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Colin meets the King

19/11/2008

PROUD Blues fan and top non-League player Colin Little always knew he was named after the superstar of yesteryear known to City fans as The King.

But, until last night, Altrincham's goal machine had never met Colin Bell.

When he did it was Colin senior honouring Colin junior, who was judged the MEN-Channel M Unsung Hero of the Year.

When Colin was about to be born at Wythenshawe Hospital on November 4, 1972, his City fan father Joey told mum-to-be Maggie that they would name their newborn after the player that scored City's first goal that Saturday afternoon.

The Blues demolished Derby 4-0 at Maine Road with Bell grabbing the opener - so young Little was duly called Colin.

Although not reaching the heights of Bell, Little has quietly carved out an excellent career for himself at Hyde, Crewe, and Macclesfield and has hit 100 goals for Blue Square Premier side Robins.

Legend

When the M.E.N. heard about how Little came to be christened Colin, we fixed it for Bell to hand over our trophy - in association with sponsors flybe.com - ahead of Altrincham's FA Cup replay against Luton at Moss Lane last night.

A delighted Colin said: "It's a good job Rodney Marsh didn't score the first goal!

"My dad was a big Blue but he's not with us any more.

"My mum lives in Spain and it's a pity she couldn't be here tonight."

Meanwhile, ex-England international and City legend Bell said: "It's quite a surprise to me that people like me so much they would call their son after me.

"I'm just a son of a miner and I always like to keep my feet glued to the ground so I would never think that people could be called after me. I played 700 games for City so it's really difficult to remember that particular goal."

At the end of last season, M.E.N. Sport journalists marked all the pro and semi-pro players in Greater Manchester out of ten for their performances during the season and we asked readers, viewers of our sister TV station Channel M and users of our website to vote on who they thought should be honoured.

United's much-decorated Cristiano Ronaldo was judged Player of the Year, with Little named the Unsung Hero.

Reader Mike McDonnell, 21, who works as an administrator for Co-op Retail, has been an Altrincham fan for five years and he gave his reasons why the award should go to Wythenshawe-born-and-bred Little.

Mike said: "He's at the veteran stage now, but as a striker he's awesome. He has sharp, predatory instincts and can always steal a yard because of his quick reactions on a defender. He's also such a down-to-earth bloke, a real talisman for the club."

Mike's vote for Little, and his reasoning, has won him a pair of flight tickets to anywhere in Europe courtesy of M.E.N. Sport sponsors flybe.com.