Scoring At Half-Time Adventures On and Off the Pitch by George Best

Author:George Best [Best, George]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781446447932
Publisher: Ebury Publishing
Published: 2011-11-30T00:00:00+00:00

FRIDAY ON MY MIND

There were players too who were just as bad as any of us in the burning of the candle at both ends stakes but because they were not playing in the top division it passed the outside world by. One was a lad called Robin Friday who had problems with drink and drugs and died tragically young. Charlie Hurley, when manager of Reading, picked him up from non-League Hayes in the 1970s. Charlie had been tipped off about his great talent but was warned he was a bit of a nutter and that he had had spells in borstal. Robin enjoyed a great season at Elm Park where he delighted the fans with his individuality, goal scoring and stunts, such as pulling his opponents’ shorts down. He was transferred to Cardiff City where British Transport Police, who had discovered that he had travelled there on a platform ticket, arrested him on arrival. Managers soon learnt that they could not guarantee whether Friday would turn up for a game or not. It all depended on how heavy Friday’s Friday night had been. He never achieved his potential and never played in the top division. He was only thirty-eight when he died.

Another live wire was Graham French who played under Alec Stock at Luton a decade earlier in the 1960s. One morning the Luton team were waiting on Luton station to board their special train for their away match at Bury. Graham French was nowhere to be seen and Alec refused to leave without him. Finally French staggered on to the platform in his Friday night suit, shirt hanging out, beer can in hand, still pissed. Somehow the boys crowded around him and got him on the train without Alec examining him and allowed him to sleep all the way to Bury. He resumed sleeping in the Gigg Lane dressing rooms until 2.30 when his team-mates woke him and got him into his kit. He went out on to the pitch and played well, making two of the Luton goals but some way through the first half he received a pass on the halfway line and put his foot on the ball.

‘Will you please stop passing to me,’ he shouted. ‘I’m knackered. I want to go to sleep,’ and then he just walked off the pitch.

Mickey Thomas, who was a jinky little winger who played for a number of League clubs including Manchester United and Chelsea, is one of that select band of famous footballers who have tasted porridge. I’m another of them. Thomas played more than fifty times for his country, Wales, and when he arrived at Old Trafford was saddled with the title ‘the Welsh George Best’. I suppose in one way he lived up to the name because he soon fell into a pattern of drinking, missing training and overseas jaunts. He had joined from Wrexham in 1978 for £300,000 and despite endearing himself to the Stretford Enders with his exuberant personality and playing style, his relationship with manager Dave Sexton was understandably strained and he moved on.

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