Kevin Dillon arrived at Newcastle around the same time as Micky Quinn ... with a better goalscoring record in the top flight than the Fat Man.

That was the first season St James' Park had betting booths on sight, so the temptation was there to slap a fiver on the midfielder for the first goal (usually at odds of 15/1).

I did it religiously, and he rattled the bar against Oldham, Blackburn and Bournemouth that 1989/90 season, and hit the post against Stoke.

But he NEVER scored - first goal or last goal (or any inbetween) - and I lost a friggin fortune.

The fact he was a Mackem didn't help, and every defeat we suffered he was reminded of the great Tyne/Wear divide.

So where is this story leading?

He was appointed manager of Aldershot yesterday.

While there is a gamble in the appointment in that this is Dillon's first role as a manager - bar a brief spell as caretaker at Reading, six years ago - Dillon has been in football for a long time.

He played as a teenager under Sir Alf Ramsey at Birmingham City, then went to Portsmouth, the Toon and Reading.

More than a decade of coaching followed at Reading, assisting Alan Pardew and Steve Coppell, before he left there in May.

Dillon: "It's good to get back in the game. I'm sick of gardening, hoovering and dusting.

"The courses I have been on [for my badges] have been great from a football educational side of things but it's the contacts that you make there that are so important.

"Yes, I've got some good contacts.

"I'm very into the scientific approach. "