My week with SAFC stars past and present and why Jordan Pickford can '˜gan canny' in Russia

It’s amazing how many people you play alongside during a career in football. You see them every day for a couple of years and then within the time it takes to put their signature on a contract, you lose all touch with them.

But if you’re still in the game somehow, it’s an incredibly small world and football brings you all together again eventually.

There was no fancy Premier League football for me last weekend.

I didn’t even make it the Stadium of Light for the rare bout of entertainment that broke out there against Boro. I was at Bootham Crescent for York City v Alfreton Town in the National League North to watch proper football, the kind that’s played by the majority of the country away from the elite.

I’ve been coaching alongside Alfreton’s manager Chris Moyses in recent weeks, so I’ve had the chance to reacquaint myself with the non-league game.

It’s a bit cliched to talk about the effort and commitment compensating for the lack of quality outside the league, but at least when you go to these games you know what you are getting. There are still flashes of quality, either from players who have had careers higher up the leagues, or from those on the way there, but there is an honesty to it all that makes it easier to accept, whatever it may lack.

One thing that is surprising is the amount of full-time clubs operating at this level. It is the sixth tier of the English game, but it’s a level that is thriving nonetheless.

The recent successes in the region has given the area a strong presence within the league and it seems it will only be a matter of time before South Shields join Blyth Spartans, Spennymoor Town, Darlington and York City to strengthen that presence even more.

Playing the likes of Blyth and York has also given me the chance to catch-up with a few old faces from my Sunderland days too.

The first game I attended was up at Blyth, who are coached by Darren Holloway and then Saturday at York, where Martin Gray and Brian Atkinson have moved after guiding Darlington up the divisions.

Even though social media means you rarely lose touch with anyone these days, the last time I actually saw Darren Holloway was about 2003 when I watched him play for Wimbledon against Rotherham at Selhurst Park and he dropped me off at the train station after the game.

Fifteen years later, we’re stood in the tunnel at Blyth talking football as if it was last week.

Saturday’s game at York brought the opportunity to catch up with Martin and Brian again.

It’s always good to see lads you played with doing well and Martin has used too his time at Darlington, and now York City, to really get to grips with the nuts and bolts of management and deserves to get his chance to do it at a higher level.

Funnily enough, we bumped in to each other again on Sunday night at the North East Football Writers Association Annual Awards night at Ramside Hall.

Old team-mates, they’re like buses apparently.

It was good to see more old faces there but even better to see a few younger ones too.

I was on a table with Duncan Watmore, with Jordan Pickford on the next one over, and it was worth the five-hour round trip for me just to sit and talk to the two of them.

On his way back from his second cruciate injury, Duncan is the type of player I would have wanted to sit and have my breakfast next to before training every morning.

I was never the most cheery of people first thing on a morning but 15 minutes chatting to him would have put me right - like a dose of sunshine every morning.

He’s such an intelligent and engaging lad you’d find it difficult to find anything about him not to like.

Despite his devastating setback this season, he’s still as positive and philosophical about it as you could possibly be.

And then there’s Pickford.

What more is there left for me to say about him than I haven’t said before?

I spoke earlier about the honesty and realness of lower league football but you still won’t find anyone with more honesty and realness than Jordan.

He’s another player who just makes you feel better by being around him and someone who I wish I’d been able to play alongside.

I bet every training session with him is an absolute joy and it’s such a shame I wasn’t coaching at Alfreton around the time he was on loan there.

We spoke about the piece I did on his side-volley and because he hadn’t been able to do it as often for Everton this season, he got excited that he’d managed to do one against Watford the day before.

It’s that excitement that is infectious.

You can’t manufacture or fake that and I hope the game never jades him.

Best of all was his reaction to me mentioning the World Cup.

For a second he reigned himself in, saying he just hopes he gets in the squad. A standard measured reply. Then a smile broke out across his face. Laughing, he said: “But if I am, I’ll just show them all how to gan on, won’t I!”.

And this is one of the reasons why I love him as much as I do.

To say something like that without even an ounce of arrogance or cockiness about him just makes you like him and want him to succeed even more.

I just hope to heaven Jordan is given the chance to play at Russia 2018, so the rest of the world will know exactly how to gan on too.