Roger Hunt was generally reckoned to be the man who kept Jimmy Greaves out of the World Cup Final and I find it ironic that they have died within a week of each other - Hunt was an understated player and I bet that, just as it was in their playing careers, it will be Greaves who gets the more column inches.

Hunt was perhaps my Mum’s favourite player in the sixties and when asked why, she’d simply reply “because he’s nice”. He was nice as well, Liverpool’s version of Brian Clark. If caught offside, Hunt would always trot to pick up the ball, bring it back to his opponents and then hand it to them - I can remember an exasperated Bill Shankly saying that he and his coaching staff used to keep on to him to let them go and get the ball themselves, but he never did and they eventually gave up.

��