LISTEN AND LEARN

I was a guest on Hull City's very own radio station KCFM this week and was expecting a hard time.

They often get ex-players on and invite listeners to text in their questions. I was pretty critical of Phil Brown last season because I thought he was trying to get me sent off but the fans seem to have forgotten all about that.

The toughest question they threw at me was: "Is it true that when you played in Australia you bought everyone in the crowd a beer?"

It's a great story to have in your locker but not entirely true. I did buy for a few of them but my meagre wages didn't quite stretch to a schooner for all.

WHO ARE YA? - Blackpool's Ian Evatt (left) makes himself known to Cardiff's Jay Bothroyd, which is more than he managed with the QPR fans

I really enjoyed the show and it was great talking about the good times I had in my three years with the Tigers, especially in 2004 when we got promotion from League Two. I even got a bit emotional.

I think all players look forward to playing against their old teams.

It was a fantastic when I played against Hull at the KC last season. I got a great cheer from the crowd, just as I did when I played against Brentford - where I spent the 2001-02 season and helped them to the play-off final.

It was a very different experience when I went back to Oldham, where I played three years ago.

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The range of insults was highly impressive, including being called both a 'useless, fat waste of space' and a 'skinny beanpole' as well as 'ugly' and 'a donkey'. It's not easy to be both fat and skinny at the same time, but I obviously managed it.

At one point during my warm-up, someone was so vociferous in their ridicule of me that a steward asked if I wanted them to be kicked out. I declined the offer but only because I didn't want to make myself even less popular!

I just try to shrug it off because most of the insults are pretty funny and they usually make your team-mates laugh.

I dread to think what the reaction would be if I ever go back to Stockport's Edgeley Park. I had a less-than-successful six months there back in 2002.

Still, I'd rather get all the abuse than suffer what happened to my team-mate Ian Evatt when we played his old club QPR last season.

He'd been building it up all week, saying :"I wonder what sort of reception I'll get? What will they say? What will the chants be?"

When we turned up, there was not a sound directed at him - no boos, no cheers, no nothing.

The rest of us took great pleasure in giving him stick, delighted that his old fans didn't even know who he was!

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