“Some of my friends did OK and got jobs and so on but others, well, they got into trouble. Some went to jail,” Downing says. “But it was never like that for me. I was always playing football. My dad was very strict, very firm, and he made sure I turned up, that I stayed away from trouble, and some kids don’t get that in their lives and that’s maybe why they fall by the wayside. But it was the making of me – where I came from, the way I was brought up, the mates I still have from then.