First actual game FA Cup Final v Leicester City - 25/5/63.
A neighbour of ours told my Dad that his son had just got mumps and could not go down to Wembley with him for the final. He had noticed that I was football mad and asked him if it was OK for me to take the lads place. The 60's were a bit more laissez - faire and my father was happy to let his 6 year old son toddle off to Wembley with a relative stranger! The drive down from Leeds seemed to take hours and we parked outside the stadium
. Not a brilliant game and Leicester were all over us in the first 20 minutes and Gaskell was absolute rubbish. Then the King scored and my love affair started, both with the man himself and the club.
On my 50th birthday,
my wife [who hates football and had no idea about this story] presented me with a gift that was obviously a picture of something. Suspecting it was another Picasso or Dali print
I was amazed on unwrapping it, that it contained a '63 Cup Final commemorative shirt signed by Dennis himself. I will freely admit I broke down in tears.
Gaskell
Dunne
Cantwell
Crerand
Foulkes
Setters
Giles
Quixall
Herd
Charlton
Law
First league game v WBA - 14/9/63.
After the final this was the first game that my neighbour could take me to in the league. Scrappy game, but a certain young man made his debut, and the rest as they say, is history.
Gregg
Dunne
Cantwell
Crerand
Foulkes
Setters
Best
Stiles
Sadler
Chisnall
Charlton