My friend Bruce Winfield, who has died of cancer aged 60, was the co-owner and co-director of Crawley Town FC. Along with his fellow director Sue Carter, he oversaw the club's recent success, which included playing Manchester United in the fifth round of the FA Cup earlier this year and winning its long-awaited promotion from the Blue Square Bet Premier to the Football League.
Bruce was born in Manchester. The family moved to Dundee, in his mother's native Scotland, when he was a baby, and then to Crawley, West Sussex, in 1958. He remained proud of his Scottish roots and spent many happy holidays with the Scottish side of the family in Dundee.
I first met Bruce in the 1960s when we were students at Thomas Bennett secondary school, in Crawley. We and fellow volunteers spent many evenings and weekends repairing and staffing Crawley Town's almost derelict Town Mead ground. Bruce continued to work behind the scenes into adulthood, becoming equally involved in the financial side of the operation.
In the late 1970s, with the fundraising social club practically defunct, Bruce, in his first guise as club director, along with Les Turnbull, managed to squeeze money from somewhere to refurbish the building, showing his foresight and thus helping to finance the team throughout the next decade.
In his 20s, Bruce was a centre back for the club supporters' team, Town Mead Wanderers, where he showed physical and mental strength as well as discipline and team focus, much as he did in his successful business career.
At Media Square, a marketing communications group that he joined in 2004, Bruce was known as a workaholic, but also as somebody who always had the time to listen, to be a mentor to his staff – and to bend their ears about football.
At Crawley Town, he and Sue gave the manager, Steve Evans, the opportunity to spend wisely on what is now a fine team. This led to around 10,000 Crawley fans travelling to Old Trafford in February for the FA Cup tie against Manchester United, the biggest match in the club's history. Their performance was one of Bruce's proudest moments, and perhaps caused him to rethink his "I don't do emotion" mantra.
Three days before his death, Bruce signed himself out of the hospice against doctors' orders to see his beloved team face AFC Wimbledon, with the words, "Well, what's the worst thing that can happen?"
He is survived by his wife, Silpa, who is actively involved in the club.