Treasured Memories of a Bygone Age — Part 1

You have a few years on me. Of those you have mentioned, I watched Jimmy Armfield only at the end of his career. However, I saw Bobby Moore quite a few times in his prime, an absolutely wonderful player, who would have been a star in any era. A bit slow for the modern game? Not in his brain.

There was a piece on Radio 2's Jeremy Vine programme about Bobby Moore a couple of years ago, which talked about his premature death at the age of 51 through cancer. The piece focused on how great he was as a player and how good a man he was, and the sadness of his early death. The reason I mention it is, it was such a powerful piece, underlying Moore's recognition as a player and thoroughly decent human being, that Jeremy Vine's voice cracked, he got emotional and ended up in tears on air, which is obviously very unusual for a professional presenter. To me, it showed the effect that the best sides of football can have on people's emotions.

Like you I was going to Goodison long before MOTD came along in 1962, the only games that used to be shown live was the FA Cup Final and England games. I also remember Wolves playing Dynamo Kiev in a floodlight game.

England games kicked off between 2.30 and 3.00pm, this was the only time that you had seen the stars you had only read about in the papers, unless they played for their clubs at Goodison. Now its wall to wall football on TV even people living thousands of miles away can watch games live, how things have changed. I say to my Sons and Grandsons when I started watching Everton we had gates of 75,000 and it was all pay at the gate and change given, no swipe cards in those days.

There was certainly some talented players around, some you have already given special mention. There a couple I would mention the great Danny Blanchflower probably the best captain I have seen in my time. He led Spurs to their famous double in the 60s. I believe he was the first person to use a wall against free kicks. H e was playing for Ireland against Italy and they had a player who could hit a ball. So Danny got a couple of players to join him in a wall to stop him having a direct shot at goal. Nowadays all the captain does is toss the coin at the start of the match.

Tom Finney the Preston Plumber what a player could play wide or down the middle. Shankly said he was the grteates player he had ever played with or against.

Jimmy Mclroy from Burnley a real artist with the ball, also John White from Spurs another lovely footballer.

I better stop or the post will go on forever.

I remember my dad waxing lyrical about Ronnie Clayton. He also said Armfield was a cracking player as well and also he idolised John Charles.

I was lucky enough to see Bobby Moore when I was young — what a player he was! Though rumour has it he also had another career as a jewel thief... Just saying, like!

Yes it was Dynamo Moscow memory isn't as good as it used to be.

Wolves, managed by Stan Cullis, did very well in these matches with great players like Billy Wright, the England
captain, Johnnie Hancock and Jimmy Mullen.

Players I loved to watch but had seen better days because of the war, were Horacio Carter of Hull City, Peter Doherty, Jimmy Hagen, Joe Mercer, one of ours, at Arsenal, T G Jones at Everton but kept out of the team by Theo Kelly, the Everton manager, Frank Swift the Man. City goalkeeper tragically killed in the Munich disaster.

Other players who stood out for various reasons were Ugolilni the Middlesborough goalie, Johnnie Mapson the bald headed goalie I'd Sunderland, the Roboledo brothers at Newcastle, Dennis and Leslie Compton of Arsenal and also Middlesex cricketers, along with the already mentioned John Charles. Tom Finney, Bobby Moore Jimmy McIllroy of Burnley amongst many other great footballers when the football world was absolutely magic to me, even a couple of Liverpool players, one of whom we nearly signed, offering the same fee as Liverpool, but Albert Stubbins signed for them, Albert is one of the umpteen personalities on the Beatle long playing record cover.

Hi Stan [2] Bobby Moore certainly was a special player and to have a radio presenter almost in tears, shows the effect he had on people, I believe he was somewhat partial to a pint or two.

Hi Chris [3], I was fortunate enough to see all the World Cup games at Goodison Park but, in this article, I decided to discount those players, and to concentrate on the domestic scene.

Hi Bran [4], I hope that you are not giving your sons and grandsons the impression that gates of over 75,000 were commonplace, Everton have only exceeded gates of more than 75,000 on 5 occasions. I have constructed the defence, for Part 2, I will address the forwards.

Hi Martin, and Brian [4&5] Wolves also played Honved during that period, if my memory is correct.

Quite a few years back I needed some physio on a dislocated shoulder - a footy injury - that kept popping out. The guy I had recommended to me was a real character - a Fulham-loving Cockney who plied his trade in younger days with Fulham (when they and Moore knocked Everton out of the cup on their way to a cup final with WHU). Mick the physio also worked with Walter Smith at Rangers and Malcolm Alisson during his stint in Portugal with Sporting (when they became champions).

Anyway, Mick told me the story how when Fulham reached the FA cup final, after receiving their ticket allocation for Wembley, Bobby Moore walked into the office where the tickets were neatly stacked on the table and calmly took a fistful and said: "I'll need a few of these for friends and family". The 'few' was a couple of hundred. Having pocketed them, he walked out without anyone saying a word or stopping him.

I asked Mick how did Fulham let him get away with that.

Mick's reply: "It was Bobby Moore, innit?"

I remember going with my Dad to an Everton v Sheffield Wednesday game and him saying to me, "I wish we had that Tony Kay playing for us." Do you know I can't even remember if Tony was actually playing that day but my Dad's comment stayed with me, especially when some time later Kay did come to Everton, and what a player!

Anyway I then began to use my Dad's thought as a criterion. I looked at the opposition and wondered who, if anyone, would I like to sign for Everton. I'm sure there were others but here are the names that spring immediately to mind:
Danny Blanchflower and Jimmy Greaves from Spurs
Jimmy McIlroy from Burnley
Colin Bell, Man City
George Best, Man Utd
Charlie Cooke, Chelsea
Johnny Giles, Leeds

Best wishes, John, hope you're keeping well!

Nice to hear from you Gerard I hope you are keeping well.

Martin MOTD, although not under that name, started in1956 with Everton being one of the four teams featured that night, we beat Charlton at the Valley 2-0, I can't recall who the other game was between, I could never find any evidence of this anywhere but JohnMcFarlane, eithervwith his trusty books or from somewhere else came up with the evidence.

Martin I am sure the Honved game was on TV more than likely the BBC, I remember being invited into a house in The Four Squares, off Soho Street, and watching the second half of the game, with the sound switched off and the commentary came from the wireless, that was the way Mr. Bennett, the tenant, preferred to listen to the game with his four sons and plenty of us, their friends.

I think that you'll agree that I was faced with a massive task, considering the quality of players that faced me. Goalkeepers alone, caused me a headache. apart from the ones you mentioned, there were, Jim Strong [{Burnley] Colin McDonald [Burnley] Fred Else [Preston North End, Blackburn Rovers, and Barrow,] the list is immense.

Did you ever see Wilbur Cush play? He was a good friend of my dad and was, apparently, as hard as nails. The sort of man who would be out of place in the modern game. My dad brought me to my first Everton game in 1968. It was against Nottingham forest and I recall it as a 2-1 win. I think Terry Hennessy played for forest and I was so impressed by him that I sent him a letter.

A couple of days later, I received a reply and the autographs of all the forest team. I maybe wrong with dates, it was 50 years ago, but I think Johnny Carey's signature was there. They have been my second team since. Overtime we went to many games. Orient, Preston, Bolton, Blackburn (my dad often spoke of Clayton) Barrow, Brentford, Partick Thistle, Motherwell, Wrexham. All the big clubs!

I look forward to Part 2, John, and to meeting you again.

Hi Andy [16] I don't believe that I saw Wilbur Cush, because his career at Leeds United coincided with my army service in Cyprus. I've just looked his career statistics up, and he played 87 games and scored 9 goals. You may be right regarding the autographs, because Johnny Carey managed Nottingham Forest for five years.

And if anyone's wondering what the source of my opinion is, well, in those days we had magazines called "Goal", "Shoot" and Charles Buchan's "Football Monthly". A regular feature in all but all of them was interviews with various players and when asked where their favourite ground was, apart from their own, Goodison was very regularly mentioned.

I saw all of these players, at Goodison, except for McMichael who was a little before my time.

Personally, I always thought Bobby Moore was painfully slow even for those days. I remember Alan Whittle leaving him for dead on the half way line to run through and score in our 0-1 win in 1969-70.

With today's game being about pace, pace and yet more pace I think he'd have really struggled in the modern game.

Going back to my early days watching the Blues and I recall Burnley and Blackburn having some great players, many who have been mentioned on your thread.

If my memory is correct I think the Burnley goalkeeper, Adam Blacklaw. was a cousin of Alex Young.

Many of the top goalies of the 1950s/60s were under 6 feet tall. Kelsey, Hopkinson, Hodgekinson, Farm Gregg, Blacklaw and a few others I can't recall.

It's all about speed now, with the game being dictated by the speed of the pitch, and also the speed of the refs whistle, in a game that now has, as much cheating as skill?

Reid was and would still be able to dictate the play if he was playing now – a bit like Gomes – plus, his vision was the nearest we have seen to Alan Ball. Compare him to the likes of Schneiderlin... No contest!

Good shout Martin Nicholls; Johnny Haynes was indeed a favourite of mine, a beautiful passer of the ball and an impeccably brillcreamed side part in his hair in every picture I saw of him in Don Alexander's aforementioned Charles Buchan's Soccer Gift Book! The only reason I didn't include him in my list of those I wanted to sign for us was that in games I saw him play such as our Championship winning game against Fulham in 1963, as good as he was he would never have got into that Everton team. Alex Elder? One tough full back he was!

Dave Abrahams thanks for that snippet on “Danny” Blanchflower, I never knew that. I still regard him as the most intelligent footballer I ever listened to or read. Why did he never become a top manager? Maybe too cerebral? But a great thinker on the game, and as someone who played with his brain I'm sure, Tony A, that he would have rated Peter Reid very highly. Some players just see the patterns long before anyone else. The ice hockey great, Wayne Gretzky, was asked what he did “differently” on the ice. With no false modesty Gretzky replied matter of factly, “The others skate to where the puck is. I skate to where the puck is going to be.”

Hi Bill [19] I think you do Bobby Moore and his contemporaries a disservice, I believe that we should not judge them on present-day standards. Please don't take this as a rebuke it's just my way of defending their standing in the game, you don't have to stand in the corner with your hands on your head.

Hi Tony [22] be a good boy, and pay attention, listen to what Daddy says, he's set the bar high, but [hopefully not his pockets low].

My late father maintained that the best 3 players he ever saw (live):

1] Duncan Edwards
2] George Best
3] Tony Kay

Sadly, I never saw any of them play live.

1966-67 was the first season I started going regularly, and those early games are printed in my memory. I remember being quite frightened at the crush outside in Gwladys Street after the Burnley game.

Hi Mike [31] as Everton were in the Second Division from 1951 to 1954 and I went into the army in 1956, there is distinct chance that I did, but I've always maintained that there is one person in the world, that you can't lie to, 'namely yourself' so the answer to your question is I'm not sure.

James (#30), although I was only a youth at the time, I did see Duncan Edwards play and he has rightly been hailed as a "juggernaut" of a player albeit only in his late teens. He was so strong on the ball. "YouTube" has plenty of reminiscences of him along with a few clips which will give you a taste of what a good player he was. He also managed to score a last minute winner against us in a cup tie at Old Trafford after the much-maligned (and rightly so) Albert Dunlop had played a blinder for us.

Every club in the country had their eyes on this boy when he was still at school, same applied to Bobby Charlton, but United was the club to go to then as Matt Busby was gathering his Busby Boys together, Duncan was only eighteen or nineteen when first picked for England possibly at Hampden Park v Scotland.

He scored the winner in 1956 against the Blues in an FA
cup game at Old Trafford, the only goal of the game, Jimmy Payne possibly played in this game for Everton not long after he joined us from Liverpool.

Duncan Edwards, if fate hadn't intervened, would have played in the 1966 World Cup Final, he just stood out as a giant colossus, great strength allied to great footballing skill, his whole football life was ahead of him, what a career he would have had except for that disaster at Munich.

I was going to work on the morning it was announced that this fantastic young player had passed away, still feel the sorrow I felt then that I felt that morning as I write this, shed a tear that morning for a great young footballer and young man, so sad.

Incidentally Duncan was a cousin of Dennis Stevens who later played for us.

Dave #37, a very evocative piece. I didn't see Duncan play live but I was brought up on tales of the young Colussus whose flame shone all too briefly. The chances are that with him England might have won the 1962 World Cup, and as for 1966 can you imagine a midfield of Edwards, Kay and Ball. There would've been no need for extra time with those lads.

The next time Everton played United was on Wednesday September 7th, a 2-1 away defeat [Eddie Wainwright] in front of 28,0062, followed by a 4-2 victory on Wednesday September 14th [John Willie Parker 2, Tommy Eglington, Eddie Wainwright] I believe I would have been one of the 35,238 who attended, so I'm going to say yes I did see Duncan Edwards play.

Hi Gerard [38] there's chap who has no match ticket and he intends to watch the match on TV, while awaiting the main event, his name is Mike Jones you may be able to join up with him.

Terry, you were right about Albert Dunlop having a great game in the cup game, if I'm not mistaken he made his debut in the 5-2 win in the league game along with Jimmy Gauld who had been signed from Charlton that week.

And you'd miss everyone coz it's a post-match meetup lol.

Hi Brian [43] I'm sure that Derek and I, will publicise the event right up to the last minute, but I think there may be a misunderstanding, the gathering is after the match, I hope you can still attend.

And that the toughest was either Kay, Dave Hickson or Johnny Morrisey.

It is amazing that Northern Ireland had Best, Dougan, Todd, Jennings, Elder, Terry Neill and yet struggled in the old home internationals.

I would like to see that tournament brought back (we hold the trophy). I just wish, although it was impossible because of horrific politics, that we could have put out another Ireland side.

Also,did Bally ever attempt to sell your autograph book on eBay?

No smoke without fire, I say.

Hi Andy [51] I'll tell you the tale of my autograph book, in the Excelsior on the 21st.

As for the toughest, I don't really know. Mogsy was a hard man and he liked to get his revenge in first, as it were. Dave was as tough as nails and he never flinched from the attacks (mostly from behind) he suffered from some very hard centre halves. For me Tony was a bit like taking the best of both of the others; he would take anything and never complain to a referee but he took the view that if you lived by the sword you'd die by the sword and woe betide anyone he caught up with who'd earlier left their visiting card on him. Shockingly unjust what was done to that man.

I'm going away tomorrow Andy, but I've left your ticket in my house. If my flights delayed my son will get the ticket to Dave, otherwise I will meet you outside Goodison, before the game, a week on Sunday mate.

I don't know the details, Tony, of your favour, [and why should I?] but it's certain that without these gatherings, you would only be names on a web- site. I was surprised to learn that my 80th birthday celebration was the first such meeting of it's kind, but at the moment it looks as if the idea is gathering momentum. I was searching for a reason to request another meeting, but Derek came to my rescue by organising the Excelsior event

I don't want to appear vain, but I do take pride in knowing that I was in at the start of something big, I would urge anyone who has the time to attend any future meetings to grasp the opportunity, you'll make new friends and enjoy a convivial evening.