Two more I had a lot of time for, Spencer Prior (remember the chant "Ooh Aah, Spencer Prior" - to parody Ooh Aah Cantona ) and Ashley Ward, who (along with Jon Newsome) was ushered out of the side door with NO notice whatsoever by fat boy Chase.
In a trip down memory lane I have to go along with Kevin Keelan but also mention Barry Butler. For real triers you have to mention Duncan Forbes, Trevor Hockey, Phil Boyer and Jim Conway. Also Jimmy Blair - the most trying of the lot!!
Completely forgot Spencer Prior, oops my sister was best friends with his daughter when she was younger. He always had time for a kick about with me and my friends in the garden when he was playing for Southend and signed all my old programmes and year reviews etc. Thought of him more as a family friend i suppose, by all accounts he's doing well in Australia coaching at the moment.
He's on twitter - @spencerprior, unsurprisingly. Here's a pic of his daughter now :- http://twitter.com/#!/mrscprior/status/142112643732348929/photo/1 Bet you wouldn't mind playing in the garden all over again?
jeremy goss has to be on the list, nice guy. people used to get on his back for being a bit ropey in some games, and then he found his shooting boots and the rest is history as we know! Goss on the volley
Jimmy Blair. Kept poor old Trevor Howard out of the Wembley final against Spurs. Just ahead of Dean Coney as a goalscoring legend.
Dennis van wyk. Went out with my friends sister and got us free match tickets and he scored a great goal against the binners in a 3-2 boxing day win at portman rd.
got to be malky mackay for me. such a genuinely nice bloke. met him a few times and always had time for a few words
Poor old Jimmy!! He had a lot of skill but was so short of pace that he would have finished last in the race for a Care Home restuarant. He always thought he could dribble past 3 players before shooting but he was so slow that by the time he got past the first 2 they had got back and helped the third defender get the ball off him. I do remember him going past 3 or 4 defenders in some Mickey Mouse Tournament called the Texaco Cup before smashing an unbelievable shot into the roof of the net and 2 blokes behind me still gave him a volley of abuse for not passing. I think he got more abuse off the Carrow Road Faithful than any other player past or present. Stories from the Training Ground suggested that nobody could get the ball off him in training but I heard the same stories about Neil O'Donnell - remember him?
Good call for Big Dunc. If he played nowadays, he'd be lucky to stay on the pitch Midway, a further shout for someone who may have got more abuse from city fans than the opposition would be, imho, Trevor Putney and Rosie Rosario. I think Rosie makes Peter Crouch look graceful
Poor old Rosie. He couldn't stay on his feet for love nor money - I think he wore roller skates instead of football boots!! He couldn't even buggar over gracefully!!
As a further thought - if Big Dunc would have had problems staying on the pitch what about Trevor Hockey! I am sure that before the start of the game he went up to the player he was marking and asked him what seat in the stand he fancied ending up in!! He was only small but I have never seen anybody who could kick an opponent so high or so far! If he was near they got rid of the ball quickly - although that wouldn't stop Trevor putting him up in the air anyway. I always loved the arms outstretched - 'what me ref' - attitude that followed.
http://www.mousematstorehouse.com/image/jim_bone_norwich_1972_65648.jpg?pvw=695&opt=0 Still haven't mastered posting pics on here, why can't you just copy and paste FFS ? Anyway, perhaps if you click on the link above you will see the great man OTBC
