Tom Pope: My Sunday football games with FA Cup hero Matt Rhead

I am really pleased to see Matt Rhead doing so well, mainly because it means there is someone in the top five divisions who is slower than me!

Just kidding Matt. It's been brilliant to watch someone I played Sunday football against going on to do so well, in his case into the quarter finals of the FA Cup with Lincoln and competing for promotion from the Conference.

I used to play against Matt plenty of times, when I was playing for the Sneyd and he was up front for the Butcher's Arms. In fact we played against each other in a Potteries and District Sunday League Cup final in 2004 when I got four and I think Matt got a hat-trick in our 6-4 win.

Tom Pope celebrates after scoring four goals for Sneyd in the PDSL Cup final against Butcher's Arms in 2004

It was obvious then that physically he was a handful, but also he was good on the ball with great feet, which is why he has gone on to do so well, playing with Lincoln after spells at Kidsgrove, Nantwich, Eastwood and Mansfield.

I have mentioned before about how playing Sunday football against men was a great grounding for me as a youngster and I would imagine Matt, from Heron Cross, would feel the same. It certainly toughened me up because in my experience the Sunday game was a lot more physical even 10 or 15 years ago than is the case now.

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Nowadays, there aren't so many of the tough old players in a Sunday morning. They are either in the veterans' leagues or prefer to stay in bed. Some of the games I used to be involved in would probably finish as five-a-sides now because there would be so many cards.

I am not sure I ever marked Matt at set-pieces, because in Sunday football you tend to leave the strikers up if you concede a corner. It wasn't as professional as Football League matches and I admit I would prefer to stay on the half way line rather than have to run back to defend from corners, even if that meant pretending not to hear by dad, the Sneyd manager, when he was shouting at me to get back.

But I came up against Matt often enough to respect him as a player and also appreciate what a really nice fella he is too. That struck me when I watched the highlights of Lincoln's win at Burnley last week when Joey Barton seemed to be doing everything he could to wind up Matt and get him sent off.

I know Barton has tried to justify himself on Twitter but I thought he was well out of order and Matt did brilliantly not to react.

He had the last word anyway by helping Lincoln to a brilliant win to earn a quarter final tie against Arsenal at The Emirates. I would imagine that game will seem a long way from Sneyd v The Butchers in the PDSL Cup final.

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