Sad Brad Walker story proves there is much more to life than football

There’s a famous Bill Shankly quote that says otherwise, but there is more to life outside of it.

It brings players down to a more human level. As fans we all get excited about performances and what-not, but there is the human side of it.

For Brad to play just hours after the death of his grandad shows a lot of character.

For him to put his grief aside to come out and play, good on him. It was lovely to see his grandad and grandma gave him the go-ahead to do that.

It’s under very, very sad circumstances, but for him to score a goal for his grandad, as his grandma told him to, is a lovely moment.

It was a sentimental touch for the ex-Wrexham player that will endear him to Shrewsbury fans and hopefully it helps him and his family through this tough time.

There will be family problems and griefs, it will be a tough time but credit to him to turn up and play.

It certainly was a goal for his grandad – what a strike it was.

I remember being away in Mexico in June ahead of the 1986 World Cup and I missed the birth of my third child.

That was the only one I’ve missed and I would’ve liked to have been there for my wife and it was tough for me personally.

Anyway, we got ourselves qualified against Macclesfield and that’s the main thing.

It was good to see Louis Thompson take his chance by scoring his first Town goal. I know a lot of fans were excited by his cameos from the bench earlier in the season.

Dave Edwards has a couple in this competition now. He’s got a big role to play this season and he’s experienced enough to know his league goals will start to flow. That’ll be some icing on the cake for him.

It’s important that all positions can chip in with goals, you obviously want your strikers to lead, but Josh Laurent’s FA Cup goal was a nice finish too.

The free-kick aside they were all goals with runners arriving in the box at the right time and that is encouraging.

Now we want our strikers coming up with a few more.

It was amazing to hear of Ollie Norburn’s Grenada call-up. I remember using my Northern Ireland heritage. The lads were taking the mick saying ‘He’s got an Irish Red Setter!’ or ‘He played snooker with an Irishman!’

It’s great for Ollie. Yes, it would be great to play for England, but being an international is a real experience. It also gives the rest of our lads a breather this weekend.

We head to Bradford next Tuesday for the FA Cup replay and with the second round draw giving us Mansfield at home you can see that carrot dangling towards what we hope is round three.