Ted Ditchburn and Pat Jennings

I’m lucky in that I saw two of the greatest goalkeepers of the second half of the twentieth century several times.

Ted Ditchburn was one of that select class of goalkeepers who could win games. In 1957, I saw Spurs play Newcastle and quite frankly in the first half they were crap. Except Ditchburn, who managed to keep the score to one-nil. The great Jackie Milburn even put a penalty wide! Whether Ditchburn had frightened him into believing that he’d save it, I don’t know, but he missed by a mile. I actually wrote a fan letter to him at the time. I was 10.

I also saw the young, Jennings at Spurs. Legend has it that he saved most of the penalties in the first few years at Tottenham and we all marvelled at his one handed takes of crosses. Without doubt he was the greatest goalkeeper the world has ever seen. England would have one World Cups, if he’d been English.

I now support Ipswich and you might (or might not) be interested in these two snippets.

Richard Wright was a very good goalkeeper. Note the was! He has never had any confidence since he broke Luc Nellis’ leg a few years ago. It was a complete accident as they went for the same ball, but he has never commanded the area since.

Watch for Shane Supple. His display to win Ipswich the Youth Cup was a case of where goalkeepers do win matches.