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John Quinn, at the launch of Real Footballers' Wives by Becky Tallentire

It was all so strange...
14 October 2004

I was just a kid not even into my teens, I was only about nine and Everton was about going to watch Bobby Collins. He was an inside forward you see, that meant his job was to score goals and suddenly Harry Catterick decided he was replaceable.

But we were "it" those days and we could get anyone we wanted and Catterick got just the man he wanted.

Dennis Stevens.

Dennis fucking who? — that was what we all asked...........he was a Bolton Wanderers wannabee, certainly not what the Goodison faithful expected.

He didn't score goals you see, well not as many as an inside forward would do.

In fact he spent more time in our half than in the opponents.

More often than not he got booed by the crowd but the following year Everton were the Champions and he played a major, major part in that triumph.

I asked him today, why he endured such booing when in fact he was the prototype for Alan Ball.

Easy, he said, its Everton, I was lucky to play for the Club.

I asked Derek Temple today a simple question .............

"If I offered you now one million pounds for you NOT to be known as the EVERTON player to score the WINNER in the 1966 FA Cup Final , would you take that million".

"Multiply that by ten and I would still say no, Everton is and was my team, I was lucky".

I was looking over all the team photos over the years and was astounded to see that Gordon Lee was actually team manager for four years.

I was trying to put names to faces on the team photos when I noticed that Gordon was doing the same.

"Know what I said, if a certain ref had not disallowed a certain goal, your whole career may have been so different".

He acknowledged that with a smile and told me a few other things about EFC, one being how priviledged he was to have managed Everton... it was the pinnacle of his career.

The mans integrity, dignity and love of Everton was striking and I felt so much remorse for at one time booing a man who loved Everton and so much wanted them to be great.

This woman said "come and sit by my gran, come and say hello to Mrs Ted Sagar"

How could I refuse??

She is 96 but as bright as a button.

She spent ages talking to me.

She talked talked about Dixie and how great he was.

She talked about "her hubby Ted" catching the bus with supporters to Goodison.

I asked her if there was any chance of Ted and her owning their own house.

The 96 year old lady looked at me and smiled.

Ted asked if he could have his ashes buried on the centre spot at Goodison.

"That's all he wanted you know, nothing more. He is the only player to have his ashes on the centre spot "

I felt ever so humble ... until I thought of Wayne Rooney and then I felt very ashamed.

John Quinn

[Originally posted by JayKew at The People's Forum on October 14, 2004, 11:17 pm,
this piece is unedited and provided within ToffeeWeb for archival purposes.]