Martin Butler, a former striker with over 450 appearances for Walsall, Cambridge, Rotherham and Grimsby has embarked on an alternative career - as a heating engineer.

Butler's football career ended just before his 35


"We started the business at probably the worst possible time with the way the economy was going, but so far we are doing okay," he said. "We keep up with everything and at the moment we are doing a lot of solar heating, which we think will become a big thing in the future."


It was not a case of wanting to be a plumber, continued Butler, but when he had the opportunity to go into business it was heating that appealed. "I started a course which went bankrupt but, with the help of the Professional Footballer's Association (PFA) they helped me get on to another one that they recognised and they were a great help. The course was expensive, but the PFA helped me with the costs and I will always be grateful for that," he says.


"We are going big into solar because we think that with the government incentives to be more green plus selling it back will be successful, so we are training up in this area," finished Butler.


His company web site is at www.mk-installations.co.uk.