That would go down very well in Blackpool.:greengrin
Stanley Matthews did play top flight football for Blackpool aged 457 though.
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Gordon Smith was better than him according to Sir Matt Busby and us Scots stick together
I’m with Sir Matt
Gordon Smith retired at 40
I saw him on the pitch at Easter Road in 1970 for the FC Schalke 04 Friendly and he looked fit enough to play
Pretty sure we were the first club to tour South America
We taught the Brazilians how to play football :greengrin
Just about the only decent bit of business Matt Gillies did at Forest, Ray, bringing Peter in. Gillies was incredibly unpopular after replacing ex Busby Babe Johnny Carey as manager but to be fair to him, he was having pretty well every decent player Forest had at the time sold from under him. Forest were unique at that time having a committee running the club and they made life more or less impossible for Gilies to be successful.
Peter was succesful and really popular at Forest but he was ultimately too good for a previously very good side a couple of years prior that was in steep decline. Bill Shankly spotted his abilty and as you know, the rest is history.
Great and versatile player of many and varied talents and a great favourite of yours and mine.
What a player.
Yeah, I remember the Ian Storey-Moore fiasco in the spring of 1972 with him being introduced at Derby and then signing for Man U & then Henry Newton, those were likely to be the better players PC joined at Forest in 1970, Hibs on the other hand had far better players then.
I remember that as well and Nigbur's [Sepp Maier's German number 2] performance in preventing us from scoring during the 0-0 game , up there with McCloy's Scottish cup display in 1973.
As a 13/14 YO in 1970 the FF team seemed like a lifetime ago and they last played together in 1955, so only 15 years and this game doesn't seem anywhere near 51 years ago!
Scottish engineers brought the game to Brazil via the port of Santos but so did the Portuguese colonists and the ties with the old Colonial ruler. South America had a pretty good world cup record prior to Hibs tour of Brasil. The Famous Five were admired in Brazil for their total football attacking front 5. This definitely made the Brasil more fluid and attacking. Speaking as my father's family are Brasilian and arrived in the late 18th century from Portugal living Minas Gerais and Sao Paulo state. My father came here in early 1950s and used to go to see the famous 5.
I am afraid there were lots of tours by UK clubs in the early 20th century to promote the game there.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_football_clubs_tours_to_South_America#:~:t ext=Southampton%20F.C.%20was%20the%20first,Notting ham%20Forest%20F.C.%20in%201905.
I remember watching a BT Sports Documentary ‘Brothers In Football’ where a team that had visited South America early last century from England now non-League visited one of the teams they had played who were now Premiership standard and played in a huge Stadium but they made sure the wee fat English striker scored so he could celebrate
https://youtu.be/-ypJejySM4g
Corinthian Casuals
Cannot remember who said this
" If Gordon Smith had been English ,we would be talking about him,as we do Matthews and Finney"
I paraphrased that quote from memory.
I did read it years ago.
I wish i could remember who said it.
But it always stuck with me.
It may have been Sir Matt,even if he did say "we"
Was there another hibs player that went to Arsenal at the same time as Peter? Have had a chat a couple of times with a chap in our local that said he'd went down at the same time. Could never work out who he was.
I am sure it was Tom Finney who was asked how he felt being voted the best winger in the world, his reply was something along the lines that that chap Smith at Hibs would have something to say about that.
Peter Marinello was at a family wedding a few years ago, sat and had a chat with him, lovely guy and happy to chat about his time at Hibs & football in general.
Attachment 24355
Found this interesting profile on the HIBS website:
http://www.hibshistoricaltrust.org.u...eter-marinello
The article mentions his Easter Road debut v Dundee Utd and that Peter tormented his marker.
The marker,Jimmy Briggs, was the same guy that shattered 17 yr old Jimmy O'Rourke's leg a few years earlier and set Jimmy back years.
Jimmy Briggs likely could not catch Peter, or he would have nailed him.
Yes ,an old pal of mine, sadly passed a couple of years ago at 84, would always say Smith
When Gordon was working his magic at ER ,Celtic fans would rave about Charlie Tully and the Govan mob would champion Willie Waddell ......
"But the cocky wee Gordon's the pride o' them a' "
:aok: Brilliant stuff
At least players of that era knew class among peers ,even if English pundits and journalists did not(know much about Gordon)
Tommy Docherty once said in an interview that Matthews was better than Smith.
But having spent most of his playing career in England,Doc would have maybe have seen Matthews a lot more than Smith
I always thought Finney was better than Matthews who was a one position man.Finney could play anywhere along the front. When Preston played Edinburgh Select at ER he was centre forward and a class above anyone else on the park.Two memories of Matthews- England were playing Brazil in a friendly and were tanking them I stood in PTs electrical department watching the match on the way home from school-a common thing to do those days-Stanley went skating past the left back for the umpteenth time who chased after and pulled off a textbook tackle unfortunately for a rugby player. The ref just gave him a sympathetic pat on the head. Stanley came with Stoke to play Hearts in a friendly.Think he was over 50. Davie Holt was left back-hard as nails of course-told me afterwards he was terrified to tackle him in case he went down in history as the man who killed Stanley Matthews.
Wonderful memories there AH
PTs !! Patrick Thomsons for the younger viewers, more recently Argos on the North Bridge
AH
I, as a schoolboy, delivered Davie Holts milk when he played for hertz and lived in Clerwood
I worked with the "dummy"
I would collect the milk money on a saturday morning.
Most times,Davie would answer the door, pay his bill and give me a good tip .
I would usually have my Hibs scarf on, as i would be off to the game when milk run collection finished
He always said good luck.. Nice man and a very good footballer.
I also delivered Tommy Walkers milk on another run in Barnton !!!
Great memories guys
Makes hibs.net worthwhile
Well done
:top marks
Billy
I am sure i wont be alone in saying ,that particularly for us older gadjies who have been on lockdown and shielding for near a year,your threads on History and quizzes,etc have been something to look forward to on the forum.
Its been great viewing the utube links of games, either i have completely forgotten, or was there and still forgot due to drink !
Keep up the good work and cheers:thumbsup: