IT WAS on December 27, 1989, that Mark Tinkler headed the column's list of names for the Nineties. He was 15, Byers Green boy, the sort of lad who'd not even run an errand without a football at his feet.

He'd first played for the school team when he was seven, joined Manchester United's regional school of excellence, became the fulcrum of the village junior side started by local policeman Brian Hope.

"Good bloke, Brian," he recalls, "the sort of manager who encouraged you, not who stood on the touchline shouting his head off."

The team also included Ben Roberts, now among Charlton Athletic's goalkeepers, Adam Reed who joined Darlington and Rob Bowman, who went with young Tink to Leeds.

"Mark attracts more scouts than the average Gang Show," the column observed 12 years ago.

"A home bird," said PC Hope.

Much has happened in the intervening decade - captain of England schools, in the under-18 side that won the UEFA championship and the Leeds United team which lifted the FA Youth Cup, first team debut at 18.

In 1993 a broken leg sidelined him for five months. When George Graham succeeded Howard Wilkinson at Elland Road and decided that Tinkler didn't fit into his pattern he moved to York City - "I just wanted to play football on a Saturday" - then to Southend United and since last November has been part of Hartlepool United's stupendous sequence, regarded widely as among its chief catalysts.

Most importantly, he is home. Whatever the colour of the other man's grass, it isn't Byers Green.

It's a former mining village between Bishop Auckland and Spennymoor, visible across the fields from the back bedroom of the smart new house in Binchester Moor which he shares with Julie-Anne, the hairdresser whom he marries on June 9.

Already greying - "what five years at Leeds United does" - he admits to being far more nervous about a speech than ever he was about playing at Wembley.

Sometimes he'll walk over there, sometimes ride across on his bike, sometimes have a couple of pints with the lads in the workmen's. "I didn't sign for Hartlepool to come home, I signed to do well for myself," he insists, but it was still pretty good to be back.

"I used to come home from Southend every weekend, I hadn't realised it was so far. Somehow I don't think I was meant to be an Essex man."

We met up again the morning after the 3-1 victory over Torquay which extended Pools' unbeaten League sequence to 33 points from 13 games. "Won at a cantor," one of the morning papers had declared, a variation - as a church musician might aver - on singing when you're winning.

Ronnie, his dustman dad, had been at Victoria Park as usual. Doris, his mum, gets too uptight, had once to be escorted from Wembley because of the shredded state of her nerves and so now stays away.

"I think me arriving at Hartlepool just happened to coincide with the full squad being available," he says, modestly.

"They're a great bunch of lads, some very good players, and if I'm playing well then so is the team. We've still to play at home against Brighton and Cardiff, two of the teams above us. There's no reason at all why we can't get automatic promotion."

His broken leg came in September 1993, a reserve game against Manchester United. "Basically my foot stuck in the grass and my body kept turning.

"I found it very difficult being out because for 12 years I'd done nothing but play football. Things had been going really well and I think it had a big effect on me.

"I came back at the end of the season, had a few games on the bench, but the gaffer had signed a lot of players by then. For a year, year and a bit maybe, I wasn't the same because the injury was always at the back of my mind."

He played for York under Alan Little, followed him to Southend but became available last autumn when the club had to cut the wage bill - a fine example, they say at the Pool, of the best things in life being free.

If promotion's achieved, he's confident they can prosper. "We like to get the ball down and play football, which is what happens in the Second Division. In the Third there's more hustle and bustle."

They may also take with them fellow midfielder Tommy Miller's dance music CD, now played in the dressing room before every match. "It's been our lucky mascot," says Mark.

"When the music stops you can hear that other dressing rooms are dead. There's a tremendous buzz about ours just now."

His ambition to play again in the Premiership - "you shouldn't be a footballer if you don't want to do that" - still hasn't been ruled out.

"I wouldn't say I was bitter, but I was very disappointed at the way things turned out at Leeds and though George Graham certainly isn't my favourite person, it's in the past. You move on and right now I'm just glad to be around at such an exciting time for Hartlepool."

For the boy most likely to succeed, the timing has been impeccable.

AT LEAST Darlington won on Tuesday, though thanks to an assisted passage. Before that, even, William Hill's were offering 12-1 against them dropping into the Conference.

Among the takers was a fan of our acquaintance who at the start of the season had also obtained 10-1 from the same generous gentlemen against Darlington finishing in the bottom four.

"You have to hedge your bets," explains our man with the betting slip, who's also been catching up on his surfing. Torquay's website described the fee for Mark Ford, sold to Darlington on Monday, as "nominal". Darlington's website described it as "substantial". It's thought to have been around £15,000. At Feethams they are people of substance.

SPEAKING of under-achievers, remarkable news of our old friends Darlington Greyhounds FC (President: Backtrack). Leading 5-0 at half time in the League Cup, they'd not only allowed the more venerable of the Spraire Lads to equalise after 90 minutes, but were held 7-7 after extra time and following 14 penalties had lost. Dear old Greyhounds, also rans once again.

FREE at a bound, Redcar and East Cleveland council leader David Walsh points out that in Tuesday's column, Marske football club was called Marske Untied. "Hoist by your own word processor," he suggests. Happily David read the rest of the column, too: a little bit of sponsorship for the FA Carlsberg Vase quarter finalists is already in the post.

...the three players against whom John McEnroe won Wimbledon singles finals (Backtrack, February 20) were Bjorn Borg in 1981, Chris Lewis - the hard one - in 1983 and Jimmy Connors in 1984.

Brian Shaw from Shildon today invites readers to name the four Premiership or Football League clubs whose first choice colours feature claret and blue.

More bolts from the claret and blue next Tuesday