[Lord Snooty]

June 18:

Our Player of the Season for 1999/00, Jamie Vincent, was born on this date in 1975 in Wimbledon. Today would be his 47th birthday, had he not tragically died earlier this year.

He was the regular left back during that 99/00 season, a fantastic signing from Bournemouth, with Steve Bruce forking out half a million for him out of the ten million quid that Barry Rubery had given him to spend. There were some great names in that team, like Marcus Stewart, Clyde Wijnhard, Kenny Irons, Nico Vaesen, Dean Gorré and Ken Monkou, so for Jamie to win the fans' vote was a great achievement.

Sadly, the season fizzled out and the next one was a disaster. Jamie was sold to Portsmouth for eight hundred grand, after playing 66 times for us, scoring two goals.

He had a few more clubs by the time he packed in, Derby, Millwall and Swindon amongst them, before finishing in non league with Didcot.

Jamie died of a heart attack on January the 16th 2022. He had three children. His sister Lisa, gave a touching tribute to him, talking to Staffordshire Live.

"He was very charming; a very popular person. He was incredibly kind and very generous. But he was also a joker who would make you laugh."

"His sense of humour was amazing and he was such good company. I remember when it was my sister Sharon's 40th birthday. Sharon hated any kind of attention so she had said that she didn't want anything special. On the night, he turned up at her house wearing a Mexican outfit with a fake moustache. She didn't recognise him and thought it was a strippergram. She ran back indoors yelling. I think that sums up what kind of person he was."

Lisa was with Jamie at his mother's home near Croydon when he died earlier this year and says she was heartbroken when it happened. "About a week before Jamie died, he became ill. It was like a flu-type illness, meaning he was short of breath and he thought it might have been covid but it was not. He had been diagnosed with anxiety too", she said.

"He was living with mum at this point. At this point, our stepfather Jim was about to go into a hospice. Jamie was living with mum but mum had to go with Jim to the hospice and didn't want to leave him alone. So I came down from Burton to be with him.

"I knew about the illness and their trip to the hospital. I came down on Sunday morning and sat with him. He was awake and talking but I could tell his breathing was quite laboured. He had finished his drink and I said do you want some more and he said yes. I went downstairs and came back up again with a drink. When I got in, I noticed I couldn't hear him breathing."

"I'm a former nurse and I started CPR after phoning 999. He was taken to hospital and they worked on him for about 45 minutes. They called it later that day. I was heartbroken." She has said his death has left him and his three children Eleanor, 23, Oliver, 17, and Leah, 14, and his two-year-old grandchild Hallie devastated.

Lisa said: "He was a brilliant dad. He was very teasing. If they were in the car and they wanted to put their music on, he would pretend to be a foreign taxi driver and not know what they were saying. He was there for them all the time."

"Family was so important to him. We were all very close. My mum Maureen has been completely broken, I don't know how she gets up in the morning. She's an amazing woman and Jamie was her boy. She loved him so much."

"He was just so special to all of us. I'm just devastated. His light shone so brightly and it is difficult to know what life is going to be without him. I'm going to miss him texting me to tell me what music he was listening to and silly things like that."

Now, Lisa, who is 56, said she is raising money for the family. She added: "He died of dilated cardiomyopathy. It is a disease of the heart muscle in the left ventricle. Basically, the heart dilates meaning it can't pump blood, as well as the muscle walls, are weakened."

"It is not an easy one to pick up and I am not blaming the hospital for not picking it up. Unfortunately, Jamie hadn't yet got around to making a provision for life insurance. He was a big part of his family's lives and made sure there was always that support there."

"We wanted to raise money for them. He used to play for a team full of ex-footballers called Sporting Kitz. They had a charity football match and they raised over £2,000. He had a lot of friends both in and out of football."

"He was a wonderful person who will be missed."

Cult hero, Collin Quaner has a birthday today. He was born in Düsseldorf on this date in 1991 and is 31 today. Sadly his playing career ended this year through injury, but he will always be remembered by Town fans for his match turning contribution to the Play Off semi final at Hillsborough.

He only played 60 games for us (30 starts and 30 subs) and scored three goals. The most memorable one would be the one he scored in injury time against Preston, slotting home the rebound after Aaron Mooy had his penalty saved.