When I first started playing for Ipswich Allan Hunter and Kevin Beattie were the two centre backs, and what a partnership that was. The rugged no nonsense attitude of Hunter and the pure natural strength, speed and talent from Kevin made these two one of the toughest pairings to have to play against. I played alongside both of these two as I replaced one or other of them if they got injured, which was to prove an ongoing issue for Kevin. In today's era the medical attention and rehabilitation of injured players is so much better than it used to be. Smaller squads of players in those days meant that managers were always trying to get their best players back from injury as quickly as possible, and on many occasions that was a very short term view of the players long term welfare. Kevin was rushed back time and again and eventually it took it's toll and also the odd surgical blunder didn't help matters. Allan Hunter was and still is a hero of mine, tough as old boots and as honest as the days long. If he ever said 'well played' to you then you knew that you must have played a blinder! Eventually Terry Butcher and myself established ourselves as the main two centre backs at Ipswich and I hope we gave Ipswich Town another few years of solid defending in the same mould as Hunter and Beattie. Other centre backs, that I played alongside at club level, were Steve Walsh and John O'Neill at Leicester City. John is a great fella and a gentleman. Steve Walsh has gone on to become a cult figure in the eyes of all Leicester City supporters, and deservedly so. Steve is someone that you would want alongside yourself if you ever got into any trouble, on the pitch or off, fearless and as hard as nails. He scored many important goals for Leicester and was a great leader of a number of different teams over the years of his service with the club. On to Southampton and I first started playing there alongside Kevin Moore (RIP). Kevin was a raw boned lad from Grimsby and was one of five members of the Moore family to play for Grimsby. He made over 400 appearances for The Mariners and his two brothers Dave and Andy, his dad Roy and uncle Norman were all regulars in the stripes at Blundell Park. Kevin died of a rare form of dementia in 2013, on his 55th birthday. Neil Ruddock was my next partner in crime at The Dell and there was never a dull moment with Razor around. Another great character both on and off the pitch and a better player than a lot of people gave him credit for. He later went on to play at Spurs, for a second time, Liverpool, West Ham and Palace. Neil also won 1 full international cap and apparently was voted 17th hardest player of all time,,,well I would like to know who the other 16 are? At international level my partners varied between Dave Watson, Phil Thompson and Terry Butcher and I only played 11 full international games, and 4 of those were against Australia in friendlies, away! I have briefly mentioned him earlier in this article and my old room mate, Mr Butcher, goes down as the best centre half that I played alongside. Tough, hard, brave, competitive, all the qualities that good centre backs have to have in my opinion, and Terry had those qualities in abundance and he is 6'4''. Also he was fun both on and off the pitch and we broke the odd curfew along the way. He fought back from some horrendous injuries, not just the cut on the head which bloodied his England shirt, but a very bad broken nose injury which resulted in two full blood transfusions and a good two to three months out of action before regaining the strength and bulk that he had lost after a long stay in hospital. Terry had success with Ipswich Town, Rangers up in Scotland,,and also won 77 Full England caps. He will always be remembered for this photograph though;
1 Comment
dag ofrim
27/3/2016 07:36:56 pm
one of my heroes Mr. Osman
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AuthorRussell Osman is a former England & Ipswich Footballer, 4 Handicap Golfer and Father of 3. Archives
April 2018
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