When I was a young lad in the 1980s, we were on a family holiday in Skegness. The rain was pouring down and so we were stuck in the caravan with a black and white telly and a snowy picture. So we played games to entertain us. My dad had this idea to name double acts. So we began with examples like Little and Large, Cannon and Ball, Dempsey and Makepeace. You get the idea.
Then my dad threw out Toshack and Keegan. Who? I knew who Kevin Keegan was. He advertised Brut aftershave. But the other bloke? No idea. My dad explained that they were a striker partnership at Liverpool in the 1970s. He won that game. I couldn’t top that.
So who was this John Toshack he mentioned? As I got into football in 1985, the man known as “Tosh” had retired from playing the year before. After a fantastic spell with Liverpool, he had returned to his native Wales to firstly play for and then manage Swansea City. Not bad for a lad who started at rivals Cardiff City, the club of his birthplace.
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