A refreshing change

[Supersub6]

Last weekend a statue of Jack Charlton was unveiled in Hirst Park, Ashington. This was the area where he and brother, Bobby, were brought up and used to play football as lads.
As well as the statue there were also a few concrete information boards which had been commissioned and all related to football in Ashington.
It was so refreshing to see that one of the boards had four Footballers of the Year from Ashington and one of them is our own, Jimmy Adamson.
Normally, in these parts, it is all about the Charlton brothers and Jackie Milburn so it was really good to see Jimmy mentioned.
He was the first of the Ashington footballers to win the Football Writers' Award of Footballer of the Year. Jackie Milburn did not win that award, however, he was voted Ulster Footballer of the Year when he went to Linfield towards the end of his career.

[Swissclaret]

I think the club had a good history of finding talent in the North East. I do not know the connection. Others on here may know. I was lucky enough to see the great players of the late 50’s and into the 60’s. Many did not get the recognition that they deserved. It is good to see that many years on, they are being given that recognition.

[sinkov]

We had a scout in the North East called Jack Hixon Swiss, I believe he had a genius for unearthing talented young footballers and he must be due a lot of the credit. Sub will know more than me about him, I'm sure.

[alfinyalcabo]

Great Statue of wor Jack Ashy.👌

[Supersub6]

Great Statue of wor Jack Ashy.��

alf --it really is a brilliant statue and is life size!
Jack Hixon was the man, as sinkov says, who discovered so much north eastern talent and that included my griend Billy Ingham RIP.
Jack was a lovely guy and we had some great chats about football when he was scoutng in the local area and I was vsiting my in-laws whillst on leave.

Her is a link to his funeral:- https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news...-hixon-1465200

[The Bedlington Terrier]

We had a scout in the North East called Jack Hixon Swiss, I believe he had a genius for unearthing talented young footballers and he must be due a lot of the credit. Sub will know more than me about him, I'm sure.

Dave Thomas, Ralph Coates, Dave Merrington, and Brian O'Neil to name but a few sinkov. Jack produced a conveyor belt of hugely talented footballers in the late 50's and 1960's from the Northeast. It took other clubs a long time to catch on with Jack's methods. Wish we had his like now!