West Bromwich Albion F.C.

Tears in my eyes…how majestic they looked and were…and that strip is like a vintage wine…full of taste and style…oh god how I knelt at the alter on the Brummie Road to these players and this team and this club…but I no longer do…where has my club, my game gone and this kind of player gone? The last player to fit the remit would be ‘Super Bob’ Taylor…the like of which we won’t see any longer. It’s so sad…if someone gave me a free ticket now it wouldn’t interest me.

Anyway…I’ll just spend some time drooling over these pics and remembering playgrounds, evenings, weekends and school holidays, with jumpers for goals pretending I was on the pitch with these gods… (my god I’ve just stood up to type the folowing lol 🙂

Jeff ‘THE KING’ Astle (The Brummie Road will sing this song Astle Is The King) / SIR Bobby Hope (a sublime talent and passer of the ball) / Tony BOMBER’ Brown (oh my god I’ve got a lump in my throat) / John OSSIE’ Osborne (what a lovely character he was and a great keeper who used every bit of his body to stop a shot or header…even his plastic knuckled finger 🙂 lol…who can forget how he used to lead on the goal post Andy Capp style and talk to the crowd at the front of the Brummie Rd lol brilliant…I can even remember fans flicking him a lighted ciggy and he’d have a drag off it 🙂 wonderful memories and happy days when these type of players really were local heroes.

The wonderful wing talents of Clive ‘Chippy’ Clarke (the Baggies tradition of stylish wingers well represented here and carried on for many years after Clive by the ‘God Like’ Willie Johnstone and then the ‘Black Pearl’ Laurie Cunningham.

Baggies grit represented by the hard tough tackling defenders such as Doug Fraser, John Kaye and John Talbut, great club captain and full back Graham Williams and young (at the time) up and coming Baggies such as the midfield terrier like Asa ‘Hole In The Heart’ Hartford and Ray Wilson (another full back of style). Graham Lovett as well in midfield and the unforgetably named Dick Kryzwicki (who was Welsh) 🙂 and then Danny Hegan.

Bedroom walls adorned with pics of these…I’ve still got a signed team photo with Chippy Clarke and Bobby Hope’s signatures on from this period …framed alongside my first Baggies sew on badge and pin badge as well, pendant and a souvenir 1968 FA Cup Final Sports Argus costing 5d…lol :-)…wonderful.

I’m so glad I experienced this period of football and its magic …because over the past number of years the magic has gone and I have no connection to these modern day brats.

Well done for posting these old pics Frank – great stuff 🙂