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Steve Ferns
1 Posted 04/10/2017 at 10:37:18
I doubt any of us can remember 1928. You'd have to be 89 just to be alive, and over 100 to actually have a memory of it. Which means most people take Dixie's record at face value:

"60 goals, wow, you don't score like that any more. But it was a different time, goalies couldn't use their hands, you could assault the defender and not get sent off. Everyone was scoring 50 goals a season back then."

Well, people tend to say crap like that, and dismiss the legend's achievements. Let me give this record some context. First off, let's put Camsell to one side. Camsell is the Middlesbrough striker whose record Dixie beat. I want to put it to one side because Camsell scored 59 in Division 2. Let's look at just the top flight.

First point, in 1926 Ted Harper of Blackburn Rovers became the first ever player to break the 40 goal barrier with 43. So, just 3 years before Dixie's sixty, no one had ever scored more than 38 in the top flight! So Dixie smashed the top flight record by a staggering 17 goals.

So what happened after Dixie? Do we see Dixie opening the flood gates and everyone banging in 50 a season and just falling short of the big man?

Well, the 40-goal barrier suddenly became breached more often, with Halliday of Sunderland matching Harper's 43 in '29. Then in 1931, local lad Tom "Pongo" Waring scored 49 goals for Villa. Waring was from Birkenhead, is a Villa legend, but never played for anyone locally other than Tranmere. Incidentally his grandson or great grandson George Waring was on our books at least last season.

Dixie himself blasted in 44 in '32 as he fired us to the title. Then the great Ted Drake of Arsenal got 42 in '33. After this Jimmy Greaves got 41 in 1961. And that my friends was the last time anyone got over 40 goals.

So the context is this: Dixie Dean doesn't just hold the record, he holds it by a staggering 11 goals!! No-one has ever scored more than 49 goals in the top flight. Only one player other than Dixie has scored 45 or more, and he was also from Birkenhead. So next time someone belittles Dixie's achievements and makes out they were all at it, you can set them straight, only one other player has got within 17 goals of the record, and he was still 11 short.

Dennis Stevens
2 Posted 04/10/2017 at 10:48:27
As I recall the matches away to Oxford United & home to Coventry City were neither great nor fine, although I can understand their inclusion if the criteria is significance.
Mike Galley
3 Posted 04/10/2017 at 11:12:05
Funnily enough, I was just talking about people who had seen this game on Saturday afternoon. One of the old timers in the pub (Albert) is 94, he was telling me that he seen Billy Dean play but didn't recall being at that game.

I guess that's a connection I have to a part of EFC history nonetheless!

John Pickles
4 Posted 04/10/2017 at 11:13:54
So what if he scored 60 in a season, I heard he had a woeful first touch.
Bob McEvoy
5 Posted 04/10/2017 at 13:05:52
It was Charlie Buchan's final game before retirement and it seems he was less than effusive about Dixie's 60 than was gracious, the theory being that he was upset about his lack of recognition.

Also the Dixie comment about Arsenal being the greatest in the land is almost certainly a hindsight comment. In 1928, they'd never won a trophy although, over the next 10 years, there would be 5 league titles and two FA Cups.

Dave Abrahams
6 Posted 04/10/2017 at 13:37:43
Steve. (1), talking of Ted Drake, you could have mentioned he still holds the record of most goals in a top flight English league game – seven versus Aston Villa, away from home at Villa Park. And that was in the thirties.

Steve, don't belittle the lower leagues too much: Terry Bly of Norwich City scored 52 league goals in the fifties, in the Third Division South, highest since the Second World War. Derek Dooley scored 46 for Sheffield Wednesday in the fifties... Not sure if John Charles scored over 40 for Leeds Utd, both in the Second Division – all worthy achievements.

David Graves
7 Posted 04/10/2017 at 14:39:46
Yes, John, and I believe he was also a "flat-track bully".
Steve Ferns
8 Posted 04/10/2017 at 14:59:14
I wasn't trying to belittle Camsell or the lower leagues, Dave. I merely wanted to shine a light on the achievement. For me, the fact that he is miles out in front for the top flight, and not just a single goal, speaks volumes.

The reason I like to highlight this is those loveable reds, and Man utd fans as well, are very dismissive of the achievement. When I was a kid, I recall that we used to talk about "post war" records, as if anything before 1945 didn't matter. Now the Premier League is well established, it's all Premier League records, as if anything before 1992 doesn't matter.

Most people do not think about what Dean actually did, and how amazing it was for the time and how amazing it will continue to be.

Also, I loved reading the stories as a kid. There's loads of myths around Dean now. I would love it if someone made a film on him.

You may recall a fantastic film called Cinderella Man. It's perhaps my favourite sports film. Its set in the depression era in America in the 1930s. Braddock flitters between amateur boxer and professional as he tries to provide for his family in difficult times. All the people I went to see the film with knew nothing of the real life boxer, and we went just because it was a boxing film and starred Russell Crowe and was not long after Gladiator. So we were all amazed by the story. It had a Rocky type story only better, and much better because it was true. If you've not seen it, do so.

The reason I bring it up is because for me, that is how I envisage the Dixie Dean film to be. To be made in the same style with a larger focus on the man, his family, and the local community. Dean was the first footballing superstar. This is highlighted by how the Queen at the time went to watch the 1933 FA Cup Final, her first ever, and she was introduced to all the players, and when she came to Dean, she said, "You don't need to tell me who this man is, he is the one I have come to see".

There's so many little stories that could be dramatized into the film. Such as when he was a young boy he would always be playing on the local fields. One day he came home when it was dark, and his mother asked him where his baby sister was, and he had to run back to the field to retrieve her in her pram where he had left her as a goalpost!

Or the story (since said to be a gross exaggeration as no doubt most of them are) that when Everton came to sign him he was out and was so upset at missing the secretary and thinking he might miss his chance, that he ran all the way to Goodison to sign for them then and there (missing out the bit about how he crossed the Mersey!).

Or the tale about how he developed his incredible strength from working in a pub and having to carry the empty barrels from the cellar, up the steps to the street. The story goes that two men used to carry a barrel between them, but 17-year-old Bill used to run up the steps with a barrel under each arm.

How about the tale where he was told he had to stay in bed after his accident, but he was bored. The doctor made his rounds and found Bill was not in bed. He asked the other patients where he was, and they pointed outside, where Dean was swinging from a tree branch collecting apples. The doctor promptly discharged him and let him get back to football.

There's loads of stuff about him. Highly exaggerated, some of it with poetic embellishment, some just made up, but ultimately, the accident, the recovery, the 60 goals, the death at Goodison in a derby – it all shows that the truth is far more extraordinary than even the legend.

Surely Kenwright knows a few people who can knock up a decent script and get the film made?

Edit: I should have added as per the original post, the drama of the last day, in fact the final few games, where he was left needing to score 7 goals in his final 2 games. The kind of dramatic flourish you would not believe in a fictional film.

Michael Kenrick
9 Posted 04/10/2017 at 15:16:01
Derek Dooley:

"His career was cut short when an infected leg had to be amputated following a serious fracture in his last match for the club.

"His career was abruptly ended on 14 February 1953, when he collided with the Preston goalkeeper George Thompson at Deepdale and broke his leg. An x-ray revealed that he sustained a double fracture.

"As he was preparing to leave hospital the following Monday a nurse noticed that there was no reaction in his toes when touched. When the pot was removed it was found that a small scratch on the back of his leg had become infected. Gangrene had set in and it was decided to amputate his leg. It was rumoured at the time that a chemical from the white touchline marking had got into his injury."

He would have been just 23...

Steve Ferns
10 Posted 04/10/2017 at 15:29:36
Just shows how lucky the likes of Seamus and Yannick are to be playing in this day and age.
Dave Abrahams
11 Posted 04/10/2017 at 15:57:48
Steve (8), yes, I'm sure you were not trying to belittle the lower league players. I was trying to show that their feats, although in a lower league, have never been bettered either. As to Dixie I also love reading all the stories attributed to him.

I did see and thoroughly enjoy the film about James Braddock, it told a great tale of his perseverance and trials to eventually fight for The Heavyweight Championship of the World, despite the many set backs on his journey.

Michael Kenrick
12 Posted 04/10/2017 at 16:12:46
Whatever happened to that film Tabacula were making, with a lot of encouragement from Dr David France, I thought?

Dixie Dean – The People’s Legend: this is all I can find on YouTube:

There was also a play a while back... that website at the end of the trailer is no longer active.

Michael Kenrick
13 Posted 04/10/2017 at 16:19:44
Hang on... no, this is the real Tabacula trailer:

Michael Kenrick
14 Posted 04/10/2017 at 16:24:28
And what the hell, let's go the whole hog and watch that 1933 FA Cup Final again!!!

Some great stuff in the commentary... "second spasm" !! Cholmondley-Warner to a tee!!

Steve Ferns
15 Posted 04/10/2017 at 16:32:33
I like the speeches after the game, it's funny hearing Dean's Lancashire accent.
Steve Ferns
16 Posted 04/10/2017 at 22:32:27
Michael, going back to the Tabacula film, I think they got the setup wrong, it appears to be more of a Documentary with lots of talking heads. For me that's a TV programme, not a film.

I'd rather see a film in either the style of a Cinderella Man, showing the hard times for the people in the era between the two wars, focusing on the community, the family and the man. You can knit this together easily by the fact that he is amongst the people getting the train and the bus and there's a few good stories you could incorporate into the film. You can even show him going into the crowd and thumping a supporter, as per the legendary "don't worry officer, I got this" story.

Or as an alternative, you can fictionalise a load of dialogue, like in the damned united. That was not a comedy, but it had a lot of funny moments due to the cheeky chappy larger than life character that Brian Clough was, when you disregard the egotistical maniac and rampant alcoholic side of his personality. Dean was also a larger than life character. He may have been a shy young boy, but he quickly grew into the legend as his career took off. You will find that is the case for all of the greats, even a quiet unassuming chap like Messi.

There is one hell of a story to be told here, and if it's made well, it would be watched all round the world, as many have forgotten just who William Ralph Dean was.

Charles Brewer
17 Posted 05/10/2017 at 11:18:58
The only other sportsman I can think of who has a similar dominance is Bradman in test matches. The averages there are:
Bradman - 99.9
Voges - 61.8
Smith - 61.0
Pollock - 60.9
Healey - 60.8
Sutcliffe - 60.7

In other words, the really really good humans get about the same, the immortals get something completely different.

Dave Abrahams
18 Posted 05/10/2017 at 20:06:32
Charles. (17) nice touch with Donald Bradman, and if that bowler had any sort of heart, in Bradman's last test innings, he would have bowled Donald a full toss or two and Bradman would have ended his test career with 100.00 average.

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