STEVE Ball says he will forever cherish the memories of his friend and former team-mate Kevin Campbell following his sad death at the age of 54.

Tributes have been pouring in for the former Arsenal, Everton and West Brom striker after he died last weekend, following a short illness.

Former U’s player and manager Ball emerged through the academy ranks with Campbell at Arsenal, with the pair striking up a potent partnership for the Gunners’ youth team.

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The duo were part of Arsenal’s FA Youth Cup-winning side in 1988 and struck up a strong alliance, both on and off the pitch.

Ball, the former Colchester player, coach and manager and now a U’s director, said: “I was really close to Kev, growing up.

“It just makes you realise that life is short – it’s just so sad.

“In football, you meet a lot of not so straight forward people but you also meet absolute salt of the earth people like Kev.

“I’ve listened to all of the tributes and everyone has said the same things about him – he was so loved because he was such a great person and people were just drawn to him.

(Image: NEWSQUEST)

“I signed for Arsenal at 11 and Kev signed for Arsenal in the same month.

“We grew up together, playing football and we had a really telepathic pitch understanding.

“Kev scored about 60 goals for the Arsenal youth team one year and I probably made about 40 of them - all I did was play a 20 or 30-yard ball over the top and Kevin did the rest!

“But we had this thing where I knew where to put it, because I knew he was going to move into that area.

“I brought Kevin down to Colchester a few times for a night out at the Hippodrome!

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“My mum rang me up really upset, because Kev was the sort of guy who’d give her flowers and stuff like that – he was just that character.

“When we all came through together at Arsenal and got our apprenticeship at 16, you’d get guys from up north, down south, Scotland, Ireland and everybody loved Kev.

“He would make an effort with people and that goes a long way these days, because there’s not many people like that.”

Ball and Campbell starred in Arsenal’s FA Youth Cup triumph, in 1988.

(Image: STEVE BRADING)

The Gunners swept aside Doncaster Rovers 6-1 on aggregate in the two-legged final, with the side also including the likes of David Hillier, Pat Scully, Steve Morrow and Alan Miller.

“We played at the old Doncaster stadium in the first leg, on a Friday night,” recalls Ball, who is head of academy coaching at the U’s.

“The first team had Leeds the next day and George Graham made them come and watch our game.

“We won 5-0 - Kev got three, I got one and Dave Hillier got one.

“I set Kev up two of his goals and scored myself, so it was a memorable night.”

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Ball progressed into the reserve-team ranks at Arsenal, where he continued his profitable alliance with Campbell, who scored 148 goals in 542 career appearances.

Ball added: “I remember us playing Spurs in a game at the training ground.

“We were 3-0 up in seven minutes and Kevin scored all three.

“I set up all three and it was just the way game panned out.

“Kev was an athletic boy and kept himself in good nick – he was such a big, powerful guy and you almost thought he was invincible.

(Image: JOHN STILLWELL/PA WIRE)

“When I played with Kev when he was 13, 14, 15, a lot of people would say to me ‘well, he’s only good now because he’s bigger than everybody’.

“But I knew straight away that there was so much more to Kev than just his size.

“Kev had a really good, technical, astute, subtle finish on him.

“If you look at a lot of Kevin’s goals through the years, he’d caress the ball in rather than blast it.

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“He was under-rated technically and was a really good, all-round footballer who could score a lot of goals.

“I remember Kev and I making our reserve-team debuts together at Highbury, when Stewart Houston was manager and we had the likes of David O’Leary, Graham Rix and Charlie Nicholas playing alongside us.

“Kev looked physically up to that level straight away.

“We were so close and Kev had a far better career than me but I’ll never forget my moments with him, because they are special to me.”