Don't know why, but I've been thinking a lot about Tony Currie recently. For those who are too young to have seen him, he was a 24-carat footballing genius. In fact, I would put him on a par with Pele and Messi in that they are the only other players I have seen who possessed a surreal quality of seeming to operate under slightly different laws of physics than the rest of the world. Currie simply strolled about the middle of the park in the most languid fashion, but he could beat a player effortlessly. He almost seemed to somehow just disappear on one side of the player, and reappear on the other instantly. He could also dispatch the ball from under his feet without any apparent backlift, whether it was a rocket shot or a 40 yard pinpoint pass.
Anyway, I've got 3 particular memories of Currie which I would be grateful if any older listers can verify if they really happened as I think they did. 1. His debut. I had a mate at University in those days, a lad called Steve who played with me in the University 2nd team. He was from Sheffield and was a big United fan. He never stopped raving on and on about Tony Currie. So when we signed him over the summer, I was pretty excited to get a look at him. The first game of the season was at home, against West Brom, I think. My recollection is that we kicked off kicking towards the South Stand, and Currie took the ball from the kickoff, danced past about 3 challenges, then unleashed a bullet of a shot from about 25 yds (hit with no backlift, of course) which whistled inches wide of the post. I was immediately hooked! 2. This memory is a bit vague, and I cannot decide if I saw it, or heard about it, or made it up, but...............did he really sit on the ball out by the touchline at Stamford Bridge , to the intense ire of thousands of Chelsea fans? 3. This one I am more sure about. It was in the League Cup semifinal second leg away at Forest. We were 1-3 down from the first leg (youngsters, Forest in those days were the best team in the land!) but were leading 1-0 on the night thanks to an astonishing freekick by Frank Gray. As the first half went into its final seconds, Currie received the ball out on the left wing. He ghosted inside one defender, maybe got past another, then unleashed an amazing shot. Peter Shilton did a Scott Carson...........he didn't even move as the ball crashed against the corner of the post and the bar. The ref then blew for halftime, and I swear that the frame of the goal shook for the whole of the break! _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email leedslist-unsubscr...@gn.apc.org MARCHING ON TOGETHER
