Yes, 80 years young and fondly remembered by us oldies. He was a no-nonsense kick 'em up in the air player or boot the ball over on the railway line as a second option. I remember he did give away needless free kicks and ended up being "booked" numerous times but he gave effort and put a shift in which is what we like to see. Happy birthday John and many more of them. I know its not the same thing but the late Ernie Pythian was a Pool stalwart as well Raj and loved by that generation and past of Pools fans. Why hasn't he been even credited with a mention on the club web site? Stand corrected if I'm wrong. C'mon Raj do the decent thing please even belatedly.

Agree with everything you say, but the moment has passed. Seems like they have turned their back on the OS and passed on the responsibility to certain fan groups to relay info like this on other social media platforms. Nothing wrong with that as an addition to the OS but the OS should be the first choice go to, for any info on the things like this.

My wife and I were invited to his 70th birthday lunch and presented him with a Pools shirt with his name and number on and a club tie, on behalf of his family, who had purchased the items. John got some dust in his eye. It was a privilege for us and we were honoured to be there. Regards to John's son Tim, his family and of course Big John. Love and best wishes to you all.
Looking forward to our next meeting with you at Walsall FC.
Stuart will be looking down from the great pitch in the sky and nodding his approval.

agree to all of this. its not rose tinted specs about the old days either. plenty of talk nowadays about players attitudes but it was never levelled at the john gills of the game and his opponents who some gave as good as they got. this attitude went right up to the early 90,s where the premier league seemed to stop it. even refs of the day knew and expected something was going to happen. centre halves putting their mark on a centre forward early in the game and the opposite happening at the next available opportunity. the ref would say something like right you two you have had your one each now lets play football. they did but hard and there was a good chance of em both having a natter together in the bar afterwards with a pint in their hands. do know that big bob scott of crewe infamy and vernon allatt ex halifax and others became big mates after a battle on the pitch when they both played at crewe together.

Bob Scott, one of the worst centre halves I have ever seen at Pools, truly dreadful, and yes he was dirty, in the main because he was that clumsy and slow, and despite his side never even managed to score a goal in his short time with us. Amazed he went on to forge a decent career after us at Crewe, as he had non league player written all over him. The only thing I can say in his defence is he played in one of the worst Pools sides ever 1976/77. I think this is what you are referring to Mr A.


Vernon Allatt talks about Bob Scott.

"Halifax was my first club and one day we played Crewe and they had a colossus of a defender called Bob Scott. He was a huge man-mountain with a bushy beard and hands like shovels. Crewe fans reckoned they used to wheel him on to the pitch at Gresty Road. Anyway, he scared the life out of me, because I hadn't learned my craft. It was a man against a boy and the man won. He'd say: 'Touch that ball, son, and I'll break your legs'. He really did hurt me and I remember George Kirby (Halifax manager) telling me in front of the players that I was gutless. I sat in the boot-room at Halifax crying my eyes out after the game. A lot of it was anger that I had let the team down and I vowed it would never happen again. "A few years later I was playing for Rochdale and we had Crewe at Spotland. When I saw Bob Scott's name on the team-sheet all I wanted to do that day was to destroy him. "I was like a man possessed. I had so much pent-up aggression in me. I just had to erase that memory and prove something to myself. "The first tackle I made, I caught him in the back with my knee and said: 'Remember me, Bob? It's pay-back time'. "I absolutely murdered him and they took him off with 20 minutes left. "The following season, Dario Gradi signed me. He told me that Bob Scott had told him to go out and sign this kid called Vernon Allatt because I was scared of nobody. "Bob became one of my best friends at Crewe after that."

Is the big fellas wife still alive, she was a teacher at Dyke House when i was there.

vernon was only scared if you could call it that of playing at the vic. he hated everything about the place. the changing rooms, the baths or showers and especially the weather where to be fair it was always freezing the times he played us. i used to give him a lift to games when he was at rochdale and became a good mate of mine who actually became my best man at my last wedding. that game against crewe all he mentioned on the 30 minute journey was how he was going to do scotty and could not wait. bob was a real character with one of my best tales about any player i ever could tell. can only tell face to face though. they say the game as changed for the better. i for one aint convinced.

You will have to tell it to me, next time I'm over your way. As for the game, me neither. I think the game now replicates life, which is a lot easier and softer. Remember a lot of these players grew up in austere times just after the war, played football in the back streets , and their friends worked shifts in the pit or the local mill. It must've had an impact on how they played the game and their general devil may care attitudes.

think the latter sums up the early post war generation to a tee. that includes both sexes where neither are as phased by what goes on around them as my parents were for a start. its the last real shipyard, pit and mill generation who had a bit more money at the back of em and were not prepared to suffer as their parents where. it could have created the industrial unrest in the 70,s especially in the car industry but it was bound to happen. looking back to what my ma always used to say, you don,t know you are born, after my moans. the best words she ever said. would not swap my childhood for the button pushing present lot of kids where some are old before their years. they have a long future to worry about stuff like climate change in their lives without it bothering em as kids. never gave the suez crisis or cold war any thought especially when there were shots to save in the street and the number of grasers i,d get.