AFC Wimbledon manager Neal Ardley spills the beans on his love for a cat called Flopsy and Belinda Carlisle.

First goal: Good question. I cannot remember my first ever goal, but I can remember my first senior goal for Wimbledon. It was a flick on from John Fashanu at home to Blackburn Rovers in 1992, vollied into the bottom corner, but it was swiftly equalised by a young Alan Shearer (the game finished 1-1). I was quickly swarmed by the players, my dad has a photo of it, and when you’ve got Fash, Vinny Jones and Dean Holdsworth on your back you cannot forget that.

First car: Bright yellow VW polo – £850. It lasted about a year, but the engine was only a 900cc – it was like driving a hairdryer.

First pet: Cat, unfortunately it was named by my mother and it was called Flopsy. One of the worst names I have ever heard for a cat.

First hero: Daley Thompson, pictured below. I actually ended up becoming a friend of his, which was really nice, and I got to pick his brains on a lot of stuff. Back then I was very much into athletics, and British athletics was a very good place to be. He came to train with Wimbledon, and I was training with him through the summer. I still get text messages from him occasionally.

First lads’ holiday: In Gran Canaria, with my three best mates from school, John, Ally and Anthony – it was for two weeks, but as the years went by, two weeks became two days because the ability to party that hard goes down as you get older.

Wimbledon Times:

First pin-up: Belinda Carlisle, don’t ask why because I cannot fathom out why I used to like her, but for some reason she was on my wall.

First date: I’ll go with the first date with my wife, Sarah, in case I get in trouble. We went to a pub called the Common Rooms in Wimbledon. My wife drove, and watched while I had a few pints and got nicely relaxed and then went back to mine to watch Pretty Woman.