139 Chris Lucketti

Position: Centre half

Played : 1988-89

Appearances : 1

Goals : 0

We round off 1988-89 with The One That Got Away. Chris was, like me, a Catholic lad who came from Littleborough and went to Bishop Henshaw's (my mate's kid brother knew him). He was one of our YTS players and got a game towards the end of the season. He did well but was then released while we persevered with Zac Hughes. Oh dear !

Chris followed half the squad to Bergara's Stockport but left a year later without having played for them to join Halifax. There he became a regular but suffered relegation to the Vauxhall Conference with them in 1993. However Bury came to his rescue and he was a mainstay of the side that won back to back promotions in the mid-90s. In 1999 he joined Huddersfield Town and was very popular there; he was sold to Preston for £750,000 in August 2001 just before we played them in the League Cup and witnessed the protests outside the ground. He played another 187 games for Preston before moving to Sheffield United in 2006. Chris was signed as defensive cover but eventually made his Premiership debut at the age of 35. After 14 appearances for the Blades plus four on loan at Southampton he was re-signed by Huddersfield on a two-year deal in 2008 and made captain by his old Bury boss Stan Ternent. However when Ternent was sacked Chris was dropped and invited to find a new club after 13 appearances. After turning down a move to Brighton there were strong rumours that Chris (who lives a stone's throw from Spotland) would be returning to steer us to and through the play-offs. If he had come back it would have smashed all sorts of records for the gap between his first and second appearance for Dale but it never happened. Chris saw out his contract in the reserves at Huddersfield. He has not confirmed his retirement as a player but is currently looking for work as a coach.