SYNOPSIS

Amid the cut-throat and fast changing world that football has become, Dave Matthews showed that some things can stay the same. Born and bred in sight of The Hawthorns, he was just 15 when he asked for a job there - and went on to survive 26 different permanent managers while serving West Bromwich Albion for a scarcely believable 51 years.

From Gordon Clark to Roy Hodgson, he put those famous stripes on the backs of the players and, for almost 40 years, travelled to nearly every Baggies game as well as with them to many distant points on the globe.

This publication was some 12 years in the planning and, sadly, the final section is a posthumous tribute. It is, though, a story that had to be told. His like won't come round again.