It takes a lot to make this grown man cry.

All right, I can’t watch vets programmes on the telly in case there is a dog on the operating table. And I’ve been known to blink a bit too heavily during the odd movie.

But a full-on blub? Do me a favour. I can’t ever remember having one of those ....

Actually, before the missus pipes up, there was one night a while ago. But I blame it on the excess alcohol – and Ian Ormondroyd.

So here’s embarrassing confession time about the occasion when big Stix left me filling up in the living room.

Nearly 20 years on and I still vividly recall the goal that sparked it – and how he was miles offside.

My team, the one I’ve grown up with not the one I cover, had just seen their promotion bid put to bed by a striker goal hanging on the line.

The referee, Roger Milford, was the only person on the whole south coast who thought that Ormondroyd – never the hardest man to spot – was standing in a legitimate position. Unfortunately his opinion was the only one that counted.

Milford, or Uncle Roger as Stix jokingly calls him to this day, gave the equaliser and that was that. Leicester were going to Wembley and a team that had finished 12 points above them that season weren’t.

I just about managed to hold it in on the silent tramp back home. But the journey didn’t even deviate via a pub, it was that bad.

And once the front door shut, the waterworks began...

That, in a nutshell, is what the play-offs can do to you. Bradford City’s 1996 triumph was before my time at the T&A, so that Stix-induced tantrum remains my defining memory of what this shoot-out entails.

It’s been a long wait – far too long – to go back in either a personal or professional capacity. The last play-off game I actually reported on was Brighton losing to Notts County at Wembley in 1991!

For those readers of more tender years, that was when the Premier League was still a twinkle in a few chairmen’s eyes. Nahki Wells had celebrated his first birthday the day before ...

Play-offs cover the full gamut of emotions. Ecstasy and euphoria to despair and gut-wrenching disappointment – there is nothing inbetween.

These next few games will not be for the faint-hearted. You need a strong resolve and clean hankies.