MARTIN PETERS
Andy Dunn
A PLAYER 10 years ahead of his time cruelly taken before his time.
And with each tragic passing, the achievement of the heroes of 1966 becomes ever more luminous.
Their mortality only reminds us of their immortality in the fabric of English football.
The unimaginable cruelness of Alzheimer’s disease claimed the life of Martin Peters, at the age of 76, in the early hours of yesterday morning, but the memory of the man nicknamed The
Ghost will live on.
Unflappable
Stylish, unflappable, the scorer of the ‘other goal’ in the World Cup Final alongside Geoff Hurst’s hat-trick, Peters was from an era when there was nothing obscene about football’s money.
From Essex, he almost followed his father on to the River Thames as a lighterman, operating flatbottomed barges. Instead, West
Ham signed him up and his course was set. He made his debut in 1962 and played in every position for West Ham (below), including goalkeeper.
It was May, 1966, when he was called up by Sir Alf Ramsey, making his debut in a 2-0 win over Yugoslavia, and after sitting out the first match of the World Cup – a dull, 0-0 draw with Uruguay – Peters was named in the team for the rest of the tournament. The final was his finest hour, of course. In only his eighth game for his country, he put England 2-1 ahead, only to see the Germans force extra time.
But Peters, his great friend Hurst and the rest of Ramsey’s heroes would not be denied.
It was Ramsey who said that Peters was a midfielder who was ‘10 years ahead of his time’.
Peters went on to win 67 caps for his country, scoring 20 goals, a fine return from midfield.
In 1970, when he moved from West Ham to Tottenham, Peters became Britain’s first £200,000 footballer – that was the transfer not the weekly salary.
Football paid well but Peters and his contemporaries never earned life-changing money.
After five years at Spurs, Peters moved to Norwich in 1975 and was twice the club’s Player of the Year. Peters is a man in more than one hall of fame.
Gentleman
After a short spell at Sheffield United, where he also managed, Peters left the game he had graced for a quarter of a decade and in more than 700 club appearances.
He worked in insurance but was often a distinguished host at both West Ham and Spurs. The tributes that poured in referenced a true gentleman, a phrase that goes handin-glove with the Class of ’66.
They have lost another of their number but the feats of Martin Peters and his mates, the memory of The Ghost, will never die.