Tim Flowers saw his Solihull Moors side leap to the top of the National League last night – and then dedicated his success to the advice of England’s legendary goalkeeper Gordon Banks.
Banks – a World Cup winner in 1966 and widely regarded as England’s greatest ever keeper – passed away yesterday at the age of 81.
And Flowers, who won 11 caps for the Three Lions between 1993 and 1998 while at Blackburn Rovers, remains in total awe of a man he describes as “the greatest England goalkeeper of all time”.
“He’ll be sadly missed but also massively remembered, not only by all Englishmen, but football people everywhere,” Flowers told The NLP, after a 3-0 victory at Aldershot Town saw Solihull Moors power to the top of the table.
“A legend has passed. Probably the greatest England goalkeeper of all time and one of the most recognisable faces in English football.
“I was watching the playbacks of the famous Pele save [1970 World Cup against Brazil] recently and it still takes your breath away now, all those years later. It was sensational.
“When I was at Leicester we did a Q&A with Gordon and Peter Shilton, two Leicester greats, and I was the goalie at the time so I was asked to go along.
“He was such a humble, nice man, they both were, but Gordon took time out to speak to me and chat to me about goalkeeping and his affinity for Leicester.
“The men of 66 are English icons. They’ve won the World Cup in their chosen sport, they are immortal and their place in immortality is there forever.”
