The greats at BP

I was fascinated to.read that Nantwich mariner saw Denis Law at BP. I vividly remember seeing Stanley Matthews playing for Stoke against us. He took the ball up to Brian Keeble,hopped around from foot to foot while Keeble held off,and then slipped the ball 5 yards inside for Stoke to score. I think Stan was in his late 40s at the time.

Before my time that one. I can remember seeing Kevin Keegan playing for Newcastle and Gazza for Burnley at BP. I think Gazza came on as sub if I remember rightly. Also Ruud Gullit for Chelsea in the cup, probably not a great but still a big name at the time.

Saw World Cup winner Alan Ball here in 1978 in the FA Cup with Southampton. A certain Chris Nicholl was also playing for them that day.

https://www.11v11.com/matches/grimsby-town-v-southampton-07-january-1978-214268/

Bobby Moore, Martin Peters and Geoff Hurst in the league cup quarter final in 1965.

We would never believe what happened less than a year later!

Quoted from Captaincod

Before my time that one. I can remember seeing Kevin Keegan playing for Newcastle and Gazza for Burnley at BP. I think Gazza came on as sub if I remember rightly. Also Ruud Gullit for Chelsea in the cup, probably not a great but still a big name at the time.

Ruud Gullit can be considered a great in my opinion.

Gazza got a great reception from the Town fans if memory serves. It was the infamous “Conoco caps” game, wasn’t it?

Edgar Davids played for Barnet when he was player manager there. Not quite sure if he makes the cut for “great” or not, but he was certainly an iconic player in his era.

On the subject of player managers, I can remember Glenn Hoddle playing for Swindon. I was just getting into playing the game myself as a kid, and I can vividly remember my old man telling me to watch how he passed the ball. Great player even at the very end of his career. He was managing England five or six years later.

Alan Shearer might be a contentious one, but he remains the top scorer of the modern, Premier League era ahead of some pretty spectacular names.

We have played against a few World Cup winners in recent years. Pedro at Chelsea; MacAllister at Brighton, off the top of my head. Shame those games weren’t at BP (and a bigger shame we got battered in both of them).

Who would be the last WC winner to play at BP? I can remember my dad (and possibly even my mum) telling me they’d seen Alan Ball play for Blackpool. He of course managed here for Portsmouth more recently.

There must have been another since then (although I suppose the fact we didn’t start to get foreign players in the English game in large numbers until the mid-90s might narrow down the opportunities)?

In no particular order
Andy Gray
Peter Shilton
Kevin Keegan
Chris Waddle
Ruud Gullit
Ray Wilkins
Gary Lineker
Alan Shearer
Paul Mcgrath
Dwight Yorke
Gazza
Cyril Regis
Trevor Brooking

I forgot Glenn Hoddle

Robert Prosinečki has to be in this list surely?

Also, Ashley Cole. Often overlooked when we look at world class players we've produced but Cole was consistently the best left back in the game for a good decade.