A good few years ago now I was on holiday in Tampa, Florida, with Anne and our young children.

Those were the days when soccer as they call it had just taken off in the States.

Tampa Bay Rowdies were the second biggest club to New York Cosmos.

I got a call at the hotel one morning to say could two of their staff come up to see me. They were Keith Peacock and Ted Buxton.

They had had enough of the good life in Florida and wondered if I could put a word in for them back at Gillingham, who were looking for a manager.

I rang the then chairman Dr Grossmark and got them an interview. They subsequently became manager and assistant.

A few years later Ted joined up with Terry Venables at Tottenham and then again with England.

You may remember England were to go on a controversial trip down to China and reports came back that the ground was totally unsuitable so Ted was sent off in advance to have a look.

He made sure that the pot holes were filled in and stayed over there waiting for the team to arrive.

One of the locals thought they would take advantage and asked him to do a couple of coaching sessions.

This was not what Ted would normally do but having been around training grounds so much he put on a few set-pieces.

England duly arrived and played the game which was more notable for the antics of Paul Gascoigne & Co on the return air trip, when I believe at one stage he was actually locked in a luggage rack.

However, after Terry had finished with England it just so happened China were looking for a new manager and someone said what about that English fella that helped out?'.

Ted was interviewed and got the job.

Not bad for a fella that came into the game originally because he had a butcher's shop next to the Millwall ground and used to supply the players with their steaks.

However, Ted has got a fabulous reputation in the business here because of his scouting abilities and he let me know recently he was going out to the same tournament as our academy in Dallas.

The Dallas Cup has been on the go for many years now. It is organised mainly by Gordon Jago who himself many years ago after spells as manager of Queens Park Rangers was at Tampa Bay himself.

He had invited Ted, who actually travelled out on the same plane as our own academy team.

The reason I am telling you all this is because the day after they returned Ted rang me to say how impressed he and in fact the American organisers were with the conduct of our team both on and off the field.

They were unlucky to only finish third. The tournament was won by Sao Paolo of Brazil but our lads beat Real Madrid for third place.

I always put great importance on off the field behaviour and discipline and I was delighted to hear how impressed Ted was and he gave full marks to George Prost and Matt Crocker and the other staff who travelled.

Possibly most importantly he said there was a number of players who he will be very surprised if they did not figure in our first team in the very near future.

So the tradition goes on and I add my own congratulations to the staff for that.