Continuing our series of small chats with personalities from Croydon FC, to celebrate their recent 60th anniversary celebrations here is Steve Tyler

Steve is a lifelong Trams fan, well known to many Dulwich Hamlet people as not just a Croydon official and a supporter, but also as a qualified referee...

Some of us have known you for a long time. How did you start following Croydon?

" A chap called Andy Gidley was a ballboy and I had nothing to do one Saturday afternoon, it was about March 1966 and we played Avely, so I came over with him, and Croydon won 3-1. It was actually in reverse colours, and I didn't realise it was us who had scored! I knew they needed a new ballboy, so that's what I became the following season. I think it was about two and six in old money to get in, or something like that, maybe less. I went every Saturday that season, & my first away game was a London Senior Cup quarter final away to Enfield. I just carried on going, have had good times as well as bad. When I first went I was still at school."

There must have been a number of games against Dulwich Hamlet down the years. Are there any that stick in the mind?

"That's one I'd have to think about. Off the top of my head there was one at our place where it seemed you got four in stoppage time, maybe in the eighties, one of Ted Shepherd's teams. But it must have been a bit earlier in the game, but you certainly got four very late goals to turn the game. At your place it's harder to recall, I'm sure I could if I thought longer. The abiding memory for me as a visiting fan was the huge old Champion Hill ground. Massive cinder terracing on three sides, with a huge covered terrace on the far side, crash barriers all the way aling, underneath, and your spare pitch behind the back of that. Four massive old fashioned traditional pylons, and the wooden stand that ran the length of the main side, with the enclosure in front of it, that never seemed to be used. There was also the really narrow alleyway, from the bottom of Dog Kennel Hill, with the chip shop at the end of it."

You are also a qualified referee. What have your visits to Champion Hill in that capacity been like?

" Best not to mention the old ground! Whilst I loved the place as I like my football history, and your place had a real sense of history, there was what seemed like a permanently broken window in the referees room, and the old oil heater never seemed to work, so it was always freezing in there! I began officiating in about 1983, and was on the Suburban League list from 1985, and the Isthmian line, before graudating to the middle. I've done a number of games at Champion Hill over the years, both old and new. I've done both, and you can't really compare, I see them both from totally different angles and eras. There's the bit of history about the place, but at the old ground the boardroom felt a bit like visiting 'Old Fartonians' at times, but that would be invitable anywhere, if people have been at a club for years. I also recall Big Paul always stuck in the office at the front of the new ground for his welcomes. I remember doing one of your games at Enfield, where they had a police presence, and as you knew, I am a policeman myself. They collared you, as you were having a go at me, in your own style, but they saw me smiling and reealised I actually knew you, so you were ok that day! I did a county game at Champion Hill once, London against Essex, and that was one of those days when it was simply a pleasure to referee a match, it was one of my personal top performances as a referee. The players just wanted to play, and let me do what I had to do, which made life so easy and enjoyable, which is actually quite unusual. "

How strange is it to officiate games with former players from the team you support in it?

" It's actually no different to any other game. I treat all players the same, regardless of if I've had the pleasure of seeing them in a Croydon shirt. Some you can banter with, others you can't. What has changed now is that, as i'm not getting any younger, and have been on the local refereeing circuit for years, these days I see old players at game,s but I'm refereeing their kids!"

With Croydon being a local club to Dulwich Hamlet, a fair number of players have turned out for both. Are there any that stick in the mind?

"Well the one that springs out straight away is Jacko, Alec Jackson. Off the top of my head there was Ray Major. Charlie Pooley, Kenny Baker...they're the main ones I can think of right now, but there were a lot more. In the dugout, management wise, there was Jimmy rose, who left us in the early seventies, to take over at your place."

To finish, a general refereeing question...What's the funniest thin you've ever experienced as a referee?

(A long pause...)
"I would really have to have a really educated think about that. But generally I just get dumbfounded about players lack of knowledge of the game, I'd need to get my thinking cap on to answer your question, perhaps it's best I abstain for now!"