A KEEN amateur Bolton football player collapsed and died within minutes of coming off the pitch at Burnden Sports Centre.

Dave Brockhouse, believed to be 39 years old, from Breightmet, had just finished playing for the Burnden Sevens team, Alliance Windows, when he collapsed.

He had come on as a substitute for the Burnden Premier Division team, got changed after the match, and was struck down as he returned to the pitch to watch another two teams play.

Staff at the centre frantically tried to revive him and ambulance paramedics tried to resuscitate him, but he died shortly after arriving at the Royal Bolton Hospital.

Today fellow members of the Alliance Windows team paid tribute to the man they dubbed "Mr Reliable", who they said "loved his football". Team manager Gary Clark, told the BEN: "He was a very popular member of the team. There were only four of us left behind at the time. All the others had gone home. "Gary was not our star player but he was our Mr Reliable. The lads are going to miss him.

"We had played a super match which had been fast and furious. Dave came on for the last 10 minutes when we had been winning and I told him to hang back, not to run his socks off, to steady the ship, which he did.

"We got changed afterwards and had the usual banter going. There were four of us still getting changed and Dave had gone out to watch the match following ours.

"He was one of those people who would arrive early and leave late to watch the matches. He loved his football.

"It was then that a player from another team ran in and said one of our players had collapsed. Two of us went with him in the ambulance, but by then we realised there was not much hope." Dave is thought to have suffered a heart attack.

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