[spireitematt]

Yeah I liked the the old days far more, but would Stanley Matthews have had the space and time he got in the old days? On the other hand he wouldn't have received the crunching tackles that were allowed then, and the ball and his boots would have been more responsive.

I don't think I saw Banksy for us. I was born 1952 so I don't think I got to Saltergate until 1959 / 60. I think Fat Ron was back in goal, not bad, but no World Cups in sight. But Leicester has always been my second team because they were the first bigger club I saw play and they'd got our Gordon Banks! And I spent days getting excited at the prospect of them in the Cup Final and was close to tears at the tragedy of it.

And it occurs to me how different our introduction to the game and its skills were back then. No one in this country has played football in the backyard or schoolyard with a tennis ball or any kind of ball they could they lay the hands on for years have they? It had to make a difference to your close skills didn't it? Look at Glasgow, whistle outside any tenement and a magic, little ball player would appear ......

And our lives were so different and so much  freer. Aged just nine me and my mate went on the Cross Street end  on our own. His dad was a teacher at the Grammar School and he took us in his big Rover, we'd park in one of the side streets, he'd go in the Stands and we'd take our money and go in through the turnstile. We'd run round to be behind the goal both halves and be back at the car waiting when his dad arrived. No wonder in that prevailing atmosphere players like Frank Worthington, Alan Hudson, Rodney Marsh and George Best felt empowered to play with a freedom and flair we find very difficult to replicate these days.

Would have they been able to control the ball today with it being lighter and quicker? When you look at Youtube clips of games from the past the pitches look like a mud bath and when you compare them to the pitches today, the pitches today are like a bowling green.

I've played football with a tennis ball when I was kid, very very difficult to control but very good for dribbling and technique. I also taught myself how to spin bowl with a tennis ball by getting a marker pen and marked a seam out on it.

[Devongone]

The flair players I mentioned .......... yes I think the modern game would only have improved their actual skills, but I'm not so sure their flair and rule-breaking would have been appreciated. Today we watch a heavily coached game. Try something out of the ordinary ......... you only get away with it if it comes off 100% ......... Players these days are pumped full of fear of failure and forced to repeat the mantra of playing the right way - and the coach gets to define that right way.

Of course coaching is a good thing, but you can't turn a melon into a peach. If boy's got a sweet touch and an eye for a pass, but is a bit weak and willowy, make him strong enough to use his touch and his pass, don't change his game and lose what made him special in the first place.

I NEVER thought of drawing a seam on a tennis ball, what a clever idea. Mind you I had got a proper cricket ball, but my dad didn't get me pads till I was in my teens. He still used to insist on me playing forward with my bat and non-existent pad together though ......... and he never offered easy catches for me to get him out. If cricket had just been fielding, throwing and catching you'd be able to find me in some old Wisden.