Ref. 30860-10NATALIE Parker still expects her boyfriend Matthew Styles to walk in the front door of her Pinehurst home.

They were together for five years before the crash took him away from her and the group of mates they grew up with.

Now she is grateful for the closeness and the comfort provided by those same friends.

"If it hadn't been for them I don't know what I would have done," she said.

Many of them gathered at her home yesterday to talk about the young man universally known as Styler, who revelled in practical jokes and acting the comedian.

"He was the biggest personality in the crowd," said Stephen Chaloner, 22.

Luke Quince, 21, said: "He was always upbeat. Everybody gets down at times but he would always have a big smile."

The friends smiled as they remembered his unique dancing style.

"He couldn't dance but he would bounce around to anything you put on the stereo," said Natalie, 21. Matthew's signature party piece was his dance floor back flip. "He was famous for it," said Stephen.

But there was a quieter side to Matthew a young man who had a deep love and respect for his mother Ann. "He absolutely loved his mum to bits," said Natalie. "He adored her."

He also showed his romantic side to his girlfriend.

"Last week he bought me a big bunch of flowers and then he told me not to tell anyone," she said.

"And whenever anyone had a birthday party we would always have the last slow dance. Lads always act like nothing touches them and nobody believed he would do it, but he did."

In the aftermath of his death the pain was difficult to bear. "We were all hurting. It was just the shock of losing our best mate," said Gary Maciezonek.

But he stressed the angry scenes at the top of Pinehurst Road on Monday night were nothing to do with Matthew's friends.