Gazza Cartwright was one of Kevin Webster and Mark Casey's friends from the banger racing crowd. In November 1989, he paid a visit to Casey's Garage to get a dipstick off an Escort van. At that moment, Kevin, Mark and Martin Platt were trying to find a fifth player to play on the Rovers side against Maurice Jones's builders, and the sight of the buff giant, dubbed by Mark as "King Kong with a driving licence", convinced them that their search may be over. Kevin then recalled that he was an experienced footballer - he'd tried out for Weatherfield County FC, and was suspended from the Lancashire League when he was shown a red card and thumped a linesman on the way off.
Gazza agreed to play for the Rovers but the sight of him in the boozer immediately drew suspicious looks from the builders as they'd never seen him in there before. Alec Gilroy nearly gave the game away when he asked Jack Duckworth who he was, but quickly covered by saying he didn't recognise him with his hair cut.
With Gazza playing in defence, the Rovers team won the match. Just before kick-off, Gazza showed a less pleasant side to his personality to referee Derek Wilton when told to play a fair game. Throwing Derek an disgusted look, Gazza asked the man disparagingly, "are you a pansy?"