Liam Rosenior had a true football upbringing, spending the most part of his younger years watching his dad, former professional footballer Leroy Rosenior, enjoy a successful career, during which he played at the highest level.

For the current Hull City boss, it all started at Upton Park, after Leroy Senior signed for West Ham United from Fulham – the Club where he’d started his career and returned for a second spell – in 1988.

“My first memory of my dad on a football pitch was when I was a young boy at West Ham,” he recalls. “It was amazing back then; John Lyall was the manager. Every home game, my dad would take me and my brother Darren to Upton Park when I was four or five years old.

“He would allow us to warm up with the players in the dressing room 10 minutes before the game, then we’d go upstairs with my mum and watch my dad play in what was Division One back then because he’s so old!

“I used to watch him score goals at the old Upton Park and it gave me a lot of great memories and inspiration to do it myself.”

He opted to follow in his father’s footsteps as a player. The 39-year-old even came through the ranks at Bristol City – one of his dad’s former Clubs where he played between 1992 and 1994 in the latter stages of his career.

“My greatest football memory with my dad was when I was a mascot when Bristol City played Brentford at home and he surprised me and my brother by making us mascots and taking us out on the pitch,” he remembers.

“It was actually one of the last games he played in his career and he ended up scoring a hat-trick that day, so me and my brother Darren were lucky mascots for him. That was one of the best days of my young life.”

Having witnessed first-hand some of the obstacles his dad had to overcome, it didn’t dishearten Rosenior, who was encouraged by the strength and resilience in his family to pursue his own career.

Rosenior junior would go on to play in the Premier League with the likes of Fulham – another of his dad’s ex-employers – Reading, Hull and Brighton & Hove Albion, before hanging up his boots and before stepping into the world of management.

“He played at a time when there was a lot of racism in the game and he was one of many black players who faced racial abuse on a weekly level,” he adds. “When they were playing, there were taunts and chants, but he had the self-perseverance and the confidence to keep going and break down the pathways for the next generation which includes myself.

“I was so proud watching him play for Bristol City, West Ham and Fulham. Watching your dad play football in front of 20,000 or 30,000 people every week when a lot of those people are against you for the colour of your skin gives you a lot of motivation and inspiration.”

Even now, the Tigers head coach takes inspiration from his dad, who taught him to always be himself.

He continues: “My dad had a huge impact on my career because he was my dad and he did something – in terms of playing football and managing – that I always wanted to do, but also he always gave my confidence and belief in myself that I could do it if I worked hard enough and that’s something I’ll always be thankful for.”