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As a young and impressionable kid growing up on Tyneside In the 1960’s my earliest memories of football were surrounded by the word success.
England won the world cup when I was 6 years old and by the time I was regularly being taken up to St James’ Park my childish logic dictated that my club were the second best team in Europe; based on the fact that the Inter Cities Fairs Cup came second only to the European cup and if you won the Fairs Cup then you must be better than the team that lost the European cup final.
After all, they were losers and we were winners.
My logic on the cup winner’s cup was always that it was a competition that you were only allowed to enter by “invitation”; a private club for domestic cup winners only. This logic was based upon fact. If Sunderland beat Man Utd and we beat Sunderland, then we were better than Man Utd and Sunderland.
By the time I was 9 I was admiring players that were different, players who seemed more flamboyant and resembled pop stars. Best, with his long hair and rebellious “shirt outside his shorts”, rather than “comb over” old men like Bobby Charlton. We had our own Charltonesque figure in Pop Robson but no Best; no ballplayer who strolled and dazzled with tricks. Yes, Alan Foggon had long hair but his build and stature always lent to him seemingly sliding around and on the muddy pitch that was St James’ he always looked “scruffy”. I longed for a Best and when Joe Harvey splashed out £100,000 in July 1969 my prayers started to look as though they were being answered. The player in question even had a nickname and that just put the icing on the cake as far as I was concerned. The cause of my excitement; one “Jinky” Jimmy Smith; a talented, svelte like and gifted ball playing midfielder; a Scotsman courted by Celtic but who chose to come from Aberdeen to Newcastle United to be part of the new revolution; Joe Harvey’s investment in taking us to more European and hopefully domestic glory.
I loved to watch “Jinky” stroll around the pitch, play the ball with the outside of his foot or nutmeg opponents with ease. I cheered every great pass, ignored the flaws and worshipped the fact that we had such a talent and that he was our talent. I will never forget his majestic performance in our 0:3 win against WBA in the FA Cup Fifth Round; brilliant. He was also an International, having made his debut for Scotland against Holland in a friendly in May 1968. This was it; my club had arrived and I figured that we might even see him on live TV during the home Internationals. Strangely however and much to my bemusement, Jimmy made only three more International appearances for Scotland and we had to wait for four years to see the Words “Jimmy Smith Newcastle United” grace the screen, representing Scotland against West Germany in a friendly in November 1973 and in Two Home Internationals at Hampden Park against Northern Ireland and Wales respectively in May 1974; shortly after our ill fated FA Cup Final defeat to Liverpool.
In total Jimmy played 179 games for Newcastle United, including that 1974 FA Cup final, and scored 16 goals. He could have played many more but for injuries; none more so than the knee injury that would bring a premature end to his playing career at the age of 29. By then Jimmy had been loaned out to Celtic in the hope that he could regain his form and fitness but unfortunately that proved not to be the case.
In my eyes, he was class; he was my first black and white idol. Thank you, Jimmy Smith.
You can buy the above photo and many others from sporting-heroes.net
