TWENTY years ago, I popped on a bus at Howden-le-Wear bound for my destination of Newcastle and the Waterstones bookstore. The reason was to meet one of the greatest, if not the greatest, goalscorer that this country has ever produced, Jimmy Greaves who was signing his book Greavsie: The Autobiography.
I feel well within my rights to call Greavsie the greatest goalscorer because of his following records:
- At 21 years, he became the youngest player in the history of English football to score 100 League goals.
- Aged 23 he scored his 200th League goal to equal the record set by Dixie Dean of Everton.
- He scored on his debut for every senior team he played for: Chelsea and England U23s in 1957; the England full side, against Peru in Lima in 1959; AC Milan in 1961; Tottenham Hotspur in 1961, and finally West Ham United in 1970.
- He was the leading First Division goal scorer a record six times: Chelsea: 1958-59, 32 goals; 1960-61, 41 goals, and Tottenham Hotspur: 1962-63, 37 goals; 1963-64, 35 goals; 1964-65, 29 goals, and 1968-69, 27 goals.
- He played in 516 Football League matches and scored 357 goals with his average score per First Division game 0.69.
- He was his club's leading goalscorer in 12 of his 14 seasons in which he played First Division football.
- His total tally of goals in senior games from 1957 to 1971 is 491 goals.
Little wonder, then, on arriving at the store, I found quite a queue had formed stretching to where Jim was sitting, happily autographing his book.
But he did have a little chink in his armour. The first time that he was dropped? Anyone got any clues?
READ MORE: WHEN DAVID FROST CAME TO FEETHAMS 50 YEARS AGO
It was against, would you believe, Darlington, and it came in an FA Cup 4th round replay at Feethams on Wednesday, January 29, 1958.
In the first match at Chelsea on Saturday, January 25, 1958, Darlington had fielded Turner, Green, Henderson, Rutherford, Greener, Furphy, Morton, Milner, Harbertson, Bell, Carr, and at half time they were 2-0 ahead with goals from Harbertson and Carr.
Six minutes into the second half and the Quakers were 3-0 up with a goal from Morton.
However Chelsea, with Peter Brabrook having a great match, fought back and goals by Lewis, Tindall and McNichol forced a replay at Feethams.
For the replay, a crowd of 15,150 at Feethams saw Darlington field the same side as at Stamford Bridge except Carr replaced Morton at outside right and Moran replaced Carr at outside left.
The game stood at 1-1 at full time with Moran scoring for Darlington and McNichol for Chelsea. However, in a crazy five minute spell in extra time, Darlo knocked in three goals through Moran, Carr and Harbertson, to win the match 4-1.
As soon as I got my hands on a book, with his flamboyant signature sprawled across the title page, I turned to see if Jimmy mentioned this amazing match in his book.
He did, and Chelsea manager Ted Drake was not amused by it.
“In the dressing room after the game, I stood in a corner and kept my head down as he tore into my Chelsea team-mates,” wrote Jimmy.
“Normally following a mid-week match in the north of the country we didn't hang about. The players would wolf down some sandwiches and grab a cup of tea while trainer Albert Tennant gathered up the muddy kit and threw it into a wicker skip in double-quick time as there was always a train to catch.
“Not on this night.
“Albert didn't dare busy himself in front of Ted Drake because Ted 'had one on him'. Ted was blazing mad. He systematically went through the team, telling each player exactly what he thought of their performance.
“At one point John Battersby put his head around the door to remind Ted we had a train to catch. ‘I don't care if they spend the night on Darlington station or have to walk back to London,' Ted bellowed without looking at John. 'They ain't leaving till I have told them some home truths.'
"Having said his piece, Ted told everyone to get a move on as we had a night train to catch and he didn't want to be stranded in Darlington overnight.
“I heaved a sigh of relief when he stormed out of the dressing room, because I felt relatively safe, only for Ted to step back into the room and focus his eyes on me. 'As for you Greaves, Mr bloody England Under 23. Some bloody player you are, you can't even get in this side!'"
READ MORE: THE FOOTBALLER WHO CUT BRIAN CLOUGH'S HEDGE
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