My
oldest son Mark who always accompanied me to all my games, was then aged 9 and
was a keen Spurs supporter (as was his Dad) and a big Pat Jennings fan. He was
absolutely ecstatic knowing his hero would be no more than fifty yards away. You can imagine a little boy’s excitement
when told by his dad,
“I’ll take you over later and introduce you to
Pat”.
Dagenhams
itself was the cradle of many ‘Soccer Greats’ and I had encountered disbelief
when recounting our association with Big Pat. I was particularly proud of his reputation as one of the world’s
greatest goalkeepers. In fact we hailed
from the same town, were born on the same street and attended the same school. I admit I often related this to my work
colleagues and fellow Spurs fans but I would frequently get expressions of
disbelief from some cynics.
Half-time
came in our own game. Our side was
already 4-0 to the good so I substituted myself. I donned a tracksuit over my full kit and took
Mark along with Jeffrey (son of our team’s assistant manager) into the main
stadium.
There
sitting in the middle of The Stand with two Sports Club Officials was ‘The Man’
himself. I ushered the two boys to the
vacant seats directly behind him and sat down.
On
glancing behind Pat gave a seemingly surprised look. I
asked,
“Excuse
me for interrupting Pat, but can I have a moment please?”
He
replied, “I
know you, don’t I?” To which I
answered,
“Yes,
I’m one of the Dean family from River
Street”.
“Ach
aye, but are you Jim or Brian?” says he.
I
told him who I was and at that point he shook my hand and sat down beside us.
I
then introduced him to Mark and not only did Pat sign his autograph but agreed
to my request of a photo with the two little boys.
We
chatted for a while and even though being reminded by one of the officials
about his schedule, Pat turned to him and stated,
“This
man here comes from my home town”.
After
that, we shook hands and with the two boys we made tracks back to my own team’s
game. On our short walk from the
stadium, young Jeffrey (the other boy) asked Mark,
“Who
was that big guy?” to which Mark replied,
“If
you don’t know the name of the best goalkeeper in the world, you’d better tell
your dad to stop supporting West Ham”.
Later
while we were driving home, Mark still in awe of his earlier experience turned
and said to me,
“Dad,
Pat Jennings really does know you”.
That
day 20 years ago, ‘Big Pat’ made a nine year old boy very happy and to this day
Mark still treasures the photograph his dad took of him and Pat Jennings.
Reminiscence 
