The League Cup, March 1967
One slightly unpatriotic, but highly entertaining, episode occurred just six months after the World Cup when watching my beloved Queens Park Rangers, who by now, with the addition of the mercurial Rodney Marsh, had become an unstoppable force in League Division Three and were also steamrollering their way through to the League Cup Final.
They had been drawn to play against high flying, first division side Leicester City, who included the prolific goal machine Derek Dougan up front and Gordon Banks in goal, at home in the third round.
The close proximity of the pitch to the terraces at Loftus Road seemed to unnerve Banks in goal and he had a most uncomfortable night as he was beaten four times as QPR recorded an historic 4 – 2 win, which included a classic Banks own goal when he fumbled the ball over his own goal line as it rebounded from the crossbar.
Rangers went on to lift the trophy after coming back from a two goal deficit to beat West Bromwich Albion in another truly memorable final to win 3 – 2 and, in the space of just nine months, I had witnessed the two most historic moments of my entire football watching life.
New World Champions?
Nine months after England’s triumph, in April 1967, came the moment I dreaded. Scotland became the first country to beat England since the World Cup, winning by three goals to two at Wembley.
Early during the match Jackie Charlton broke a toe but was forced to play on as there were no substitutes in those days. Jimmy Greaves was the only change to the World Cup winning side, playing in place of Roger Hunt, but he too, sustained a bad injury that made him a passenger for much of the game.
None of this mattered to the Scots, of course, as they celebrated wildly at the result and, in fairness; they did have a pretty good side with some wonderfully talented players and had played well on the day.
At precisely 9 am on the following Monday I received the expected call from my Scottish friend, Jocky who announced, ‘Scotland are the world champions now.’ ‘How did you work that out?’ I responded.
‘Easy – England were the world champions, and we beat ye’ so we are now the world champions. Ye cannae deny it.’
‘You poor delusional soul,’ I said, ‘you actually have to win a tournament to become world champions, and it is only held every four years. England are the world champions at least until 1970.’ I stated emphatically. ‘I think you’ll find a few million Scots that will never agree with you on that!’ Jocky said, completely oblivious to my reasoning. ‘Bye Jocky, enjoy it while you can,’ I responded before hanging up
Meeting your heroes
Many years later I had the good fortune to meet personally with three of the stalwarts of England’s historic win – the two Bobby’s – Charlton and Moore and the hat trick hero himself, Geoff Hurst.
I met Bobby Moore when he was a guest in the boardroom of Leyton Orient who were playing Queens Park Rangers in a bank holiday morning kick-off match, which ended in a 0 – 0 draw. I was invited as a business colleague was also a director of Orient and he knew I was an avid QPR fan. We enjoyed a magnificent full English breakfast, and he then introduced me to Bobby Moore. I shook his hand with pride and awe and muttered a few words that he responded to with his characteristic dimpled smile.
A few years later, I was also fortunate enough to be a business guest at Old Trafford at an evening match that sadly Queens Park Rangers failed to win. ‘Look there’s Bobby Charlton,’ said my host and sure enough I was standing just a few feet from the great man. Despite the fact he was in company and most probably didn’t want to be interrupted I felt compelled to intrude on him for a few seconds and to his great credit he was the perfect gentleman and shook my hand and smiled at me warmly when I stuttered the first thing that came into my head…
More recently I had the privileged to meet with Geoff Hurst at a dinner function and was able to persuade him to sign my 1966 match programme. I then said to him exactly the same words that I had said when I met Bobby Moore & Bobby Charlton a few years previously…
‘I just want to thank you for giving me one of the greatest moments of my life and to let you know that “I was there in ’66”.