Running in the footsteps of those Albion legends

THE Football League organised a charity run in 1987. Supporters were invited to do two and a half miles for charity, arranged by their local football clubs.

I rang the Albion and said my daughter, son and myself would be interested. We were told to come to the ground at 9am on Sunday 20th September. Thinking there would be quite a crowd we turned up early to find, in total, there were six of us.

Albion secretary Gordon Bennett met us and took us along the corridors and into the dressing room. After putting our trainers on we were told we could leave our coats and shoes there.

He led us up the players tunnel and down to the corner of the Smethwick End to the starting point. We had to do the run on the track round the pitch. My two young children couldn’t wait to get started so off they went. Mine was going to be a steady pace.

Going round I thought about all the Albion players: Ronnie Allen, Ray Barlow, Johnny Nicholls, Don Howe, Derek Kevan, Bobby Robson, Clive Clark, Graham Williams who had run round this track during training sessions.

I thought I’m running in their footsteps. Thousands of Albion supporters would have loved to have done this, and how many turned up? Six.

Certificates

So after my steady run round, encouraged by my son and daughter, who had already finished, we collected our certificates and went back to the dressing room.

So an enjoyable Sunday morning and we had that experience of being in the dressing room, going up the players tunnel and running round the track in the footsteps of great players. Although I would have been running a lot slower than they would have been and my children wouldn’t have had a clue who these great players were.