There he is at the top of the page, there; Peter McParland: he's the fella on the right with the Villa shirt and he's about to cross that ball out of the reach of the Chelsea fella with him.
He was in all the papers last week as it was his 91st birthday and he's in them this week as he has died. He waited for the Villa to win again, after the disappointment with Man City and PSG, even though Villa played great in that game.
Aston Villa left winger. Number 11, and the last of the winning FA Cup winning team on 1957 to die. I always remember him with that number eleven on his back, like Georgie Best, which many people are mistaken as they think he was number seven 7.
Every time I saw Georgie play he was eleven with Morgan at number seven.
Peter McParland played in the days when, if the ball came across and the goalkeeper caught it, it was okay to shoulder charge the goalie into the back of the net, with the ball, as long as his feet were on the floor. This is why a lot of keepers punched the ball out which made for faster end to end football.
The goalkeepers since have been a protected species. One time there were not allowed to run with the ball in their hands unless they bounced it and I remember in one game Georgie Best timed his shot so well that when Gordon Banks bounced the ball, wee Georgie kicked it out of his hands and into the goal. NO GOAL, they shouted, you can't score a goal like that, you can't kick it out of the poor goalkeeper's hand like that. Not to Saint Gordon Banks.
But back to Peter McParland who was the first player I saw playing for Aston Villa when I entered Villa Park with my dad, who wasn't much of a football fan and who had taken me the week before to the dreaded Birmingham City who played Lincoln City.
The rest of the Irish in Birmingham supported Aston Villa and that's where we went.
So goodbye to Peter Mc P and thanks for everything.
