Normanton Lad

It just seems like yesterday when Leighton James signed for us. I thought he did well, but the Doc wanted him out. Leighton went on to have a very long career and I think it was a big mistake letting him go. I can remember listening to him on some kind of Desert Island Discs type show on Radio Derby around 1976 and thinking he was quite an old fashioned type of young man. He was a big Jim Reeves fan. There’s nothing wrong with that but it was unusual for someone his age. I followed his career when he left Derby and I was happy to see him do so well at Swansea, Sunderland and Burnley. Leighton’s replacement on the wing, Gerry Ryan, also died not long ago. I have many plans for the future and I would feel cheated if I didn’t make it to at least 85 and so it feels strange to see footballers, who were once much fitter than me, passing away – especially when they are younger than me. It is possible that Leighton and Gerry didn’t keep fit after football. I don’t know. It could be that they were just unlucky. Some people get off the train and some stay on. Eventually we will all get off, but some people have will have had very long journeys. Cliff Jones, who was another winger and who is a generation older than the above two, was giving keep fit lessons online during the lockdown.

There are millions of people in this county with IQs so low that they can’t organise their lives sensibly. They can’t plan ahead and they are unable to foresee the consequences of not doing things like buying a TV licence. These people are looked after to some extent by the social services but they are often left on their own when it comes to TV licences. They don’t go out much and their only entertainment, if you can call it that, is the TV. When the TV licence tax enforcers come calling they are easily caught. They lack the guile and worldliness to send these vultures packing and they will confess to anything.

I used to think that the TV Licence vans really had "tv detectors". It seems that was another BBC lie. They just bully vulnerable people into confessing they watch TV. They have never used "tv detector" evidence in court because it doesn't exist.

It’s just occurred to me that we are arguing about something that took place over 50 years ago. This must seem weird and irrelevant to younger posters. Just imagine that this messageboard had been here in 1967 when Clough took over and we were arguing about football events in 1917. I was on the terraces in 1967 and I never heard anyone ever mention anything to do with Derby County before 1945. Perhaps an interest in football history is a recent thing. In the late 1960s even the 1950s seemed in the distant past.

There are always exceptions to everything, but Clough's methods would not work on men as old as him. Just as a thought experiment imagine that Jack Charlton had still been at Leeds when Clough took over - he left a year earlier. What do you think he would have done when Clough told the Leeds players they can chuck their medals in the bin? Big Jack would probably have punched Clough. Jack was not much older than players like Giles, Bremner and Cooper. They had seen it all and they would not put up with Clough's abrasive managerial style. Dave Mackay was older than Clough and Clough knew he couldn't talk to Mackay in the same way he talked to the other players.

"Clough tried to shake up the team and get them to play better". Leeds were playing well enough without the need to shaking them up. Whenever I chat to Leeds fans they seem to think that Clough was determined to destroy Revie's team. I don't know what he was trying to do. He was still a young man in his 30s when he took over and I think the fact that the Leeds old guard weren't that much younger than him was part of the problem. When I started work age commanded far more respect than it does today. I don't think I would have taken seriously any bosses who were still in their 30s. In fact, I don't think I ever had a boss who wasn't at least in his 40s.

What I said about drinking at home was a bit harsh. I'm sure lots of people enjoy tasting wine and beers at home. There is nothing wrong with that in moderation. But we had, and still have, some alcoholics in my family and drinking at home was a bad thing for all concerned. However, they should not spoil the fun for the rest of us who can enjoy a drink without causing any trouble.

I have never understood the appeal of bitter or larger. The former to me just tastes like dishwater. But I’m just going on distant memory. When I first started drinking I used to drink mild. The first time I ordered a pint of mild down south they didn’t know what I was talking about. I don’t know if it was just that pub or whether mild was just a Northern drink. Anyway, I had a pint of stout instead and I have never looked back. I like all the main Irish stouts. To me stout is a far more satisfying and filling drink than bitter. It’s not often you get a bad pint, but friends who are always trying new bitters never seem satisfied. Where I live pub prices are forcing people to drink at home and that is something I don't like to do. A pint at home never seems to be the same as in a pub. The taste is different and, perhaps this is just me, it seems wrong. For me someone who drinks at home is a bit sad.

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I have that same memory. For me, that's reassuring because I think many of our memories are made up. In my mind I can see him walking down the side of the pitch towards the Normanton End. At that game or perhaps a game against Charlton I have a memory of the ball going in and out of the net without a goal being given against us. That seems unlikely so maybe that's one of my false memories.

That little man in my head often nods off and like most semi-senile reactionaries I say things I shouldn’t. I bark “So slow!” at old fools and other time wasters in shop queues. “What does he/she look like?” can sometimes be heard by people who pass me in the street. These people include women with green or blue hair, fat people with tattoos and men in skinny trousers or shorts. In my book shorts should only be worn by children and women who are not addicted to unhealthy foods.

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Doc Martins will not help you if you have foot problems. You need soft trainers. I have always walked long distances every day - 10 miles most days - and I don't get sore feet. Most brands of trainers work for me and I also wear thick soft woollen socks. Good quality socks are expensive and hard to find, but I think they are as important as the trainers. I even wear thick wool socks in the summer and my feet do not sweat despite all the walking. I have worn all the trainer brands mentioned and they seem about the same to me. The ones I am wearing at the moment are adidas lightmotion. I didn't buy them. Someone gave them to me and they are good enough. I used to buy Doc Martin shoes in the 1970s and they were good for walking but they were nowhere near as comfortable as trainers. I have read that the Doc Martins you see today don't have the same quality as the 1970s ones. Even in the 1970s the air pockets in the sole would split after about 6 months. Today they probably don't even last that long. Since about 2000 I just go out in trainers. I have a pair of quality shoes I bought around 1990 but I only wear them for things like funerals. I can't imagine wearing trainers to a funeral. It would be very disrespectful.

In the early and mid 1970s I used to work with Jack H, a very annoying old person. Although I was paid until 6 pm I could go home almost an hour early if my work was finished and as long as Jack finished his work. But Jack didn’t want to go home early and he dragged his work out until 6. We worked in a place where there was little natural light and after an hour’s walk home there was little sunshine left to enjoy and I blamed missing an hour’s sunlight on Jack. I looked him up on the net the other day expecting to see an obituary from the 1980s but he was still alive according to the local paper in the mid 1990s. What surprised me is that I no longer felt any animosity at all to Jack. Part of this can be put down to “Time heals all wounds”. But I think there is another factor involved. When you are old you don’t care so much about what other people do and say even if it involves you. For example, if someone on the street insulted me I would just walk on, but as I young man I would have challenged them. It’s not because I’m scared of getting hurt. It’s just that I don’t really care what they say about me.. It’s a bit like that on messageboards. There are always those who tell you that you are wrong and stupid even though I think I am probably right, but I no longer feel the need to challenge them. It’s a bit like the first verse of that great poem The Last Word by Matthew Arnold : Let the long contention cease! Geese are swans, and swans are geese. Let them have it how they will! Thou art tired: best be still.

Yes I watched every minute. If you have a weak attention span and little interest in the subject then it might seem boring, but it could never be as boring or pointless as an article in the Guardian. The first half hour or so is almost a monologue on the history of Russia and why that history is relevant now. Some would find that tedious especially if they have never had experience of listening to talks or lectures.