Quote: the flying biscuit "Les Boyd...
I can remember seeing the photo of him in a matchday program and we all looked at it and said "wow imagine that running at you .."
We had no idea how good he was going to be, or what he was going to do to a struggling wire side....
We knew about his two long term bans.... and still to this day I have never read anything about his gouging ban (which can never be good) but i saw the elbow on Darryl Browman and I've seen much worse go unpunished since. It was widely regarded he was victim of a crusade to rid the game of "players like him".
Even in the 82 invincible's tour, John Dalgreen, after being tackled lay on the floor and kicked Boyd with both feet, Boyd reacted with a boot of his own and was red carded Dalgreen got off Scott free.
But in a wire shirt Boyd was something else, aggressive to levels I've never seen but never an idiot. he was often targeted by players not fit to lace his boots, but they never put him off his game.
He was an incredibly skillful player and worked astonishingly hard for a player of his physique. He was a superb leader, I can remember a game at wilderspool and Blocker Roach was being his usual idiotic non Challenge cup game self, and was picking fights and Boyd gave him a proper clip on the back of the head to tell him to calm down it worked ...you can bet no one ever did that to Roach before or after.
Boyd was a player I was totally in awe of ...my saddest moment as a wire fan was watching him trudge off the main road pitch with his shirt off, draped over his shoulders.....he deserved to play at wembley....
and Blake... I liked Phil Blake lots...'"
Can't disagree with a word of that.
On the whole, I've never had a single favourite Wire player, just lots of em, for varying reasons.
Bar Boyd and Blake, mentions to, for
Mike Greg... commitment
Dessie excitement
Kelly Shelford entertainment
Johnny Davies....everything
Henare...excitement
John Bevan power, my first Wire hero
Penny excitement
Duanne Mann.... Tireless
and not forgetting my man crush...Mark Roberts... those runs of his
There's a few more