One to XI: Alex Mathie

Now a delivery office manager at Garforth, Alex Mathie previously clocked up 230 professional appearances as a striker, scoring 94 goals in a career spanning 20 years.

Alex played for Celtic, Morton, Newcastle, Ipswich Town, Dundee United and York City.

His ‘world-class’ debut goal for Newcastle against Sheffield Wednesday was special, but not enough to earn him a regular start (he was competing with Peter Beardsley and Andy Cole!). Although it regularly appears on social media in flashback videos, such as this. Hat-tricks for Ipswich against both Norwich and Sunderland were also remarkable.

Alex took to the airwaves after retiring from football, providing commentary and punditry on BBC Radio Suffolk.

‘I had never used a computer or anything like that,’ he recalls. So, life as a postman was the first rung on a career path that has seen him move off the postie’s patch and into the sorting office.

Alex joined Royal Mail as a postman, working his way up to the position he now has, looking after more than 80 colleagues at Garforth Delivery Office.

Never shy of a football parlance, he said: ‘My day begins at 6am and starts by drawing up the rota of each delivery employee’s round on a whiteboard. It’s a tactics board, I call them my players.’

Lookout for our special football feature in January’s Courier.