Hatch of the day for Colne FC manager

Colne FC’s Steve Cunningham (35) had just celebrated his team’s ninth successive league win at Runcorn when he very nearly had to turn his hand to midwifery.

The Burnley resident was sent into a frenzy when he was woken by his partner in the early hours of Tuesday, March 17th.

But keeping a level head and putting quick tactics in place, he was able to get Caroline (34) to the hospital car park just in time for professionals to take over.

Little Maizie Jane was delivered in the front seat of his black Mercedes at 3-55am, weighing 7lb 14oz.

Steve, who married Caroline in Dante two years ago, said: “I was just frantic. I had fallen to sleep with my laptop on my knee after the ninth win on the bounce, when Caroline woke me up saying she was having lots of pain.

“She had gone past her due date and we had gone to the hospital on the Monday and been told ‘you’re not going to have the baby for a couple of days at least’, so that is why I had gone to the football.

“I rang again that Tuesday morning and was told not to worry, but 45 minutes later I was ringing in panic.

“We set off for the hospital and when we were about 10 minutes away from Burnley General Hospital she started to sprawl across me as the baby was coming out.

“I had to go to the side entrance of the hospital with it being after hours, and was screaming through the intercom. The midwives and doctor came rushing down and she gave birth on the front seat at 3-55am.

“We joked we were going to call her Mercedes, but Caroline doesn’t like that character in Hollyoaks.”

But despite the drama, the birth of Maizie Jane was relatively straight-forward in comparison to the couple’s past experiences.

Caroline had to go through a “nightmare” seven-hour labour with her son Zak (4). And last February, the pair lost a little girl just 22 weeks into the pregnancy.

Steve added; “We didn’t know the sex of the baby and Caroline had always wanted a little girl, so it was a nice surprise for her. She’s beautiful, and is doing really well. It is a funny story to tell her when she is older.

“Zak absolutely loves her to bits. He pats her on the head and kisses her and the other day he said ‘I love my little sister, I am dead proud of her’.”