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    Matthews 100

    February 1st sees the 100th anniversary of the birth of Stanley Matthews, and early indicatons are that it's going to be marked in the news a fair bit.

    No doubt there'll be the usual articles about what's gone wrong with modern football, and how Matthews' name on the team sheet could add an extra million on the gate.

    Still, a significant figure in football history. The Stoke Sentinel has put together a handy compilation of YT videos featuring Stan the Man.

    http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/Stanl...ail/story.html

    #2
    Matthews 100

    so Winston Churchill was buried on the 50th anniversary of Sir Stan's birthday.
    Stan was born in Seymour Street in Hanley and when I worked in a factory alongside Seymour Street in the 90's and we went 100 days or something without any accidents, Stan came to present an award.
    It was just like a visit from royalty and everyone was agog at him coming. Not just Stoke City or football fans, everyone was straining to see him and touch the hem of his garment.
    He came round the mouldmaking department and said that as a child he had wanted to be a mouldmaker. They were big hefty blokes who could lift and shift the big moulds from their blocks.
    By the time he came to visit, the department was automated and just consisted of a few frail women pressing buttons on a conveyor belt. Poor stan looked a bit crestfallen.
    Throughout the visit he was politeness and charm. Dressed in a smart suit with a silk tie and handkerchief in his breast pocket, his silver quiff perfectly placed, he was the real old time gent.
    When he died at the age of 85, his funeral cortege stopped outside and we all came outside to pay respects

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      #3
      Matthews 100

      Wonderful post.

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        #4
        Matthews 100

        Indeed. I am trying to work out what Shadworth Cloud's factory made.

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          #5
          Matthews 100

          We made earthenware tableware, (Johnson brothers). J&G Meakins Eagle pottery, as you ask.
          It is now a housing estate....

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            #6
            Matthews 100

            In the videos, he has an amazing turn of pace from a walking start, rather like Pele or George Best, say. Hard to say how he'd cope with a side that put two men on him every time he got near the box.

            England were a top side in 1956, pre-Munich. Might that side have beaten Brazil in 1958?

            (OTOH England v Brazil in 1956 was 2-2 until England got a seemingly dubious penalty).

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              #7
              Matthews 100

              My father's favourite ever player. I had to send him that link.

              He told me when he was a kid, he went to an open day at Blackpool once. They had a black mark painted on one of the goal posts about two thirds of the way up. Matthews would run on to a pass down the wing and cross the ball in, and according to my dad, from the sideline he hit the black mark every time.

              Having seen most players struggle with soccer AM's crossbar challenge, I think there's no reason to compare him unfavourably with today's players.

              That run for the goal against Luton is incredible for a 48 year old. In fact, that he could be playing football at such a high level in his forties a all is incredible enough.

              I suppose this thread begs the question, where does he stand in the pantheon of English greats? He could justifiably lay claim to being England's finest ever player, in my view.

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                #8
                Matthews 100

                Yeah, that turn of pace he shows scoring against Luton is even more remarkable if you consider the pitch makes the 1970's Baseball Ground at Derby look like a 4G artificial surface.

                There's no doubt he's one of the greatest ever players but I certainly don't think he was ever underrated either. All through his career he was a world star, the fact he kept Tom Finney in the shade (a player perhaps a match for Matthews or even better) is a case in point. Finney actually displaced Matthews in the England side but it is Matthews who remained the star. Just look at the line up for his farewell game.

                It's been the subject of much forensic analysis, but when you see the embarrassment of riches pre and post war England teams into the 1950's had to choose from, it is still a wonder they did not do better in the major tournaments. Prehistoric tactics notwithstanding.

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                  #9
                  Matthews 100

                  I remember as a child when my mum asked who my favourite footballer was (I can't remember why) replying, 'Paul Scholes!'. My grandmother was already going deaf, and clearly having mis-heard the question, scolded me lovingly but firmly, 'No! Stanley Matthews is the best footballer ever!' She had no interest in football whatsoever, but she was quite sure about that.

                  On another note, I must confess to letting out a big belly laugh over the voiceover line, 'a cumulative total of the transfer values in this dressing room... would top one million pounds!' over a shot of Matthews sitting between Ferenc Puskás and Alfredo Di Stéfano. The past really is another world.

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