Jimmy Payne dies, age 86

Later I played as a schoolboy against Temple and A'Court who were both tremendous schoolboy players.

Apart from Dave Hickson, is anyone left of the team that won promotion in 1953-54?

Unfortunately Payne broke his leg and only played six games for us because in those days a broken leg ended his career as it did mine.

I actually played against two ex Everton players when I played for Southport in the old 3rd division north.
One was Eddie Wainwright and the other was Jackie Grant who were playing for Rochdale.

I honestly prefer the old First Division because it was a more level playing field and teams won titles and cups on managers building talented squads without foreign players and loads of money. Teams like Leeds, Ipswich and Portsmouth won things and winning the FA Cup was a tremendous feat because every club coveted it.

I must admit that Liverpool's titles were much harder to win than Man Utd's since as money played no part. British players with Liverpool won all their European honours and proved that we were as good as anyone as a league. Man Utd now rely heavily on foreign players as do Chelsea, Arsenal and Man City. Winning the Premier League is as much value as Rangers/ Celtic dominating the SFA its just monopolised by who can pay the most for a player.

I am convinced that the top clubs buy players to sit them on the bench and stop them playing for other teams in the premier.

I hate the seven man subs bench and reckon it should have been kept to one. It's a joke when a teams strength is its back up. Players should only be subbed if they are injured, that would make games more even. It's a fact that the top sides often score at the end of games when re-inforcements are called up.