The latest to send us a ‘tribute to Frank [Delling]’ is former Exmouth Amateurs chief Jody Bolt.

Jody says: "I knew Frank for many years so I found the news very hard to accept as the very last time I saw him was on the pitch at St James Park as part of his 80th birthday celebration and I'm pretty sure I'm right in saying that he was the only one from both sides that played the full 90 minutes! What's more, he took a last minute penalty to finish the scoring for the night in a 4-4 draw.

When I was at Exmouth Amateurs he was a huge help to me, with endless work on the pitch and surrounding area and never failing to run the line for the first team every Saturday.

It must be said however, that he was without question, the most unbiased linesman I have ever known in non-league football!

The amount of times he got various players of ours in trouble for off the ball incidents that the referee had not seen was astounding not only to us but even more so to our opposition! Whenever our back line appealed for offside he would refuse to accept it and tell the players to get on with it!

However, when he walked into the bar afterwards the first thing ALL players would do was offer him a drink!

Really not sure whether after all that had gone on before whether many if any people would be offered a beer having clearly been against his own team.

For me, this sums up Frank in that somehow he managed to get people to like him when others would clearly have been hated for their betrayal!

I am sure that Frank will be missed by all who crossed his path and I guarantee that he will be handing out advice whether they want to hear it or not at the gates of heaven.

RIP Frank Delling, a true footballing legend."