Category Archives: Players

Born Newcastle, August 19, 1944 Despite spending almost all his career among relative footballing backwaters Peter Noble became one of the English games most recognisable and respected figures during the 1970’s. Noble began his league career with Newcastle United in 1964 after earning a dream move from Consett with his impressive displays there. The dream turned into a nightmare, however, when a knee injury threatened to end his career before… Read Article →

born Mexborough, February 16, 1952. Peter Kitchen was a good, all round forward whose abilities were respected and feared throughout the lower divisions for over a decade, a player who many spectators would have felt had it in him to succeed in the first division. Kitchen remained one of those never offered the chance. He began his career at lowly Doncaster and it did not take the youngster long to… Read Article →

Born Hatfield, October 11, 1944 It is difficult to know how to assess Rodney Marsh’s footballing career. Superstar? Failure? Entertainer? Clown? Genius? Waster? It is likely that all these options, and more besides, would crop up if a selection of football fans from the sixties and seventies were asked for their opinion. Ultimately it must be considered, for a player who drew so much admiration from so many of the… Read Article →

Neil Franklin Born Stoke, January 24, 1922. Died 1996. The career of Neil Franklin can be considered as one of English footballs’ saddest wastes, even though it provided the nation with arguably its’ greatest ever centre half. His story certainly provides the most obvious example of the ridiculous nature of the maximum wage system that was in force in English football up to the beginning of the 1960’s. Cornelius Franklin… Read Article →

Born: 13 Feb 1956, Dublin If ever a boy was destined to become a footballer, then that boy was Liam Brady. Football was in his blood. Liam’s uncle Frank had played for Ireland, as did Brady’s older brother Ray. Another of his older brothers, Pat also played league football. Young Liam grew up in the North of Dublin, just a few hundred yards from two other Irish lads – David… Read Article →

Tony “Bomber” Brown. Born Oldham, October 3, 1945. Tony Brown was born in Oldham at the end of the Second World War and grew up an asthmatic child in Manchester. The scrawny infant did not appear cut out to become a record breaking footballer but he was instructed to take part in as much sport as possible by his doctor and assured that the condition would simply disappear at some… Read Article →

If ever a player came to personify the football club he represented then that man was Harry Cripps and the club Millwall. Millwall Football Club is a name that conjures few pleasant images to anyone outside SE14. The club possesses an image that it may not wholly wish to dispel and which its’ followers positively revel in. “No-one likes us, we don’t care,” remains the supporters’ anthem even at the… Read Article →

Born Salford, 30 October 1929 – Position: Centre Forward Dave Hickson started his football career as a teenager with non-league Ellesmere Port, where his robust style and keen eye for goal were noticed by the Everton manager Cliff Britton. He signed for the Toffes in 1948, but National Service in the army would delay his debut for another three years. Some of this time spent playing for the Cheshire Army… Read Article →