Jeff Astle

[soulman101]

From your era Kets you are spot on.

I never had the pleasure of seeing Bobby Hope.

I do think Willie deserves the title as well.

HI Mick, you would have loved Chippie Clark, a Yorkshire man, what a winger and he was top scorer one year with around 27 goals.

[WBA1955]

In my lifetime I would say that we have had three great strikers, Jeff Astle, Cyrille Regis and Ronnie Allen. I appreciate that it is extremely difficult to compare players from different eras but I believe that Ronnie Allen was the greatest. Not only was he a prolific goal scorer but he could play as a lone striker, a wide player, a creative, deep lying centre forward and for a player of not great stature, was good in the air. I would also say that Derek Kevan ran them close. As we say though, all a matter of opinion.

On a Sunday morning my dad and I used to go to get some vegetables from grandad who had a large garden. All three of us were lifelong baggies. I was only 13 but my grandad was born in 1901 and seen the league championship winning side and the runner's up a few seasons later.
I was all Astle my dad was like yourself a Ronnie Allen fan, but grandad used to say WG was better than both. Looking at his record you can't really argue, but the game in those three era's was very different.
The game was much more open and goals easier to come by in the thirties and fifties.
Jeff Astle played in a game that was becoming more defence orientated and against centre backs like Ron Yeats, Brian Labone, Mike England, Bill Foulkes, Jack Charlton etc which makes his twenty plus goals a season all the more impressive. Not only that but his leading of the line, holding up the ball, rarely wasting a pass ( he was imo the best passer in the team next to Hope) and his countless assists for Bomber, Hartford and others set's him aside.
If you look at the clip v Arsenal he was probably man of the match without scoring, but he made both goals.
Going back to the fifties our most prolific striker was Derek Kevan.
I saw Allen play but was too young to remember, but the accolades that he got from others pro's and the media make him special.
It's a bit like boxing, it's hard to say who was the best from different eras but it's nice to think we had some of the best from each era.

[WBA1955]

HI Mick, you would have loved Chippie Clark, a Yorkshire man, what a winger and he was top scorer one year with around 27 goals.

He would be in my all time Albion side before Willie or Laurie. Fast, tricky, direct, good with his head despite being a little guy and a deadly finisher. Astle, Brown and Clark, count the goals between them, our own holy trinity.

[mickd1961]

On a Sunday morning my dad and I used to go to get some vegetables from grandad who had a large garden. All three of us were lifelong baggies. I was only 13 but my grandad was born in 1901 and seen the league championship winning side and the runner's up a few seasons later.
I was all Astle my dad was like yourself a Ronnie Allen fan, but grandad used to say WG was better than both. Looking at his record you can't really argue, but the game in those three era's was very different.
The game was much more open and goals easier to come by in the thirties and fifties.
Jeff Astle played in a game that was becoming more defence orientated and against centre backs like Ron Yeats, Brian Labone, Mike England, Bill Foulkes, Jack Charlton etc which makes his twenty plus goals a season all the more impressive. Not only that but his leading of the line, holding up the ball, rarely wasting a pass ( he was imo the best passer in the team next to Hope) and his countless assists for Bomber, Hartford and others set's him aside.
If you look at the clip v Arsenal he was probably man of the match without scoring, but he made both goals.
Going back to the fifties our most prolific striker was Derek Kevan.
I saw Allen play but was too young to remember, but the accolades that he got from others pro's and the media make him special.
It's a bit like boxing, it's hard to say who was the best from different eras but it's nice to think we had some of the best from each era.

WG got 202 goals in 320 matches for Albion and the almost obligatory 1 England cap……typical of how our finest have been treated!

My mums elderly neighbour used to tell me that Albion’s finest players amongst those he’d watched were WG and Jesse Pennington.

He was of such a vintage that he wouldn’t put Kevan and Allen or Regis in the same breath! 🤣

I’ve mentioned many times in here that my own dad was a really good Mayer in his youth and he said that at county level Kevan was by a country mile the best player he ever played against in the late 40’s and early 50’s.

To think we’ve had to suffer the likes of Derek Monaghan, Les Palmer, Adrian Foster, Gary Piggot et al and expect that our fans would be happy with that!

Considering our success at choosing centre forwards from the early 1900’s through to the late 70’s the paucity of choices in the past 40 odd years is extremely stark!

[boingy]

Yes you have to mention Willie Johnston. Bryan Robson is the most talented player we’ve ever had. It was said of him that he was the best player in the team in ANY position. He didn’t play in goal but he was that good that it was even said that if he had he would have been the best keeper too. I can’t think of many if any players of any club that that’s been said about.

[Q165]

I have mentioned before what my dad would say. Ronnie Allen and Ray Barlow were greats. Bobby Hope was a wonderful footballer. He saw Tony Brown as a youngster at Albion and said how good he was then with massive potential. Allen, Barlow, Brown and Astle. It made him angry about how the closed shop attitude prevented them getting more England caps particularly Allen and Barlow.

[mickd1961]

I have mentioned before what my dad would say. Ronnie Allen and Ray Barlow were greats. Bobby Hope was a wonderful footballer. He saw Tony Brown as a youngster at Albion and said how good he was then with massive potential. Allen, Barlow, Brown and Astle. It made him angry about how the closed shop attitude prevented them getting more England caps particularly Allen and Barlow.

I will say Q that amongst all Albion fans I have ver known who got to watch our side from the late 40’s onwards the name that most came up as being our best player was Ray Barlow.

When I first started work in 78 Ray owned the newsagents in Brettle Lane, Amblecote, Stourbridge and I used to work 1/4 of a mile away and got the evenings Express and Star for be lads at the garage I worked at.

At that point I was 16 and didn’t know who he was!🤡🙄

He lived 1/4 of a mile from me in Pedmore and late in his life I met him in my local newsagent.

I was having a moan about the Albion team at that time in the early 2000’s as we once again fought relegation but he wouldn’t speak a word against the club or its position.

A complete gentleman and a player that in todays’s transfer market would fetch in excess of £100m.

I would bet he wouldn’t have swooped places with the career he had.

Something of a disgrace that there’s no statue and commemoration of him at the ground.