Ha, I can relate to nearly all of that! I remember buying supporters to sit in my plastic seats (I wasn't building the Amex, I assure you) and painting them all with Airfix paint to be wearing the various replica shirts. Only had a couple of blocks of a stand though and couldn't afford the floodlights. Always played on my own and wrote up the results in a notebook! When my mate Stephen used to come round to play he used to really push the players round the pitch with his finger which I am sure wasn't the rules. He was bloody nifty with the keeper though, I'll give him that, even if he was generally a cheating b******.

Snap! I could have written almost all of this! Except my mate's name was Darren!

My dad had a few teams and other items from the '50s and '60s (including Palace in claret and blue stripes) before I added a few extras in the '80s and early '90s. I didn't have a PC in those days so rarely got to play all the football games my friends had on their computers like Kick Off and Sensible Soccer, but there's no substitute for the real imitation so I still had hours of fun with Subbuteo instead.

I would recommend Kevin Bridges' autobiography, We Need to Talk About...Kevin Bridges, not only as it's a great read but also because of his own hilarious recollections of playing Subbuteo on his own as a kid.

Loving the nostalgia!

I remember having players clean through on goal and you'd belt a shot only to realise the pitch was creased and it'd go rolling off along the crease for a throw.

I'd like to say that's how I became a Palace fan too, but that'd be unfair as our team was quite good in front of goal in 1990.

The first two teams I had were Bishops Auckland who had a Inter Milan type blue & black jersey along with blue shorts & Exeter City who had red & white stripes & red shorts.

Pro USA & Israel

I remember having Palace, Aston Villa, Wimbledon, Leeds, Liverpool, Arsenal, Sheffield Wednesday, Manchester United. Not sure if I had any others.

Back then the guy that worked in the toy shop was a really nice old chap (please don't make any paedo jokes!) who would talk to me about the teams I was buying. I reckon gone are the days of the staff in toy shops chatting to the kids about their purchases and making recommendations. One of my favourite experiences of childhood though, popping to Leisure and Pleasure (oh, they don't help themselves do they?!) to purchase Subbuteo.

Did anyone else used to make their players do goal celebrations as well? Generally speaking the Klinsmann dive was the easiest with a little plastic footballer.