"I don't think I'm annoying many Rangers fans when I say that Paul is the star of our team; a situation that has come about by a combination of natural talent, sheer hard work and off-field a total underplaying of his role. It was only a matter of time before the England management took notice, and against Yugoslavia he duly rewarded them by laying on the second goal for skipper Bryan Robson. A move, I'm afraid I did not witness because I was six miles away filming the FA Cup Second Round replay between non-league Welling and Reading. Such is my life.

A quick aside here. Apart from having to walk round the terraces to our camera position at Welling I had to brave the home supporters shouting: "What's a QPR supporter doing here?" But at the end I was rewarded. A father brought his young son over to our filming position and pointed to his lad's hat: It was QPR through and through!" And so it was that Paul Parker was linked to Welling United 13 years before he became manager.

The article then goes on to interview Paul about the England match, for which he shared a room with Tony Dorigo and Steve McMahaon. Dorigo was Paul's rival for a place in the team; even Paul expected him to play: "I mean he can use his left foot, I just stand on mine." There's lots of talk about lounging around and watching Neighbours, because it always made him sleepy! And now it's time for Paul to take up the commentary:

"It was a very different sort of game for me against Yugoslavia, because of playing at full back. I suppose over the last three, or three and a half years, I've only played full back 10 times. I'm used to being centre back. The grass is a lot more sapping there. You have to go forward a lot more as full back and when you done it once or twice, you think 'hold on this is a bit harder than normal'. Going forward as a central defender is more of a bonus, but a full back is always doing that. Then you have to get all the way back again. When I came off at half-time I was still breathing very hard.

"(After the game) You go up to the area of the players bar, and all your friends, the press and a lot of other people are there. I stood talking for quite a time, and didn't leave the ground till half past eleven. I'd left my car at the team hotel but it's only 10 minutes from home, so my wife drove me there. Then we got back home just past 12. I had a pre-cooked Safeways hamburge to eat, and watched the soccer (grrrrr) in bed.

"Looking ahead to the World Cup it's nice to know that instead of going just to make the numbers up, I have a chance of playing in the first game. That would really mean a lot to me."