He may have only played 23 times for us but Gordon Banks must just wrest the title of the best player ever to play for Chesterfield from an earlier England keeper, Sam Hardy.
Amazingly Gordon was with Chesterfield for five years and only made the first team in his final season. He did, however, help us to the Final of the FA Youth Cup, which would represent a miracle these days. The man who kept Banks out of the first team all that time was Ron Powell who we got from Manchester City ...... and who would have made 500 appearances for us had it not been for Gordon Banks and the car crash which killed centre forward Ralph Hunt.
Lev Yashin achieved the accolade of being the twentieth century's best goalkeeper and Lev was truly great, but no one but Gordon Banks was that good. I saw them both and, like Lev, Banks had everything plus that sprinkle of stardust which distinguishes very few sportsmen. That was the reason he was able to come up with that save from Pele.
When England won the World Cup people point to a whole host of reasons that Alf Ramsey's team was able to come out on top. To my mind, however, that team was vastly unusual in having the two greatest anticipators I've ever seen. Bobby Moore read a game so well that he was wherever the danger lay before it was even a danger and Gordon Banks read so much into what was happening he rarely had to make a save like that he pulled off four years later from Pele. His feet were quick, his mind was quicker and his hands were the safest of safe. Reaching that ball from Pele's downward header demonstrated how much Banks's mind could take in within an instant. If it were an artwork it would be the equivalent of the B of the Bang. It should be outside the Proact in glass.
Gordon, you were the best. I shook Sam Hardy's hand when I was a little boy and was silently amazed to be told he was the best who'd ever lived. I wish I'd had the opportunity to say how completely brilliant I thought you were at something I spent years trying hard to do well.
Amazingly Gordon was with Chesterfield for five years and only made the first team in his final season. He did, however, help us to the Final of the FA Youth Cup, which would represent a miracle these days. The man who kept Banks out of the first team all that time was Ron Powell who we got from Manchester City ...... and who would have made 500 appearances for us had it not been for Gordon Banks and the car crash which killed centre forward Ralph Hunt.
Lev Yashin achieved the accolade of being the twentieth century's best goalkeeper and Lev was truly great, but no one but Gordon Banks was that good. I saw them both and, like Lev, Banks had everything plus that sprinkle of stardust which distinguishes very few sportsmen. That was the reason he was able to come up with that save from Pele.
When England won the World Cup people point to a whole host of reasons that Alf Ramsey's team was able to come out on top. To my mind, however, that team was vastly unusual in having the two greatest anticipators I've ever seen. Bobby Moore read a game so well that he was wherever the danger lay before it was even a danger and Gordon Banks read so much into what was happening he rarely had to make a save like that he pulled off four years later from Pele. His feet were quick, his mind was quicker and his hands were the safest of safe. Reaching that ball from Pele's downward header demonstrated how much Banks's mind could take in within an instant. If it were an artwork it would be the equivalent of the B of the Bang. It should be outside the Proact in glass.
Gordon, you were the best. I shook Sam Hardy's hand when I was a little boy and was silently amazed to be told he was the best who'd ever lived. I wish I'd had the opportunity to say how completely brilliant I thought you were at something I spent years trying hard to do well.