By Alex Narey
Glowing tributes have been written elsewhere, but I wasn’t going to let it pass without putting my own forward. It was devastating to read the news of the passing of the great Cyrille Regis this week, at the age of 59.
Clicking on the BBC website and seeing an iconic image of the great man wrestling a couple of centre-halves, it was a timely reminder that even the strongest are too easily taken from us long before their time.
Like a lot of blokes my age, I grew up on a diet of watching tough football in the 1980s. The game had become tribal by this time; trouble on the terraces, well it was just part of football’s fabric. Things were always on the boil…
And it was just as uncompromising on the pitch, with mavericks and characters who never took a backward step. There were nifty and light-footed playmakers, but the creative juices counted for very little if there wasn’t plenty of muscle to back it up elsewhere on the park.
Regis was quite typical of a centre-forward from that era. So powerful and single-minded, he would terrorise defenders on the pitch, and yet throw his arms around them off it.
Football was fun, and he played the game with a smile on his face despite the vitriolic abuse he was subjected to from sections of the crowd.
Writing this week about his ‘uncle Cyrille’, the admirable Jason Roberts highlighted the role Hayes had played in Regis’ development as a teenager before the legend was born at West Brom, claiming life in Non-League went a long way – as it did for Jason before his move to Wolves 20 years ago – to making him the player he went on to be. Playing as a boy with grown men, he soon figured things out for himself on the pitch.
But Non-League football shouldn’t take the credit for the player and man who Regis became, and this is not a column to use someone’s legacy to champion football in the lower leagues.
That said, our game should feel proud to have been represented by men like Cyrille Regis. A hero to most, but a pioneer to all.
Send us your questions please
In the coming weeks, myself and The NLP‘s senior writer, Matt Badcock, will be heading to Wembley for a sit-down meeting with the suits from the FA to talk all things Non-League.
The FA can sometimes get a bad rap, especially from the lower leagues who point to a lack of funding and a lack of support. But they want to assure us they are looking to improve football at grassroots level.
So send us your questions and we’ll put them forward. The answers will be part of a round-table feature we’ll run in a future issue. If you want to be heard, you need to speak now… nlp@greenwayspublishing.co.uk
*This article originally featured in The @NonLeaguePaper, which is available every Sunday and Monday
