Discovered Too Late

The manager of the Nottingham U11 team thought he had a strong squad for the annual East Midlands ‘friendly’ tournament but the side was continually let down by an inability to put the ball in the back of the net, losing all their matches.

A week after the event he refereed a schools cup final in which the centre forward, who he had never seen before, scored a sublime hat trick running the opposing defence ragged. This superb athlete went on to have a glittering career for Nottingham Forest, Arsenal, Manchester United and, of course, England. Step up Viv Anderson.