The fan.tastic Sixties!

To his days as a KEVIN HALLS takes a look back badges, young football fan – a time of autographs, rosettes and rattles…

ANEWfootball season is underway and fans up and down the country will be hoping their club has a successful campaign.

And young supporters will be full of excitement watching their heroes playing week in, week out till May next year.

I started watching my club Coventry City way back in the 60s when us kids would stand on terraces clicking wooden rattles and the Beatles would be blasting out from a very noisy tannoy system.

Back then we'd read Charles Buchan annuals and stick pictures of players and teams in scrapbooks. The one thing all us football-mad youngsters would have was an autograph book.

We'd stand outside the players’ entrance at Highfield Road, our then home ground, clutching our books in the hope that players would give us their signatures.

And when the Sky Blues went from the Third Division to the First Division that meant I could then get the autographs of top stars like George Best, Denis Law, Bobby Charlton, Bobby Moore and Gordon Banks, just to name a few.

I remember going to school one Monday and showing off the autographs of Best and Law to my envious schoolmates.

It would be like a lad today having the autographs of Messi and Ronaldo. They were both superstars in that era.

Another craze back then was collecting programmes and football cards. Our local sweet shop did a roaring trade in cards.

A group of us kids were a familiar sight stood outside the store swapping cards between ourselves, which was where if you had, say, a picture of Jimmy Greaves and you wanted the Spurs team, you'd swap with another boy to add to your prized collection. And if you had a much sought-after card you'd be very popular and be offered several cards just for the one. It was like you were holding a Picasso painting in your hand! A familiar sight at grounds in the 60s was a chap selling little pin badges which adorned a large board, and he'd also flog rosettes, bobble hats and scarves. I always got excited to see him before games as I knew my dad would treat me to a badge and a large Coventry City rosette, too. When we got behind the goal it would be a sea of Sky Blue and us youngsters would be dressed head to foot in the club colours. I bet the guy made a few bob at games as there were always queues - by the end of a season I'd collected a large number of badges and rosettes. So picture in your mind if you can the bedroom of a football-crazy kid in the 60s. The walls would be adorned with pictures of players, books would be lined up on shelves, boxes and boxes of football programmes would be stacked away, and all sorts of memorabilia would be in this shrine to the beautiful game.

My bedroom was painted in sky blue and white in homage to my beloved football team, and I was lucky that my dad was a huge fan too as not all parents would let their boy pick the colour for his room!

Football boots today can be very expensive and come in all colours, but in the 60s they were usually just black or dark brown, with white laces.

But if you had the signature of a top player on a pair of Dunlop's you'd be a bit flash.You'd run around the pitch as if you were a superstar, and pretend you were Bestie scoring a wonder goal at Old Trafford instead of over the local fields.

I had a pair of boots with Bobby Charlton's signature on the side. I remember getting them one Christmas and couldn't wait to put them on, but my mum wouldn't let me out till after Boxing Day.

When I wore them I felt like a real footballer and I'm positive I played better having the name of one of England's greatest-ever footballers on them – or was that just my football-crazy young mind?

Kids today, I imagine, are just as enthusiastic and excited, and love the beautiful game as much as we did back in the swinging 60s.

Football has changed so much over the decades but, in my opinion, it is still the greatest sport on the planet, and it doesn't matter if you’re nine or ninety years of age, male or female, and come from the planet Zog - once a football fan, always a football fan.

Yes, it has problems and will never be perfect on and off the pitch, but it's not our national sport for nothing, is it? So to football fans everywhere, I say good luck to your clubs this season. May it be a good one, although not when your team is playing Coventry City, of course. Right then, where's my wooden rattle?