MORE by luck than judgement I found myself behind the defence and was hurtling goal-wards through the driving November rain. A second or two later and a satisfying bulge was destined to appear in the back of the net – no sweat.

I am not sure what exactly happened next but instead of fizzing off my right the foot with the usual aplomb the damn thing suddenly wasn’t there anymore.

It had been dramatically scooped away by the goalie who had darted from his area with a rapidity that would have done a whippet proud.

Not only that but in the process of his tenacious attention I had been thrust into the air – making a decent fist of a triple-twist back-flip as I recall – before landing with a resounding thud on the unforgiving surface of the Dorcan seven-a-side football pitch. “Cripes,” I thought. “I have just been Dougie Walkered! “ About an hour later, in The Prince of Wales in Union Street I could barely lift a pint of beer. Three months, it took, before I was back in action – courtesy of a shoulder reviving cortisone injection at the Old Town surgery.

I didn’t in any way resent Dougie’s lusty, uncompromising and sadly successful attempt to prevent me notching a goal for the Old Town Villa at Dorcan that cold and wet night some 17 or so years ago.

Like countless others who had come up against Dougie over the decades, you just had to admire his Peter Schmeichel-like prowess, determination and sheer unwillingness to be beaten between the sticks.

“Dougie was never a dirty player,” says his good friend Colin Hayne, 48. “He was always hard but very fair. He didn’t like letting in goals though – he took great exception to that.” Anyone who saw the Swindon Advertiser on Monday, April 29, will be aware of the tragic plight of the 64 year-old Wroughton father-of-two whose days are now severely numbered after becoming afflicted with a terminal illness.

They will also have read about the poignant tribute paid to him by many of his old footballing pals from down the years – team-mates and opponents alike. Since the late Seventies Dougie had been in charge of various soccer teams – including the Ramsbury and West of England Building Societies, for whom he worked – and later the Fox & Hounds.

They mostly competed in six or seven-a-side leagues on the outdoor pitches at the Oasis and Dorcan. As well as being the captain and organiser of his teams, Dougie was the goalie – and a fearsome one at that.

His teams won trophy after trophy over more than three decades. I first came up against Dougie while turning out for the Adver’s six-a-side team around 1980. At one stage his Ramsbury side won the Oasis evening league something like four or five occasions on the trot – Swindon’s version of the Arsenal Invincibles.

We beat them 1-0 once with an early breakaway goal followed by around 59 minutes of feverish, Dunkirk-like rear-guard endeavour.

The Adver won the league that season but Ramsbury – with Dougie noisily directing operations from the back – resumed normal service next time out and promptly snatched it back.

Over a cup of tea at his town centre flat, Colin, a carpenter, says: “He was such a fantastic goalie. You just wouldn’t get past him. We had a pretty good defence, we were decent players.

“But when anyone happened to get through they had to beat Dougie. Believe me that wasn’t easy.”

Suffice to say, the Ramsbury/West of England/Fox & Hounds didn’t concede too many goals over 30 years or so of continuous football with Dougie at the helm.

Says Colin: “He was so reliable; so solid. He would really fling himself about and his positioning was excellent.

“Dougie was never a big bloke. But he had great determination. He just knew how to stop the opposition from scoring.”

Colin was 15 when met first met Dougie at Wroughton’s long gone Ely pub. “I overhead him talking to Ian Harrison, who was also into football, about Friday night games he was organising.

“I asked if I could join and he said ‘yes.’” It was the start of firm friendship – both on and off the field of play – that has lasted 33 years.

Dougie, who after quitting the building society game ran a craft market at St Peter’s church in Marlborough for several years, retired from competitive games about a decade ago.

After that he continued playing for various sides, often in friendlies – although he never really knew the meaning of the word.

He reluctantly hung up his boots when he contracted prostate cancer in 2012. Dougie beat that and then overcame lung cancer shortly afterwards.

At the start of 2013, however, he was given the devastating news that he had an inoperable brain tumour.

Over the past couple of months the deterioration of a man who had always kept himself in good shape has been both rapid and shocking.

Colin, like everyone else who knows him – or has been clattered by him – was staggered to hear of Dougie’s illness.

He and other footballing pals visited him at the Great Western Hospital and the Prospect Hospice in Wroughton.

“We’d have a laugh and a joke, taking the mick out of each other as always. We’d often talk about our footballing days, which always brightened him up.”

A reunion of Dougie’s footballing pals was arranged. He loved the idea. One final pint with his mates, some of whom he hadn’t seen for years: lots of laughs about misplaced tackles, unstoppable goals and blinding saves.

Around 30 people, from as far as Reading and Rugby, turned up at The Iron Horse in Wroughton last Saturday week. Dougie, sadly, was too ill to attend let alone enjoy a beer. So off they all walked to the Prospect about 20 minutes away to shake their friend’s hand one final time.

There was no shortage of tributes, meanwhile, from former team-mates and opponents at the Iron Horse.

Retired estate agent Brian Dyke, 57, of Lawn, Swindon, says: “As far as Dougie was concerned there was no such thing as a 50-50 ball. It was always 100 per cent his. Every single time, he just went for it.”

Brian, who played against Dougie on countless occasions since the early Eighties, goes on: “He organised everything from the back – shouting and bawling at his defence, getting them into shape.

“I remember scoring against him with my head once. It was a long time ago but I still remember it.” Retired accountant Bert Barnett, 72, of Marlborough, probably played football with Dougie longer than anyone else at the reunion.

Bert, who ran out for Cooper’s Metals at the Oasis in the late Seventies, says: “I was always playing against Dougie’s team. He was very wild. He would come out of the goal flying – he was horizontal sometimes. He didn’t seem to have any fear.”

Bert adds: “Very committed, I think is the best way to describe Dougie’s style of goalkeeping.

“He was a gentleman off the field though.”

Swindon wholesaler John Lyons, 50, says: “Dougie wasn’t a big guy but he put himself about.”

John, who first played soccer with him in 1983, goes on: “He was all about getting people involved in football. He’d organise kick-abouts and get everyone along – ability didn’t matter. It was football for the masses.” John adds: “He is a lovable guy and was a brilliant goalkeeper. He never got out of the way of anything.”

Property company owner Mel Ziziros, 66, of Stert near Devizes, has played against Dougie numerous times since the late Seventies, both at the Oasis and Dorcan.

His fondest memory? Knocking one past him, of course. Says Mel: “He was a great goalie. He’d save a shot when you’d think ‘there’s no way he’s going to get that’ “I’ll always remember scoring against him at the Oasis in the early Eighties.

“I surprised myself really; I hit it so hard – not a toe poke – a really good shot. Dougie didn’t even move. I was really pleased with that one.”

Mel is beaming at the memory; such is the esteem in which fellow players hold Dougie Walker that they graphically recall a goal they scored against him as long ago as 30 years.