A Tooting firefighter has described the moment he saved a man's life, just moments before he himself was due to coach a football match.

John Chinnery was off-duty and preparing to give his pre-match talk to his Corinthian Casuals reserve side, just as he had done for the past 11 years, when one of his players ran up to him.

"He was asking me if I knew how to get to the defibrillator," John told the Wandsworth Times.

"Someone was having a heart attack."

He made his way to the stands where people were crowded around the man.

That's when the veteran firefighter's instincts kicked in.

"He was quite blue in the face and I couldn't feel a pulse," he added.

"I did my initial check before a member of staff came up and I got her to do CPR while I put the defibrillator on him.

"I shocked him four times in about eight minutes, and thankfully he came around on the final shock.

"After that I just made sure to manage his airway before the London Ambulance Service turned up and assisted."

The fan ended up needing to have a quadruple bypass, but John and the man's son kept in contact over the next few weeks.

"It was quite nice really to know how he was doing," John said.

"Operationally, once we hand them over to the LAS, then that's it usually.

"So to get an update and know he is doing alright was quite special."

This isn't the first time that John had been called into action while off-duty either.

Back in 2009 when he was fresh onto the job, he witnessed a moped crash into the back of a lorry in Roehampton Lane.

"The woman was laying there with her vocal cords sliced and her teeth out," John said.

"I ended up helping manage her airways and she was able to pull through and make a recovery."

So what advice does the do-it-all firefighter have for people?

Do the best you can.

"Even if you aren't confident at CPR, it's good to get someone's chest pumping to keep them alive long enough so that the paramedics can get there," he added.

"Also the importance of having defibrillators readily available can't be understated. Be it at schools, in sports clubs, anywhere really should have one because it can save someone's life."