As an eleven-year-old, I was probably not alone in living for football.
But life back in those days wasn’t like it was now, televised live football was kept to a minimum and our only treats were, primarily, at the weekend watching broadcasts of Match of the Day and The Big Match on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon respectively.
It was a time when kids, when not at school, would gather on the playing fields and have a mass kickabout.
It was also a time when you’d imagine you were a player who played for your club, keen to show off your skills but pretending you were another individual.
Back in those days, I was fortunate enough to be taken, to Kenilworth Road, on a regular basis by my late father, an experience that helped shape my love of the game.
Yesterday, in my regular feature – the-daily-blog-of-a-luton-town-fan-on-a-12-week-self-isolating-covid-19-mission-26-mar-2020 – I mentioned that to ease the boredom, I’d start to go through my collection of Luton Town programmes seeking inspiration for future articles.
Well, it is fair to say I didn’t get very far.
One of the first programmes I picked up had John Aston on the cover.
Now, John, a flying winger was somebody I loved to imitate in those aforementioned forays in the local park.
John signed for Luton Town in 1972 and his signing was big news.
Aston had established himself as a footballer playing for Manchester United and was a key component of the wonderful Sir Matt Busby side that won the European Cup, at Wembley, beating Benfica, in fact so good was his contribution he was awarded the man-of-the-match award.
Skilful and fleet-footed John Aston was to go on and make in excess of 170 league games for the Hatters netting on 31 times in a Luton career that spanned the period 1972 – 1977.
His wing-play was admired by the Hatters support and whenever the ball was fed to his feet an air of anticipation rose from the Kenilworth Road stands.
When his time with Luton was over, John went on to play for Mansfield Town and Blackburn Rovers before hanging up his boots in 1979.
Searching the internet I came across this short video tribute to John and I’m extremely grateful to whoever took the time out to compile it and give the public access to an archive of photographs that bring back so many memories of John.
I hope you enjoy the video clip as much as I did:
Previous article by Mad Hatter
just-when-will-luton-town-resume-their-season-now-30-april-has-been-ruled-out
Hi mh, I agree with you in so far as he was both talented an European cup winner an very consistent. But Frenchie had more natural ability an could have been along side George best if only he had not had the same traits as best. Tommy docherty admitted that himself when Frenchie was at Chelsea. An they only let him go because they couldn’t control him. If you saw his end to end dribble down the touchline before scoring. How could you not have admired his skills an the way he wasted them.
another in a long line of sportsman who belong to the flawed genius category
Grahame French was my Winger at the top with Billy Bingham my second (showing my age)
Frenchie seems to be a popular choice but although I can remember some players from his era, I was only young, only his antics that landed him in prison remain in my memory banks 🙁
Frenchie was the best for me and a fella called Mike Harrison on the other wing.
Different era’s different heroes!
Hi Martin, I remember Mike Harrison very well an he couldn’t play 5 games in a row. He was always pulling muscles an injured. But when he did play he was useful. Alongside Ray whittiker.
Ah, I remember Ray, smallish chap, Alan Brown era
Hi mh, that’s right an a real game changer he was one of my first favs