IN the last in a series of exclusive extracts from his new autobiography, here John McDermott recalls the events that led to him calling time on his remarkable career...
I HAD suffered one or two injuries, nothing major, but was in and out of the side that season (2006/07) and had got disheartened by it all.
So I told Alan Buckley I had decided I was going to finish at Christmas.
'I'm coming up to 38, you can have my contract, I don't even want it paying up, it's hardly worth it,' I told him.
I was starting to feel a bit leggy so I was ready to go.
I didn't want to carry on playing to the stage where people thought I was no longer up to it.
In the end, I did carry on after Christmas, but I had made up my mind I was definitely going to call it a day at the end of the season.
It soon got to the point where I was basically just training and not playing.
But things changed the week we played Boston United away in February 2007.
I had trained hard all week and felt good. Alan had always praised my training and used me as an example for other lads of how he liked to see his players train.
But this week he said to me, 'Macca, I'm going to leave you out this week completely. Spend the weekend at home with the family, there's no point you coming.'
At the time I found this quite hurtful.
Gary Croft had been generally playing right-back but he had an injury, so I couldn't understand why I wouldn't be in the squad.
I reacted defiantly and said to him, 'I tell you what, Alan, I'm not going to stay at home – I will come to the game anyway and watch.' I wasn't quite ready for my pipe and slippers yet.
Crofty had a bit of a ding-dong with Alan before the game because the manager said he was only going to be on the bench because he hadn't trained, whereas Crofty thought if he was fit enough to be a sub, he was fit enough to start. As it was, Matt Bloomer played right-back, Gary did start on the bench and we thrashed Boston United at their place 6–0.
It was at that point that I thought to myself: 'You know what, I'm going to get back into that team. I'm not going to let anyone start to pity me or think that my heart's not in it any more'.
The win sparked us on to a decent run of results and, after that, I was a regular in the team until the end of the season.
But I knew I would be retiring come May. Having got past the landmark of 750 games, I thought I would finish at home.
My last appearance was going to be our final home match of the season against Lincoln City at Blundell Park.
It was ideal because it was a local derby, a decent crowd and a good atmosphere. I had a guard of honour from the other players at the start, which was fantastic.
In the end it was a bit of a flat game that ended 0–0, but I got a great reception from everyone in the crowd when I got brought off in the second half.
I gave my boots away because I thought I wouldn't be needing them anymore, but I kept my last shirt.
Then the gaffer told me, 'Macca, I think we're going to be needing you again next week.'
'What?! I've given my boots away, boss!' I said.
Luckily I had a spare pair so I played again in the last game of the season away at Shrewsbury.
An away match like that might have been something of an anti-climax. But what I hadn't realised was that it was Shrewsbury's last ever game at Gay Meadow before they moved to their new ground, so there was an amazing atmosphere and it was absolutely packed.
It was a good game and I came off again before the end.
Then they put my number up, everyone stood up and there was a massive round of applause.
I turned around because I assumed one of their players was coming off at the same time. But it was for me!
Later on, I was chatting to an old guy who was one of the Shrewsbury fans.
He came over to me and said: 'I've been coming here for fifty years and I've never ever seen that happen before. You must be someone very special'.
After the final whistle, fair play to the chairman, he took me down and shoved me in front of our fans so it was a nice send-off for me.
It was quite emotional because it was then that I finally knew it was over.
There was no coming back now.Don't forget to get involved with our exclusive web-chat with John McDermott from 12.15pm today
