This is how simple it was, he said if you were a midfielder you'd be a midfielder, you're not, you're a defender. So you're job is to win the ball and give it to someone who can play." If hiring a freelance editor, is it preferable that an author finds an editor who specializes in their genre? When I joined Albion in early 1978, I’d heard stories about John Giles, who was regarded as a Messiah, and Ronnie Allen who was referred to as a joke. There must have been 10 players that shouldn't have been there. There was mice in the dressing room and all sorts, but slowly things started to change.

The older generation will move on and the middle men will move up. We will need a younger generation of member or the whole thing will eventually come to an end.” Robertson joined West Bromwich Albion as an apprentice in July 1968 and turned professional in September 1969. [1] He remained with the club until 1986, making over 500 appearances in the heart of the team's defence and playing under managers such as Alan Ashman, Don Howe, Johnny Giles, Ronnie Allen, Ron Atkinson, Ron Wylie, Nobby Stiles and Ron Saunders. The club spent all but three seasons in the top flight during his playing days. A tough defender, he held in high regard by the club's fans. However, he never won a Scotland cap. O’Shea came through the ranks of the club’s youth academy, but has moved on to the Premier League following the team’s ninth place finish in the second tier last season. We didn’t play well and I remember chatting to Ally Robertson during the game about where the replay might be held.

Wembley winner

I’m a managing director of Baron UK Limited. I’ve been involved with the company for around ten years now. It came about through associations with some people I met up with in Denmark.

I had no idea who it was calling me at first. It was Ally. He couldn’t believe it and he clearly wasn’t impressed. For a long-time Ronnie was the club’s all-time leading scorer. We created an atmosphere that was absolutely brilliant. The team spirit was second to none. I remember we played Albion once. I was out of the team by this point, but Bully and Robbie Dennison scored and we won 2-1. I stood up and cheered.

Best tackle

Alistair Peter Robertson (born 9 September 1952 in Philpstoun) is a Scottish former footballer who played as a central defender. The 3-0 first round, second replay defeat is widely regarded as the lowest point in the club’s history and also comfortably ranks among the worst moments of Robertson’s own career. Three-and-a-half decades on, the scars remain. Robertson eventually patched things up with Albion, so well in fact that he helped set up the former players' association. Does it still give me nightmares? Yes,” he says. “To be at a club like Wolves, even in the Fourth Division, and to lose to a non-league team. It was a horrible experience.” I told my wife it was 50 years ago and she turned round and said she was seven then because she’s 10 years younger than me,” he joked. “I just said ‘don’t’.

The relationship with the club is very good now and that’s very important for both the Former Players Association and the Club,” says Snape. I knew what that meant – I was in the side, but I simply had to perform. He didn’t need to spell it out to me – I’d played twice, I’d played badly, and this was going to be my third strike. He's since made his home in the West Midlands, and currently lives in Stourton, a small hamlet near Stourbidge.If somehow everything falls into line and results go our way, it would give us unbelievable momentum if we did make it into the play-offs. We won that game 3-1 – Cyrille was to score a brilliant goal that day – and I ended up playing the final matches of that particular season. Not once was I on the losing side. When he caught that corner in the last second, I thought ‘God bless him’. It was so brilliant when his team-mates all rushed towards him at full-time. Astle told me later that was him getting me involved because he thought I was going to be a good youngster. They weren't a patch on the players I played with at Albion but the camaraderie and the laughs was ever so good. I wish I'd been two years younger to get into the First Division, that would have been heaven." Retirement

If you take the top two of the Championship out of the equation there are just a few points from the next 10 teams or so. And as manager I guess he could decide whether Bomber played. I’m told Ronnie had been a phenomenal player – the records suggest he was – but as a manager, I just didn’t rate him. More to the point, for the first time since joining West Brom, I was beginning to wonder if my future might lie elsewhere.Alan Mullery has since told the story himself but at the time you’re thinking: “No, surely not…?” but, yes, it did actually happen.