

Those games did wonders for Knight’s career.

“I’d thought about getting a scholarship to the US when I left school,” said Knight. “I’d also got a college place in Plymouth to do PE.

“But once I was in the England set-up I got much more involved with the first-team at Cheltenham.”

That was just what the young Knight wanted, of course, adding: “I was training with Ray Baverstock, Brian Hughes, Kevin Willetts, Anton Vircavs, Richard Crowley, they gave me a good grounding mentally and physically.

“They welcomed you into the squad but we were all competitive, we all wanted to play in the first team.”

And Knight didn’t have long to wait for his first-team chance.

“I was down to play for the reserves but then one of the first-team lads got injured so I was put on the bench,” recalls Knight

“It was at home to Kettering and when Graham Withey got injured I went on. I think the game ended 2-2.”

That was at the start of the 1988/89 season when Knight was still considered to be a centre-forward. Cheltenham were playing in the top tier of non-league football in those days, so although they were semi-pro it was a good standard and their manager at the time, John Murphy, certainly made sure that they maintained the highest of standards on and off the pitch.

Knight was, and is, a huge Murphy fan.

“I got on fantastically well with him, still do,” said Knight. “He’s one of my best friends. He could be a bit of a disciplinarian but he had tremendous football knowledge.

“He was probably the manager who got the best out of me, he knew how to press my buttons.”

And Murphy wasn’t the only person to have a positive impact on Knight who was lucky to have a number of good people around him during those formative years.

“I was a super confident kid and my only objective was to become a professional footballer,” he said.

“But I always listened to my old man, he kept me grounded. Geoff Meadowcroft, who ran the Cheltenham youth team, was a good guy, Roger Thorndale was another.”

They were good days for Knight and there were even better ones just around the corner.

“Cheltenham were playing at Weymouth on a Tuesday night,” said Knight. “It was the year of Peter Shearer who was one of the best players I played with in non-league.

“He was being watched by Reading but then he got sent off and I got thrown on.”

Knight must have done pretty well because Reading’s scouts were at Cheltenham’s next game, which was at home to Runcorn.

Ironically, Knight didn’t play in his usual position up front that day, he was moved out to the right wing.

And it proved to be a Murphy masterstroke because Knight ran rings round his opposite number – an England non-league international full-back – and impressed the watching Reading scouts to such an extent that the club soon tabled a bid.

“I spoke to Reading and they said they wanted a right winger,” said Knight. “I told them that that was my first game in that position and that I was a centre-forward or a central midfielder.

“They said they wanted me to play right wing – I wasn’t arguing!”

Knight’s £7,000 move meant he had realised his dream of turning professional. Reading, who were managed by Ian Branfoot, had just been relegated from the old Division Two but had captured the imagination of football fans across the country that season by winning the Simod Cup, beating then Division One club Luton 4-1 in the final at Wembley.

“It was brilliant,” said Knight of his move, “especially for my dad. He’d been told for years that I was too small, that he was pushing me too hard, now he could have a drink with his mates and say that I was a professional footballer.”

Knight went to live in digs in Reading but before he upped sticks and headed east there were a few things that he needed to sort.

“I signed for Reading on the Friday,” he said. “I was due to be going out with a few mates to Chosen Hill Rugby Club that night. I rang one of them and he said, ‘What time?’. I said we’ll have to go out a bit earlier than normal, I’ve just signed for Reading!’

“All he said was ‘no way!’ It was a very good night, I’d fulfilled my professional ambition.”

Knight also needed to make a call to his Cheltenham team-mate Nicky Jordan.

“He was a brickie and I had needed some work,” Knight explained. “I was due to start work as a labourer for him on the Monday. I think it was very lucky for both of us because I’d have been a useless labourer!”

Once at Reading there was no settling in period for Knight.

“I was thrown into the first team straight away,” said Knight. “It was against Southend and I scored with a diving header.

Knight was to score with another diving header later that season – against Bristol Rovers’ future England goalkeeper Nigel Martyn, a goal that featured on ITV’s popular Saint and Greavsie show – and he went on to score eight goals in 43 games for Reading.

Reading had a decent side back then including the likes of Steve Moran, Trevor Senior, Michael Gilkes, Mickey Gooding and goalkeeper Steve Francis.

Also at the club was Brendan Rodgers, who has gone on to become a top Premier League manager.

“I was in digs with him,” said Knight. “He was a Northern Ireland Under-16 international but he was very, very quiet, he was very shy.

“He used to clean my boots, that’s my claim to fame!

“He was a fantastic footballer and a lovely lad but he had very bad knee injuries.”

There were no such problems for Knight, however, who settled into the full-time football straightaway.

“It was just another game of football as far as I was concerned,” he said. “We’d train at 10 or 10.30am to 12.30, I was getting paid to do something I loved doing.”

In those days Reading trained at Bisham Abbey which was also home to England’s players before internationals.

“There would be Chris Waddle and Paul Gascoigne training on the next door pitch,” said Knight, “it was great. They were fantastic facilities.”

Knight enjoyed pretty much every minute of his time at Reading – he got on well with Ian Branfoot – but when Branfoot was sacked things took a sudden downturn.

“Ian Porterfield took over and he and his assistant Eddie Niedzwiecki decided that experience was the way to go,” said Knight. “I slipped down the pecking order.”

Knight admitted that he was “impatient to play” – he’d been a regular under Branfoot – and that was the motivating factor in his decision to move on from Elm Park.

“There were rumours that Sunderland wanted to buy me – they were a big club – but I needed a hernia operation and they needed someone straight away so they signed someone else,” said Knight.

So does Knight have any ‘what if’ thoughts?

“There’s always a what if but if I had gone to Sunderland I wouldn’t have had the fantastic career I had in non-league and met all the fantastic people, many of whom I am still friends with today,” he said. “I certainly don’t have any regrets.”

Knight’s next stop was Gloucester City where Brian Godfrey was manager. He admits it was a bit of a “culture shock” stepping back into non-league football and it was certainly a welcome phone call he received from ex-Reading team-mate Lee Payne, who was plying his trade with BV Veendam in Holland.

“He said they were looking for a right winger and would I be interested in playing for them?” said Knight.

He certainly was and he spent two happy years playing for the first division club.

“I was living abroad and I was full-time, it was good football,” added Knight.

Another managerial change brought an end to another happy period in Knight’s life – “My contract wasn’t renewed,” he said – and he returned to this country to play for his old mate John Murphy at Trowbridge Town.

“The pitch wasn’t the best and the ground was a bit of a chicken shed,” admitted Knight, “but the fans were fantastic.

“John put together a really good side – Mike Kilgour, Dave Webb, John Freegard, Aidy Harris – and there was a great social side.”

Murphy was also trying to find a route back into the pro game for Knight around this time, but when the one-time Cheltenham boss went to Gloucester, Knight, and quite a few of his Trowbridge team-mates, followed him to the cathedral city.

“That was an enjoyable time and they were fantastic supporters,” said Knight. “John was a fantastic guy. With his football knowledge he could still manage today.”

Knight spent two seasons at Gloucester during which time he returned to Cheltenham Town for a month’s loan when Chris Robinson was boss, a move that didn’t really work out.

The next stop was Halesowen Town – by his own admission Knight had become something of a footballing nomad – but it wasn’t long before he got a call from new Cheltenham boss Steve Cotterill asking him if he’d be interested in coming ‘home’.

“It was a swap deal with Mark Bellingham,” said Knight. “It was the right time to come back. It suited my geographical needs and I felt I had some unfinished business at Cheltenham.

“I was still very young when I’d left the first time and then it didn’t work out when I went back on loan.

“I’d scored a lot of goals against Cheltenham over the years and always got plenty of stick so I thought it would be great if Middy (Brian Midwinter) and his mates were cheering me instead of jeering me!”

And they soon were – “They were great fans,” said Knight – because as has been well documented over the years Steve Cotterill worked a miracle, transforming a club that had long been considered perennial under-achievers into the top non-league side in the land.

“I think Steve knew he had inherited the nucleus of a good squad,” said Knight, “Archie (Lee Howells), Jason (Eaton), Bob Bloomer, and he added to it very well.

“He was a very good coach and knitted a squad together very, very quickly.

“We were lucky in that first season that Gresley, who finished above us, couldn’t get promoted so we went up to the Conference instead.

“I remember Steve sitting us down at the start of the new season and saying we were going to win the league.

“Most of us thought we’d do quite well just to stay in the division.”

They didn’t quite win the league that season, of course – they finished runners-up to Halifax Town – but they did have the satisfaction of thumping the would-be champions 4-0 at Whaddon Road in one of the standout performances of that season or any other.

And anyone who was there that day will always remember the 30-yard Bob Bloomer piledriver that screamed into the back of the net.

“I think Bob had his eyes closed,” laughed Knight, “he never scored another goal like that!”

While that was certainly a special moment for Cheltenham fans of a certain vintage there was even better to come in that 1997/98 season when the club got to Wembley for the first time in their history.

It was the FA Trophy final against Southport – non-league’s equivalent of the FA Cup – and although the final, which Cheltenham won 1-0, wasn’t the best, Knight has nothing but great memories of what was at the time without doubt the biggest day in Cheltenham’s history.

“It was unbelievable to play for Cheltenham at Wembley,” said Knight. “To see people in the crowd you know and to win the trophy for your hometown club is something to be very proud of, it was a first for the club.”

And to those who say that the game itself was disappointing, Knight has a simple answer: “Look in the book, it reads Cheltenham Town 1 Southport 0.”

He’s absolutely spot on of course but anyone who thought Cheltenham had reached the summit of their ambitions that season soon had to think again.

“Steve got us together again at the start of the new season and told us he wanted to win the league and retain the FA Trophy,” said Knight.

And they very nearly did, winning the league with a handful of games to spare and losing out in the FA Trophy only at the semi-final stage.

“I believe that the team that wins the league is the best team and we were the best team,” said Knight.

“We had a togetherness, something that was brought about by the manager and the players. It’s not very often that you get on with everyone in a changing room but that changing room was full of lads who I still get on with today.

“That togetherness helped us to grind out results when things weren’t always going our way.”

The arrival of Dave Norton from Hereford meant Knight was by no means a regular starter in the title-winning season but he was nevertheless a vital cog in what was a very well-oiled machine.

“I’d have liked to have started more games but I was what they call an impact player today.

“I still felt very much involved. What was so special about that time is that if you got left out, of course you were disappointed, but it wasn’t a case of wanting the player who had replaced you to have a bad game.

“You still wanted the team to play well and win, and Norts and I got on very well.”

Knight still had his moments, of course. He started in the 1-0 win over big rivals Rushden & Diamonds in the November and five months later it was from his cross that Michael Duff reached for the stars to head a dramatic last-gasp winner against Yeovil Town which sealed promotion to the Football League.

That game was played in front of a fanatical 7,000 sell-out crowd at Whaddon Road and Knight said: “I came on as a sub, it was nice to be involved.”

That’s a bit of an understatement, of course, but as ways of signing off from a club go they don’t come much better than that.

Knight knew he’d be leaving the club at the end of that season. He’d got a young family, had a good job working in finance – he works for UK Asset Solutions today – and didn’t want to jeopardise everything by returning to the full-time game.

“I went to Worcester City with Graham Allner and also had a season at Witney and Clevedon,” he said.

The records show he also played for Swindon Supermarine twice, Cirencester Town twice, Gloucester City and Cinderford Town, who he briefly managed as well, before finally hanging up his boots after turning out briefly for his very first senior club Shurdington Rovers.

He was assistant coach alongside Kevin Willets at Cirencester when Brian Hughes was manager – he enjoyed it at Cirencester where there were quite a few of his old Cheltenham Town team-mates – and was also assistant to his good friend Chris Burns when he was in charge of Gloucester.

“I enjoyed the training side but not the man management,” he said. “It used to amaze me what players were asking for.”

So how does Knight look back on his playing days?

“I had a good football brain,” he said. “There was also a lot of sheer bloody-mindedness and dedication.

“There were a lot of lads who were good when we were growing up but they didn’t have my determination.”