[Football] Alan Gilzean RIP

[rocker959]

RIP a great player

 

[Dave the OAP]

When we lived in South Africa late 60's early seventies, alan gilzean played for a team called Durban Spurs and I followed the local side Highlands Park. He was a great draw when Durban came to play at our own ground as they were regarded a bit like Real Madrid's gallacticos as they had a lot of ex pat players.

We lived in some flats down the road from the ground and above us lived a guy called Joe Frickleton who played for Highlands Park and after the game Alan came and stayed with him for a few days. They knew each other from their playing days in Scotland. My dad was out chatting to them both in the garden and I tagged along. Alan was a lovely guy and he gave me a football shirt which at the time meant nothing to me but it turned out to be an old Tottenham training top.

He was a Very silky player and the only one who I could compare him with was Frank Worthington.

A life very well lived.

 

[Garry Nelson's teacher]

Seem to remember his headers, slipping off the forehead, RIP

This.

He could have patented the 'glancing header'. Class

 

[Robinjakarta]

Greaves and Gilzean - what a strike force in their day! RIP Alan.

I used to watch them regularly at White Hart Lane and can't think of another pair of strikers I've seen to match them. They so complimented each other. Gilzean is rightly a legend for his heading but he could do much more, too. He also had quite a shot on him, and had he been English would have walked into the England team with Greaves.

 

[ALBION28]

What a great player he was. I was lucky enough to go with mates to see him play (used to watch a London game when Albion were away) . I never saw the like again, thus far. He was magnificent with those clever headers and finding space in the box. Thanks for the memory Alan. RIP

 

[ewe2]

What happens when all our childhood heros are dead !.......Just the memories i suppose.

 

[lancyclaret]

I used to watch them regularly at White Hart Lane and can't think of another pair of strikers I've seen to match them. They so complimented each other. Gilzean is rightly a legend for his heading but he could do much more, too. He also had quite a shot on him, and had he been English would have walked into the England team with Greaves.

RIP...Alan Gilzean.

In those days (early to mid-60s) Spurs and Burnley were two of the top 4/5 teams in England and had some thrilling battles (4-4, 4-3 at WHL just two).

Spurs had the great pair of Greaves and Gilzean but at the same time Burnley had a pair to equal to them or nearly as good in Andy Lochhead and former Brighton striker Willie Irvine. Lochhead was a battering ram of a player and great in the air while Irvine was deadly poacher in the box.

In two seasons (1964/65, 1965/66), Irvine and Lochhead scored 109 goals between them in 80-odd matches. Irvine scored 37 in 49 matches in the 65/66 season which saw Burnley finish 3rd behind Liverpool and Leeds before he suffered a badly broken leg in January 1967 folllowing a horror tackle by John Morrissey in an FA Cup replay at Goodison Park.

He did reasonably well at a lower level with Preston & Brighton but he was never as deadly after the injury so Seagulls fans would not have seen WI in his pomp while at the club in 1971/72 (69 games, 27 goals).

 

[Pavilionaire]

RIP Alan Gilzean. A true legend of WHL and Dundee.