Bob Latchford

Bob Latchford was a football player who used to play for Everton football club. He was my hero as a young boy in the 1970’s. He was a striker who scored a lot of goals. There was one time in particular in 1978; he had been sponsored by a local paper, if he scored 30 goals that season they would give him £10,000 to give to a charity of his choice, (Alderhay children’s hospital). It got to the last game against Chelsea, there was a big build up that week, there was a buzz around the city of Liverpool, would he do it? The atmosphere in the ground that day was electric. It started, Everton were one up in minutes. The ball got crossed into the box Mick Lyons could of scored, unselfishly he headed the ball across the goal line for Bob to score his 29^th goal of the season. The crowd were ecstatic, it was the second half, Everton were 4 -1 up and there was 5 minutes to go, Latchford ran into the box and was fouled “Penalty”. The crowd went silent Andy King usually took the penalty’s but this time he pasted the ball to Bob. He put the ball on the spot, time stood still for ages, he stuck the ball in the back of the net. The crowd exploded “Goal number thirty”, he’d done it his 30^th goal, and ran on the pitch.

TK