DUNCAN FERGUSON How Everton fans and a young boy called Wayne Rooney helped me survive prison nightmare

What got me through the long, lonely nights in Barlinnie was that I must have received 10,000 letters. Incredible. I killed time reading them all. Fans wishing me well and, yes, some expressing rather different sentiments.

A young boy called wrote. He must have been only nine or 10. I wrote him back, without a clue who this passionate football fan would turn out to become. (Apparently, Wayne still has the letter today.)

Some people sent me books – books about pigeons, books about football, books about breaking out of prison. They sent me a blow-up sex doll, which got confiscated! But the letters I treasured most were from Evertonians like Wayne.

Looking back now, I still can’t believe the top brass of – my manager Joe Royle, Club Chairman Peter Johnson and Director Clifford Finch – came to see me.

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It was really nice of them, brave as well. They came into the waiting room at Barlinnie, and it’s like Beirut in there. A total war zone – people bringing drugs, and misery and menace in the air.

Having that support from the high-ups at Everton and the fans meant the .

Big Dunc: The Upfront Autobiography by Duncan Ferguson, with Henry Winter, is published on 8th May by Century

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