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Jim Corbett It was just another day at Priestfield Stadium for programme seller Jim Corbett, weaving in between the rows of seating and trying to stay out of the rain. He was just about to head back to the hut for his half-time mug of piping hot Bovril when the Gillingham right-back mishit the ball into the stand. Jim saw his chance and, laying down his wares, controlled the ball with his thigh before pivoting on his right foot to volley the ball 40 yards into the back of the net. At half-time, the Gills manager signed him up. Little Jim's life would never be the same again. Fictional? Well, mostly. Corbett did sell programmes and he was spotted by Gillingham manager Mel Machin, but he laughs off the suggestion that the two incidents might be related. Even so, the start of his career does have the stuff of legend about it. He'd supported the Gills as a boy, and once he'd signed from Medway, a local youth team, he made rapid progress from the YTS ranks to the first team. In his first full season as a professional he scored the winner in a League Cup tie with Bristol City and secured a move to Blackburn in an appearance-related deal that could one day make Gillingham �1m. Machin wouldn't have found Corbett hard to spot - though he's an unremarkable 5ft 9in and has a physique like a whippet, Corbett has also the pace to match. And his lithe figure means that he can weave his way into the heart of defences. Nobody's touting him as the next Stanley Matthews but if the next few years of his career are as exciting as the first, then it won't be long. The speed with which he was signed to Blackburn gives you some indication of how confident Roy Hodgson was in his choice. 'I heard on a Monday night,' Corbett remembers, ' and then signed on a Tuesday. It was quick. And I wasn't even on the transfer-list.' But at Ewood Park Corbett's luck - and his build - let him down. In a pre-season game against Forrest, he contested a 50/50 ball with Nigel Quashie (not exactly a man mountain) and ended up with a broken leg. He's on the mend now, though, and weight-training night and day and a steady diet of chicken and pasta are bulking him up nicely.
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