‘A DIFFERENT CLASS’ ON HIS PAT’S DEBUT

GORDON BANKS was paid £500 for his oneoff appearance for St Patrick’s Athletic against Shamrock Rovers in October 1977. Typically, the World Cup winner kept a clean sheet – even with one eye. Banks was doing a favour for a friend and former England colleague, Barry Bridges, who was player-manager of the Saints at the time. Bridges had flown to England to find a ‘keeper as Mick O’Brien was injured and, by chance, ran into Banks at Heathrow where he explained his predicament. ‘I said: “Banksy, you’ve only got one eye,” and he said: “I can see the same balls with one eye that I could with two eyes, I’ll come over and play for you.’ ‘I said: “You’re kidding me.” ‘He said: “No.” ‘He was going back to America a few weeks later but he said: “I’ll come over for a game if the money’s all right.” ‘I said: “Leave it with me.” Banks duly turned up and he didn’t disappoint. ‘He was a different class, he treated the whole thing as if he was playing for England,’ recalled Bridges in a 2014 interview with St Pat’s. ‘He walked in and shook everybody’s hands, he made everybody happy. He told them, “The 18-yard box is mine even if I have only got one eye.” The highlight of Banks’ contribution was an outstanding save to deny Eamon Dunphy a late equaliser after a Rovers move involving John Giles (above) and Ray Treacy. A bumper crowd at Richmond Park paid gate receipts of £2,200.