WITH seconds remaining of the 1966 World Cup final, Geoff Hurst collects the ball on the left just inside the German half. It may just be tiredness, but the ball never seems to be running cleanly, it always needs to be dug out. Nevertheless, Hurst out-paces a half-hearted defender and bears down on goal before, indisputably, with his left foot sending the ball high into the net with such force that the goalkeeper barely moves.

Sir Geoff was the right man in the right place at the right time, and he let his feet do the talking.

Kenneth Wolstenholme was also the right man in the right place at the right time, and with the right words.

Just 14 of them. "Some people are on the pitch." So beautifully weighted and timed. "They think it's all over." A commentator in perfect harmony with what he is describing. "It is now." The footballer and the commentator become one in millions of memories.

It is a moment that all football fans hold dear - even those who were not born in 1966 and whose only memory of the moment comes from the beginning of a comedy quiz show. In our heart of hearts, although we hope against hope that Sven Goran Eriksson and David Beckham will return victorious from the Far East this summer, we also know that it will probably remain unique in British sporting history.

It is every schoolboy's dream to play for his country. Around the lamp-posts as the night draws in, each successive generation becomes a different goalscoring star: Michael Owen, Alan Shearer, Gary Lineker, Kevin Keegan, Geoff Hurst The made-up commentary matches the age, but the scene is always the same: the last minute winner of the World Cup.

As time draws on, knees start to ache and bellies start to grow, most schoolboys realise that they will never fulfill these dreams - although if a last minute injury crisis ruled out every professional striker in the land, there would be a crowd of over-weight and under-fit middle-aged men volunteering for the World Cup, knowing that their experience and old magic would help them roll back the years and at least touch the dream.

Most of us, though, know that we will never be Owen, Shearer or Beckham, but still we'd like to make our mark in whatever we do, and we'd like not to be forgotten after our demise.

Most of us won't miss Kenneth Wolstenholme; most of us will struggle to put a name to his face in today's obituaries. But we'll all remember his 14 spontaneously crafted words, touched by genius, that guarantee his immortality.