Tipp’s first task is to protect their net

“You knew what he was going to do. You just couldn’t stop him doing it.”

The speaker was an English defender of the 1950s, the subject of his lamentation the great Stanley Matthews, the Wizard of the Wing himself. It’s a timely quote in the wake of the recent demise of Matthews’ great contemporary Tom Finney, the Preston Plumber.

(The Wizard of the Wing, the Preston Plumber, the Lion of Vienna. Hmm. What happened to Aeroplane O’Shea, Sweeper Ryan and all the other great GAA nicknames of yesteryear?)