Part Two

We've already read about the start of Steve's career at Hartlepool United. In the summer of 1992 he moved South, signed by Tony Pulis for £30,000, on the road to becoming a Bournemouth legend.

Steve made his Cherries debut on the opening day of 92-3 in a 1-1 draw at Preston, ex Spireite Keith Rowland the Bournemouth scorer and Steve scored on his home debut, a 2-1 win over Walsall.

"I played alongside Efan Ekoku to start with," he recalls, "In fact I worked out recently with the programme editor at Bournemouth that I'd had over 80 different strike partners there, including people who've come on loan. Most of them went on to better things and I stayed at the same level!"

Unspectacular 17^th places in his first two seasons as Dean Court, but he was awarded the 93-4 Player of the Year accolade, "Winning that award changed my season around. I'd had a difficult start, Bournemouth had just lost a player called Jimmy Quinn and I think people assumed I'd come to replace him but I was only a youngster who'd played a handful of games at Hartlepool, so I didn't really fill the boots of Jimmy. But then I had a fantastic season, much of which I played at the back because we had so many injuries, so I ended up playing centre half, I got the Player of the Year and it turned my career around."

Pulis moved on and, managerless, Cherries stuttered to seven straight league losses at the start of 94-95, though they only narrowly lost to Chelsea, twice, both 1-0, in the League Cup. Mel Machin came along later and led the Dean Court Great Escape.

"We didn't have any manager at the start of the season, the Youth Team Manager and the Reserves Manager were looking after things, it was a hard time. By Christmas we'd still only got 12 points and were something like 9 points away from the next team and we'd been written off. From Christmas to May, on form, there was only Birmingham, who got promoted, had a better second half of the season than us."

Despite that form, it still went to the last game of the season and with 10737 at Dean Court, Shrewsbury were beaten 3-0 and safety was assured, "I've still got the video, even though it wasn't really achieving anything apart from keeping first division status, to come back from what we'd done, Mel came in, got some players in like Neil Young, who's still there now, Steve Robinson, Steve Jones, Matt Holland, Ian Cox, we had a great squad. We were awesome in the second half of the season, beat everyone at home but it still went to the last game, a fantastic atmosphere, a massive memory for me. We were three-nil up in 20 minutes so the game was dead and buried."

The following season was a personal disaster, "I missed the whole season through injury, I've had 11 operations on one knee, so I've had a bit of a bad time with that over the years."

Back to fitness in 96-97, 16^th spot but some good loan men on display, George Ndah, Michael Duberry and a certain Rio Ferdinand.

"We had a few lads come down to play with us, many from West Ham due to Harry Redknapp's connections with Bournemouth. Rio was different class, a cut above, too good for our level and with the other good players we had, we should have walked the league that season."

The Club were going through tough times as well then, and were just 15 minutes away from going out of business, "The Club was something like £4m in debt, owing money left, right and centre, gone into receivership but right at the last minute, someone came in with some money, but the people owed only got something like 11p in the pound, which is disastrous."

"The receivers came in, I'd been there about six years at the time and all of the non playing staff lost their jobs, people who'd been there for years and years, it was awful, just seeing people leaving, plenty of tears shed and we all thought the club was going to collapse but the community rallied around with people around the ground putting all they could afford into the club, ordinary people who hadn't got any money to rub together, it brought things to light, even though it's not really a footballing Town."

"People were prepared to put their last penny in to save the club. We went a couple of weeks without being paid, we thought that was our responsibility, the boys just said we needed to keep playing because if we give up, the club won't survive, so we all pulled together. It was hard. We all thought our days there were numbered."

97-98 saw a 9^th place finish and a trip to Wembley plus Steve's best ever goals haul, 13. "It was fourteen, don't knock any off, I don't get enough for that." Every record source I've looked at says 13!

A crowd of 62432 at Wembley for the Autowindscreens Trophy Final, "It was brilliant, we played Grimsby, who beat us on the Golden Goal in extra time, we took 30,000, fantastic day. You can imagine as a kid, going through the tunnel at Wembley, you never think it's going to happen to you, and it's something I'll always look back on. I know we were beaten but we did well to get there, it was difficult to take but it was only a cup game, not life or death, something I'll always remember, playing at Wembley in front of 60-odd thousand."

More disappointment the following season, missing out on the play-offs in the final game when just a home win against Wrexham was needed, "Absolutely disappointing. We'd lost four major players in the build up to the game and we didn't perform, a win would have clinched it but Wigan just pipped us. It was a drab 0-0, and one of the biggest regrets of my career that we didn't produce to get to the play-offs. I look back that at the team we had then and it was a missed opportunity."

Another disappointment in 99-00, 16^th and then Machin left early in the following campaign, former playing colleague and record Bournemouth appearance holder Sean O'Driscoll took over in a season where on loan Jermaine Defoe hit the headlines with 19 goals in 31 games. The play offs were missed again on the last day in a game at Reading. "We should have gone up that season as well."

The knee struck in 01-02, Fletch made just three appearances and that no doubt contributed to The Cherries relegation. "I came back against Worksop and scored then started at Saltergate and my knee broke down again, so that was the end of the season for me."

AFC bounced straight back, via the play offs, Lincoln beaten at the Millennium Stadium, 5-2 the score, 32148 the crowd. The following summer saw Fletch's testimonial game against Portsmouth. Steve got two as did Pompey's Teddy Sheringham in a 5-4 Cherries win.

"I had to wait a year for my testimonial because Mel Machin had managed to get Man United in for his testimonial, so it was my 11^th year when I had my game. It went well because we got promoted. I still watch the video of the play-off final when I became the first Bournemouth player to score at the Millennium Stadium. I've got some great photographs of my family on the pitch. The best day of my life."

The following season saw fellow frontman James Hayter hit the headlines when he replaced Steve as sub and went on to score the League's fastest ever hat-trick, "It was unbelievable, we were absolutely torturing them. Just before I came off, I'd hit the bar with a 40 yard volley. I never try to shoot from outside the box because I never hit the target, but I whacked this one, it hit the bar and bounced onto the line. Someone came to me the other day and said about that game, which will always be renowned for James's hat-trick, but his memory of it was me hitting that volley rather than the hat-trick, quite a few have told me that, even though it didn't go in! His hat-trick was unbelievable, just bang-bang-bang, we didn't know until afterwards that it was the fastest ever, so you can imagine the euphoria that came after it, James did well out of it, it kick started his career."

Legendary status officially arrived in 04-05. Steve passed O'Driscoll's league appearance record in a game at Bradford, he hit 500 senior games for AFCB, bagged his 100^th goal and his only ever hat-trick, against Brentford.

"I'd rather have been at home to beat the record, but there was a celebration the game after, ironically at home to Hartlepool. I also got my first hat-trick that season. People had been saying I'd never get one, I'd scored a brace on about 10 or 11 occasions, but just couldn't get that hat-trick, even if I'd got two before half-time, I could never get a third. Keepers would pull off great saves and it became a bit of a joke between the lads, 'You'll never get a hat-trick Fletch' they'd say, but of all days, I got one on New Years' Day against Brentford, fantastic. A left footer and two headers. I've still got the ball. It all happened that season, a fantastic time for me."

An in and out season in 05-06 before last season when O'Driscoll left for Doncaster and Kevin Bond came in, relegation was narrowly averted, but worse was to come, a parting of ways from his beloved Bournemouth.

"Towards the end of that season, I had no idea I'd be released. I'd played most of the season, was captain for much of it, I honestly thought I'd be going in to see the manager to get another year, but things happen in football, so I went in and was as surprised as anyone. I spoke to Directors afterwards who allowed me to go back and have a send off game this pre-season, we got 7000 people for that, it was a celebrity match, and it gave me the chance to say tar-ah to the fans. Kevin's the manager and he's got to make those decisions, whether I feel it's right or wrong, I just had to accept it. I was disappointed because I just thought I'd be at Bournemouth for ever, just slip into the Manager's job. After 15 years, I couldn't foresee anything else other than Bournemouth."

Their loss is our gain and Big Fletch will no doubt terrorise many a defender over the next few months in our colours, and he's very welcome here.

Phil Tooley