Gordon Banks - The Banks of England dies.

Gordon Banks- The Banks of England dies.

Gordon Banks, who has died at the age of 81, was by far the most memorable and finest of England goalkeepers always remembered for that famous 1966 World Cup Final day at the old Wembley Stadium and, four years later in the World Cup of Mexico, most remarkably for that miraculous save, a classic downward header from surely the greatest footballer of all time, Pele. Banks just happened to be in the right time and place so would no doubt have regarded it as just another day at the office.

Banks, who started his career at Chesterfield, went on to find greener pastures at both Leicester City and notably Stoke City performing with comfortable distinction. But it was when he was elevated to the England squad in Sir Alf Ramsey's then very youthful team that Banks began to flourish as one of the most acrobatic, flexible, elastic and athletic goalkeepers England had ever produced.

Before Banks, Ron Springett had kept goal with both a reliable consistency and unfussy modesty but when Banks took over three years before the 1966 World Cup England knew they'd found somebody who could not only do his country proud but do so quite spectacularly. To this day none of us can quite fathom how Banks managed to fling his whole body from one side of his goal to the other before clawing the ball over the bar from Pele's seemingly goal bound header. It defied the law of gravity and physics.

The truth was of course that Banks was 'The Banks of England', quiet, humble, thoughtful, never the trouble maker or loose cannon, never complaining, quarrelling, bickering or hounding referees because an injustice had been perpetrated. Banks was tall, commanding, a formidable presence in goal, almost impenetrable at times and never outwardly flustered.

Banks belonged to a whole generation of excellent goalkeepers who were equally as positionally sound and authoritative at the back for their club and country. At Spurs there was Pat Jennings, who, taking over from the hugely competent Bill Brown, had some of the biggest hands in English football. Jennings was an outstanding keeper, flying across his goal with an incredible agility to stop shots or catching the ball with consummate ease when the Spurs defence looked as though it was about to disintegrate. Jennings was coolness personified.

Then there were England's two most consistent keepers who were towering ambassadors for their sport. Ray Clemence, a tall, gangling goalkeeper who began at Scunthorpe, became a deckchair attendant during the summer holidays before hitting the big time at Liverpool. At Liverpool Clemence was supremely dependable, forever organising his defenders at free kicks, shouting reprimands when he felt the time was right and then saving quite brilliantly when goals looked inevitable.

Peter Shilton of course was Clemence's fiercest contender for the England number one spot and although both were friends off the pitch, the rivalry was still intense. Shilton, rather like Banks, served his formative years at Leicester and did so with immense maturity. The story went that, as a kid, Shilton, in an effort to improve his reflexes, would stretch and pull his arms on his parents staircase but later on in a now blossoming career Shilton's more high profile years would come at both Nottingham Forest and Stoke City.

For Gordon Banks though football and the art of goalkeeping came so naturally to him that it came as a shock one day when the game didn't come quite so easily to him for the wrong reasons. Tragically, Banks was involved in a horrific car accident which would leave him completely blind in one eye. Sadly, Banks, although he made a full recovery, would never be quite the same keeper again but he did continue to play.

Back in the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, Banks became an unfortunate victim of circumstances. On the day before England's vital quarter final against West Germany, he went down with food poisoning and Peter Bonetti, the Chelsea keeper had to fill Banks boots. When Franz Beckenbauer's harmless looking  shot crept embarrassingly under Bonetti's body for one of the German's winning goals, Banks must have felt even worse than he already was. If only the standard of Mexican catering had been better.

In recent years Banks had been one of the many amusing after dinner speakers when the 1966 and 1970 World Cup reunions were in full flow. Now though, with the sad passing of the likes of Ray Wilson, Alan Ball and the heartbreaking loss of captain Bobby Moore, English football mourns another of its gentle giants. The Banks of England has lost its most valuable asset.