Originally Posted by
animallittle3
The first FA cup final I can remember as a kid was in 1968 Albion v Everton .
I remember asking my old man who he thought would win and he said Everton so I shouted for Albion as you do as a 6 year old lad .
After the game we replayed it in our small back garden and I was Jeff Astle , he had an old trophy in the shed for something or other and I ran round the garden with it celebrating like the Albion players had done .
We once were walking towards the away turnstiles at the Hawthorns , probably late 80's .
Driving past us was the man himself Jeff Astle in a white escort van , the only reason I knew it was him was because it has the name of his business on the side of it , could have been a cleaning business or something like that .
I thought even though I'm not an Albion fan you've no idea that you were my first football hero and I thought about shaking his hand and telling him but I bottled it for some reason .
Amazing the early impressions football has on you from such a young age .
I reckon if my old man wasn't such a Barnsley fanatic and took me to Oakwell I reckon I could easily have been an Albion fan .
