HIS football boots remain next to the back door, as if he had just come home from training or a match.

Jacob Schilt’s mum and dad cannot bring themselves to put them away, a reminder of their beloved son who so loved to play the game.

The 23-year-old was on his way to a match when he died in at the Shoreham Airshow disaster, and those boots are among the items his mum and dad Caroline and Bob Schilt still have around their Brighton home.

They get moved around next to the other shoes but there they remain, the boots he loved to play in, one year after his tragic death.

Mr Schilt said: “Sometimes I can see them, and have a really bad moment, but then again you could just be driving in the car or catch a glimpse of a photo on the stairs and it breaks your heart all over again.”

August 22 last year had started like any other Saturday.

Football-mad Jacob was back living at home in Brighton after three years studying geographical information systems at the University of Portsmouth, and he headed out for his weekly game for Worthing United in the car of his friend, team goalkeeper Matt Grimstone.

There was no big goodbye as he headed out the door – there was no need. Both his parents, along with his girlfriend of three years, Megan, would be in the stands in support in time for kick-off.

Retired teacher Mr Schilt, 62, remembers saying, “Goodbye, have a good match” as his son left the house.

The previous day Jacob had given his mum a lift into town – a small repayment for all the countless times she picked him up from a night out in his teens, to make sure he got home safely.

Mrs Schilt, 56, who is head of drama at Brighton and Hove High School, said: “On the Friday I was going out for lunch with a friend and he offered to give me a lift.

“We were in the car, he had his baseball cap on backwards and the radio was blaring but we were chatting, just about what he’d been up to and having a gossip.

“He often had stories to tell about what his friends were up to, he was on really good form on that Friday. It was really nice.

“I remember saying to my friend who I had lunch with how nice it had been that Jacob had driven me there, and that he’d got an offer from the University of Brighton to do his master’s. I was really proud of him.”

Keen to get into town planning, Jacob had an interview with East Sussex County Council, where he was advised that a master’s degree was would be necessary for the career he wanted – but they told him that once his studies resumed he would be welcome there for work experience.

He and his parents were thrilled by the offer, which they interpreted as his having a foot in the door for the job he wanted.

The silver Vauxhall Corsa Matt Grimstone was driving that day last August was, the family believes, the first car to be struck when pilot Andy Hill failed to complete his loop-the-loop.

The worst time, said Mr Schilt, was waiting for a call or knock on the door from the police.

Almost ten 10 hours had passed between them being all-but-certain that their son had been killed in the Shoreham airshow disaster, and the moment when family liaison officers arrived at their home in Brighton.

Mrs Schilt, said that after they abandoned their trip to see him play at Worthing United once the game was called off, the family returned home and the time ticked by as they waited for news, fearing the worst but daring to hope.

She said: “We were trying to prepare dinner for some reason, but none of us wanted to eat.

“Eventually we said ‘Shall we just abandon this?’ because we couldn’t think straight.

“We all feared the worst, because we knew those boys would never not contact us or the football club. Even if their phones were broken, they’d have walked somewhere or borrowed a phone to let them know.”

The Hawker Hunter hit the A27 at Lancing at 1.22pm. As the afternoon wore on, Caroline and Bob started to imagine other explanations for their boy’s lack of contact.

Mrs Schilt said: “The longer it went on, I thought, ‘Well the longer the police aren’t knocking on my door telling me, that’s a good sign.’

“I had a theory that if they hadn’t left here until 1.10pm they couldn’t possible have got there by 1.22pm, and we kind of clung on to that.”

Mr Schilt said: “I’m afraid there was a period where we dared to hope, but then we got a phone call and we knew. 

“That was probably the worst of it. The possibility that they might be alright, and then the indescribable feeling when we knew.”

Mrs Schilt said: “At the memorial service, a parent of someone I teach, who is a doctor and had happened to be at the scene, came up to me.

“She said: ‘I want you to know that it would have been immediate. There’s no way they knew anything about it.’

“And that has given me some comfort. They probably didn’t know anything about it at all; we think their car was the first to be hit. It wasn’t burned at all, all the damage was caused by the impact.”

Mr and Mrs Schilt were taken along with other families to see the crash site on the Tuesday after it happened, still 24 hours before the fatalities were would be formally identified. 

Sussex Police arranged a secret trip from Lancing College to the Sussex Pad, where from which they could view the scene on the road from the roof.

Mrs Schilt said: “It was eerie to see the road empty, and we could see their car, but it wasn’t as horrible as I’d feared.”

There was also a private trip for the families the following Saturday, which Bob said was “fantastically respectful,” where police had marked on the resurfaced road the spot at which the families’ loved ones had come to rest.

Jacob’s parents went with his girlfriend and reflected on such a busy life.

Mrs Schilt described her son as “a happy little chap who was always laughing, he had a mischievous sense of humour when he was little”.

Football crazy from the age of five, Jacob was a competitive soul who was never happier than when playing the game, whether for school, club or as part of his Sunday league team Shoreham AFC.

His early days included games against next door neighbours in the back garden and, when it was too wet for that, in the hallway where no quarter was given to the goalkeeper – the family’s cat, Becks (named after David Beckham).

While his older sister, Louise, rode horses and spent her weekends mucking out and grooming, Jacob played for a succession of teams, culminating with Worthing United.

Mrs Schilt said: “When he played for these teams he’d regularly win the players’ player award, and I think that tells you he was a good captain, but he was also popular with the other players.

Mr Schilt added: “He had a footballing brain from a very early age, he could really read the game.”

The couple said that the support they have received from all quarters has helped them cope with the tragedy.

Brighton and Hove Albion chief executive Paul Barber came to their home shortly after the tragedy and offered them the Amex stadium for Jacob’s wake, which the club paid for. More than 600 people attended Jacob’s his funeral in All Saints Church, in Hove.

Looking back a year after the event, time has not healed a wound which will never close for Mr and Mrs Schilt.

Mr Schilt said: “For me it’s with me every moment of every day.  It’s’ there all of the time and that’s very difficult to describe.

“It’s not the same feeling as that awful realisation feeling, which is a physical thing. Everyone has experienced that, when a disaster or trauma has struck.

“That’s a physical feeling in your stomach and it’s terrible. This isn’t that, it’s just there. All of the time.

Mrs Schilt said: “When you say something is in your heart, I know what it means now.”

She tapped her chest and added: “He’s in here. All the time.”