Mel Tottoh's Deepdale debut has gone down in Preston North End folklore

Mel Tottoh cannot help but break out into the broadest of smiles when he recalls the shock moment he discovered that his name had been indexed in the autobiography of one of the greatest footballers the world has ever known.

Earning a mention in the life story of Preston North End’s all-time best ever player, the legendary Sir Tom Finney, still makes the Freckleton resident shake his head in disbelief.

Finney’s storied career in the game saw him appear 433 times for Preston in the top-flight, scoring 187 goals.

He represented his country 76 times, finding the back of the net on 30 occasions.

The winger is widely regarded as one of the finest players the world has seen.

So how did Tottoh end up in the PNE great’s book, especially considering his own North End career lasted all of 45 minutes of a game in the old Fourth Division?

The truth is the 69-year-old - who will turn 70 next month - has his own little piece of Preston North End folklore.

Nowadays, Tottoh is viewed as something of a cult hero amongst PNE supporters after he interrupted his shift at British Aerospace, where he was working as an electronics engineer in Warton, to answer an SOS call from manager Tommy Booth to turn out for the first-team against Scunthorpe United at Deepdale one cold November day in 1985.

It was the famous fixture which had to be played in the afternoon on a Tuesday due to a floodlight fault at Deepdale.

A few weeks earlier, the lighting structures at Deepdale had been condemned as unsafe during a health and safety inspection by Lancashire County Council.

Saturday matches - as the dark nights of winter drew in - had been pushed back to 1-30pm kick-offs, and the club had no option to do the same for their scheduled evening midweek clash against the Iron even if it meant most of their supporters would have been busy at work or school.

The club’s off-the-field issues concerning the floodlights at their old and outdated stadium were symptomatic of their problems on the pitch.

Fifth from bottom of the old Fourth Division at the time, the club was lurching towards its lowest ebb.

They would later be forced to apply for re-election in the Football League after finishing in 23rd spot at the end of the season.

That Tuesday afternoon kick-off was the nadir as far as Finney, who would have been club president at the time, was concerned.

Witnessing his club drop from one of the best teams in the country, when he was in his pomp, to a shambolic outfit both on and off the pitch was too much for him to bear.

In his book, he described it as the moment the club reached rock bottom.

How had the club fallen so far that they had to play a league game on a Tuesday afternoon in front of the club’s lowest ever league attendance of just over 2,000 - and forced to call upon the services of a local league player in Tottoh?

In fairness to Tottoh, he was no local league player - he had been on the books of North End since 1979 after leaving the Merchant Navy.

Spotted playing as an amateur, the tall imposing striker had been a regular feature for PNE in their reserves and A team.

However, his decision to shun a full-time contract in favour of a part-time one meant he was very much down the reckoning for a first-team call-up.

“Preston offered me £6,500 a year to go full-time, I was earning £9,000 at British Aerospace,” Tottoh revealed.

“I had actually come out of the Navy where I was earning £27,000 as an officer.

“But I left the Navy for family reasons, my first child was born.

“I couldn’t take a wage drop of £2,500 but PNE offered me a part-time contract so that’s what I did.

“I would train in the evening and British Aerospace would give me one morning off to train.

“They would also give me time off for pre-season training.

“Sir Tom wrote in his book that the game against Scunthorpe was one of his worst moments in the game.

“But for me, it was my greatest moment - I made my first-team debut.

“I actually met Sir Tom years later as part of the former Preston North End Players’ Association.

“He didn’t realise that I was actually signed-on with the club and had played for the reserves and A team.

“He thought I had just come from local football but what he wrote in his autobiography was nothing personal against me.

“Sir Tom was a wonderful man.”

As for the match in question, Tottoh’s memories of the day are vivid.

A sickness bug had hit the squad, meaning Booth’s assistant Brain Kidd sent an SOS call out for the big striker while he was at work.

But if the former Fulwood High School pupil was expecting North End to provide a chauffeur-driven escort from his place of work to Deepdale for his grand debut, he was to be sadly mistaken.

He turned up to the ground looking rather dishevelled and sweating profusely having cycled all the way from Warton, via his home to collect his boots.

“I was at work when my boss Billy told me that Brian Kidd was on the phone,” recalls Tottoh recalls.

“I thought it was a wind-up, I thought somebody was taking the mickey.

“I remember saying, ‘Go and pick on somebody else’.

“Billy said, ‘He’s on the phone’!

“I got handed the phone and Brian Kidd said, ‘Mel, we need you! Can you come and play?’

“I looked at my boss because I was working and I obviously needed to get time off to play.

“Billy nodded, so I said to Brian, ‘Yes, I can play’.

“Brian said, ‘That’s absolutely brilliant and then he slammed the phone down’.

“Then I thought, ‘How am I going to get to Deepdale’?

“In those days there were no mobile phones so I could not ring Brian back.

“I didn’t know whether the club would authorise a taxi for me to get me to the ground.

“So I had a push bike which I used to ride to get me to work, so I set off for Deepdale on my bike.”

Having cycled all that way, Tottoh was placed on the substitutes’ bench by Booth with a triallist, teenager Mark Rodgers, was given the nod upfront.

Scunthorpe would go on to win - the game’s only goal arriving in the fifth minute when future Manchester City and Everton full-back Neil Pointon’s cross was flicked on by Willie Ferry into the path of Iron player-coach Steve Cammack, who fired home.

In desperate need of an equaliser, Tottoh was thrown on at half-time and almost helped conjure up an equaliser.

His flick from a Brian Chippendale cross was met by Gary Brazil who crashed a shot against the post.

“It was one of those games where we did everything but score,” said Tottoh.

That season would prove to be his final one for PNE as John McGrath arrived at Deepdale that summer as manager and decided there would be no room in his squad for part-time footballers.

Tottoh, who turned out for Fulwood Amateurs while he was at PNE and later played for Lytham, believes he would have made more first-team appearances for PNE if he had been able to afford to turn professional.

“I was fast and strong,” he added. “I could play up front or on the wing.”

His colourful football career amounts to just one chapter of Tottoh’s incredible life story.

Raised in a Preston children’s home from the age of seven - the Harris Children's Home, in Garstang Road, Fulwood, Tottoh - who is originally from Manchester - is one of 12 siblings.

The only black kid at Fulwood High School, he admits he encountered racism in his formative years and early adulthood.

However, his upbringing - while challenging - proved to be the backdrop of an eventful journey in life.

Married to Melanie, Tottoh has two daughters Carla and Sophie, and a son Simon. He is also now the proud grandfather of 10-year-old Theo.

After serving all around the world in the Merchant Navy, including in perilous locations such as the Middle East during the Iran/Iraq conflict, Tottoh worked at BAE Systems until the mid 1990s before he set up a hugely successful coaching and team performance consultancy business.

But without doubt his most inspirational story occurred around five years ago when he was diagnosed with the incurable blood cancer Myeloma.

Thankfully, he is now in remission after gruelling chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment, combined with a stem cell transplant.

This month he has been the face of a campaign to raise awareness of the cruel disease, which claims the lives of eight people on average per day in the UK.

While he is in remission, he will take medication for the rest of his life to manage the disease.

“Managing the symptoms post stem cell transplant is just something I have to accept,” said Tottoh.

“You have to live your life to the full - no matter what the symptoms are, so I am making the best of things.

“One day, like everybody else, I will die but for all the other days, I will live my life to the full. That is my motto.”