I'm not saying it's a bad thing being a professional from 17 because it isn't, but I've come from a totally different background and football's been good to me. I just love football but didn't play professional until I was 25, so I appreciate what I've got and the pleasures it's given me.". At the start of the season many would have seen pinching a one-goal victory against teams like Fulham as the best Wigan could hope for in the Premiership. Premiership or Unibond League, he seems to believe, it is only a matter of degree, and he is not likely to adopt any airs and graces: "I know where I've come from and I'll always go back to my roots.
There's pressure on Newcastle, because the fans expect a lot and they've spent a lot of money and should be doing a little bit better. I think Graeme Souness will turn it around and they'll start getting results - after this weekend."Reminded that the unpredictable Newcastle defender Jean-Alain Boumsong has been given new boots for his size 13 feet, Horsfield cheerfully chuckled: "Yeah, I'll most probably feel them up me backside or down the back of me calf."You give it and take it and get stuck in, just like at Scarborough and Guiseley and Halifax. He's always been classed as a hard-working journeyman, but he's got a bit more than people give him credit for. You know what you get with Geoff."The player's own assessment of himself as a centre-forward of the old school is: "I put myself about a bit and get knocked about a bit and just try to hold the ball up and score goals I just wish I'd scored as many as Alan Shearer. I've always looked up to Alan, who's played at the top since he was 17, always scored goals and come back from career-threatening injuries and gone on and played for England."I'd think every striker has the utmost respect for him He gets stuck in, he's an old-fashioned centre-forward. Last season was harder, with only three Premiership goals, though one of those was the first in the decisive home victory over Portsmouth on the season's final day that completed the Great Escape after being bottomat Christmas.
And by the end of August in the new campaign he had beaten that tally, scoring all the team's four goals in their first four matches.Albion's manager, Bryan Robson, blessed with half-a- dozen strikers to choose from on the rare occasions they are all fit, says of Horsfield: "He was a bit unfortunate because he scored four and was leading the line well and playing particularly well, then picked up a calf injury. He was bringing Louis Saha in, which wasn't a bad replacement because he scored 30 goals that season and they got promoted, so that was his decision and it worked. I hold no grudges, I wasn't his kind of player, so I got on with it and went to Birmingham."Just getting on with it is typical Horsfield. Birmingham were delighted to take him, and after a stopover at Wigan, he moved back to the West Midlands for Albion's first successful promotion push.