Posted by Advice & Anecdotes from a Walking Footballer/Senior Player
Nearing the game’s end with no score my glory moment arrived. I peeled away from big John Lord in the box as Ron Atticus delivered a peach of a cross directly onto my head and I despatched it into the top left corner of the onion bag.
It called to mind Geoff Hurst’s winning header in the 1966 World Cup Quarter Final versus Argentina when I was a toddler. The Wembley cross supplied by West Ham’s Martin Peters, mine by Ron Atticus also of Essex stock.
Hurst, like me, was wearing all white that day, and scored for a team of eleven men against ten. Argentina’s captain Rattin having been sent off. While I scored for a team a man light but that was because Steve Earthy was caught in a traffic jam on the M5.
Most striking of all, Norman and Ian, on opposing sides, brought the wrong shirts so wore each other’s tops. When the final whistle blew they were then prevented from swaping shirts by Phil Dallas, who, hawking back to the cautionary covid period, advised that it would be best for them to wash the shirts first before returning them.
In 1966 George Cohen, the England full back, was prevented from swapping shirts with his Argentinian opponent by the England manager Alf Ramsey who notoriously labelled them ‘Animals’ for their style of play.
It is beneficial to draw such parallels when they occur.
Jonty Morgan Humour Sampler 