Posted by Parallels With 1966
It was about ten minutes into the second-half with the game deadlocked at nil-nil that my moment of glory arrived. I peeled away from big John Lord in the box as the ball reached Ron Atticus out on the right. Positive as I usually am on this occasion I thought it would take some cross to reach me without the big guy intercepting it as despite the distancing manoeuvre he was still too close. But I hadn’t accounted for the genius of Ron Atticus. He delivered a V2 of a ball that soared high over Big John but then like its motor had been switched off it fell to earth and precisely onto my head where I gleefully despatched it into the top left corner of the net, giving Ron the Cat no chance in the White’s goal.
It called to mind Geoff Hurst’s winning header versus Argentina in the 1966 World Cup Quarter Final although I was too young to watch it live, and I hoped my goal would be similarly feted. The cross at Wembley was supplied by Martin Peters and like the West Ham midfielder, the supplier of my goal, Ron Atticus is of good Essex stock. However, Hurst was wearing all white that day and I was attired in all black this day. Plus the England striker scored for a team of eleven men against ten, the Argentinian captain Rattin having been sent off, while I scored for a team of eleven against twelve, albeit their extra man was Bill Hyde who isn’t as mobile due to awaiting a hip replacement. I believe these considerations should be taken into account when evaluating the two goals.
That wasn’t the only similarity between today’s match and the 1966 World Cup QF. For Norman and Ian had brought the wrong coloured shirts so before kick off, and seeing they were on opposing sides and fortunately of the same build, they wore changed shirts with each other. So when the final whistle blew they were about to swap shirts when Phil Dallas stepped in and prevented this from occurring, stating that it would be best for them to wash the shirts first then return them the following week. This hawks back to the covid and immediate post covid days when a more stringent policy was adopted regarding hygiene which led to us no longer using bibs and providing our own shirts either dark or white. But it so reminded me in this instance of George Cohen, the England full back, being prevented from swapping shirts with his Argentinian opponent by the England manager Alf Ramsey. Post match he notoriously labelled them ‘Animals’ for their style of play. Thus Phil had prevented the shirt swap due to covid while Alf had, I assume, done the same thing to prevent the spread of rabies.
Jonty Morgan Humourist 