Everton 0 Blackpool 0 During the week before this match, when my Dad had been doing his pools coupon he asked me which games I thought would be a draw. As an 8 year old I couldn't do the coupon myself !! Anyway I remember one of the draws I told my dad to put down was Everton vs Blackpool !! " I don't think that that will be a draw " said my Dad - but he still put down an X against it. I recall spending most of that match watch Alan Ball's every move - he was my favourite player even though he was at Blackpool( my favourite Everton player was Derek Temple) August ' 66.

Fast forward a few months, to just before the start of the 1966-67 season and a few days after my 9th birthday.My Dad got home around 10pm ish as he had been working a late shift and he woke me up to tell me that we had signed Alan Ball in a record transfer deal. I expect I didn't get too much sleep that night as I was too excited at the prospect of seeing my favourite player playing for MY team.

I was lucky enough to be at his 1st match at Goodison ( a 1-2 defeat to Man Utd - hope that's an omen for next Saturday!!) and his 1st Derby match a few days after the Utd game - 3-1 to the Blues and 2 for Bally, it was a great time for the Blues !!! And he did them again later that season in the Cup. I was also there, 4th Dec 1971 vs Stoke for what turned out to be Alan's last match at Goodison as an Everton player. I remember the day news broke of the move to Arsenal I was devastated, I spent a good amount of my pocket money on every Daily paper hoping to read that the news wasn't true. That evening at Goodison there was a Youth Cup vs Sheff Wed - the buzz amongst the crowd was of course the big transfer news. None of the news was good and I recall that day with sadness. Today I also bought several papers and just as in ' 71 the news was devastating, only more so. One of the greatest players ever to play for Everton and one of the greatest ever to play for England. Those of us lucky enough to see him in an Everton shirt will count ourselves privileged, those too young to see Alan Ball play for Everton - well the stories will not do him justice he really was THAT good. However long there is an Everton FC, Alan Ball will definitely be in the all time greatest Everton team. Michael Brien ( exiled Blue in Branston, Lincoln)

I first saw Bally in that infamous game away at Blackpool in 1966 when Joe Royle made his debut at the expense of the Golden Vision and Harry Catterick was pushed to the ground after the game by disgruntled fans (or did he just slip??) I was 11. I remember this small, ginger-haired player in a tangerine shirt who made me so angry with his arrogance: taking the mickey out of my beloved Blues by sitting on the ball after a dribble past my heroes, skipping past great players as if they weren't there and then coming to a halt with his knee on the ball before going again, wiping his nose on the corner flag..... And then, 7 months later, he was 'one of us'. He became my hero. I idolised him. My bedroom was full of pictures of him from the Echo and 'Goal'. I tried to copy all of his tricks. Get back in your box Ronaldinho and Ronaldo: decades before they were born, Bally used to juggle like a circus performer and was surely the first player to flick the ball up and catch it on the back of his neck! He was the ultimate player. He had everything. And whenever we played those from the 'dark side', they couldn't cope.

He was the catalyst that produced the sublime football that culminated in the 69/70 championship winning team. A team leader. A virtuoso solo performer. Like many, after a few beers, I cried when Bally was sold. That decision must go down as the worst ever taken by an Everton manager. Re-build the team by all means but for God's sake, build it around your best player. Bally was World class. He is without doubt the best player I have seen in a blue shirt and he will never be forgotten. Thanks for the fantastic memories, Bally. R.I.P Dave M

Bally my first footballing idol,I'm devastated your gone I was only a small boy when I saw you but the excitement and happiness you gave me will stay with me forever , your passion pride,spirit and love for the club lives on in all of us, you were and still are an inspiration to all Evertonians. God bless you Alan rest in peace. Anon

God bless Bally great footballer, great man I was lucky enough to meet Alan at the NEC in Birmingham he was a smashing bloke. Spoke to him at length he loved talking football deepest sympathy to his family and all you Evertonians RIP Keith West Bromwich Albion Supporter.

Before the white boots I used to play football as an 8 year old with my shirt hanging loosely outside of my shorts, carefully arranged hanging lower on one side. It was my only means of being able to look, and hopefully play, like Alan Ball. If anyone collected autographs his was the one you had to have. You could have the entire 1966 FA Cup winning team in your autograph book, but it was Alan's that was treaty as a crown jewel. I remember queuing in Lewis's with my dad for over 3 hours to buy a signed copy of Ball of Fire. We would have waited longer if necessary. When I made it to the front I couldn't tell him what name to write in the book. My lips moved but no sound came out. He had to ask me to repeat myself. It's the only time I've met him and consequently I remember every single word of our 30 second conversation as though it were yesterday. I took his latest biography on holiday last year. Just by having it laying on a pool side table people would open up a conversation by asking if I was an Evertonian. There's nothing on the front cover to suggest Everton, just a black and white close up portrait. As former players become accessible to the fans via after dinner tours and reunion nights I always thought that I would meet him again, make up for my inability to speak in awe of him 40 years previous, ask him to sign his latest book. Probably I would have made another clown of myself, I'm still in awe. Today his signed book stands as he now does, alongside Dixie, my Dixie Dean signed biography. My car has a pewter figure of Alan on the dash board. Ginger hair, blue shirt, white shorts, yellow socks, white boots. I just love that photograph of Alan leaving the pitch with the league championship trophy tucked underneath his arm as if to say "Job done". Cool, lovable, cheeky, iconic. Gone. May God bless him. Gwladys

Saturday night, over 100,000 fans two grounds, THE F.A. CUP the wind was howling up pops my hero puts the ball right into the net 1-0 game over screens blew down at kop end what a memory my time was then, sowing Bally's number onto my first childs babygrow then the greatest midfield we are ever likely to witness no money in them days just total passion for the club good night bally may labby watch over you thanks for the memories R.I.P. Keith

Bally was a legend and a true blue. I had the honour of meeting him and listening to just a few of his many stories about the team he still held close to his heart. Once a blue, You'll always be a blue mate. Rest in peace. Kev Skelhorn, South Florida, USA

I never had the privilege of watching Bally play for Everton in person but I've seen him on the tv and what a player! A world cup winner and Evertonian to the core. I have attended several dinners where Alan was the guest speaker and just thinking about the passion with which he spoke of Everton makes the hairs on my neck stand on end. You will be missed by the world of football Alan not just us Evertonians now its time to take your place upstairs in St Peters starting 11 with Labby & Dixie RIP. Liam Comer, Liverpool.

Hero legend my first hero the heartbeat of the holy trinity R.I.P. IAN JD

I never had the pleasure in seeing Alan play in the Royal Blue Jersey, (before my time) but was lucky to meet him briefly in Gatwick airport some years ago. I think it was the time we was going through a bad time in the early nineties and Alan was quite upset to see the club struggling, he said he played his best football of his career with Everton and he said he would crawl from Southampton to manage Everton if the call came. Sums the man up and his affection for our club. I always say any knowledgeable football fan who knows his stuff would admit that Ball, Harvey and Kendal was one of the best midfield trio you are likely to ever see "Perpetual motion" Mark Jersey

I am not old enough to have had the honour of watching Bally, I can only really remember his days as manager at Man City when I first took notice of him. I liked is attitude from the start and his voice always stuck out in my mind! From what I've been lead to believe, the man was sheer class. My Dad grew up idolising him and tried to be like him so much. His favourite player of all time for Everton he was, and I've always been told about how dazzling and tough he was as a player and a person. Today we wake up to find another Blue legend has passed, a year ago to the day that Brain Labone left us, Bally, like Labone, will be sadly missed by all at Everton and in football. Rest In Peace to Alan, a Blue like us, a World Cup winner, a great man. Condolences to family and friends of Alan Ball. Nil Satis Nisi optimum.Mark F

Alan Ball will be sadly missed by all. Never seen him play but i remember going to man city just after we won the cup in 95 ball was manager we won 2 - 0 the shout from the crowd was Alan Ball is an EVERTONIAN never been a truer statement. Mick......Kensington

Being only 21 I never had the opportunity to see the mighty Ball play, however my Dad and grandad have some amazing memories of the golden era of Everton when Bally was in our midfield. I have seen him a number of times at Goodison park and I think it is safe to say that all Evertonians will hold him in our hearts forever and keep his memory alive. R.I.P. Bally a true blue legend. Michelle

Sad news.... When I was 4 years old we moved from Croxteth to Aughton...I was playing in the street and met a few local kids.
The next day they came and knocked on our door to see if "Alan Ball" could come out to play.....such was my admiration for
Bally that I had assumed his name at the age of 4... RIP ALAN.... Mick, Perth Western Australia.

Alan you can now play in heaven with dixie and labby. RIP Mike Harbour.

You were the original "HE'S GOT RED HAIR" and we really cared, you were a Giant, even at Charity events away from Merseyside you always mentioned the TEAM that mattered most to you EVERTON. We will never see the likes of you, and your old mate LABBY again, and from all Evertonians THANK YOU for choosing EVERTON to play your football, and NEVER forgetting us. Norman

I'm half way through Bally's autobiography. What shines out from the book just as much as his fierce will to win a football match, is the love and respect for his parents, his absolute devotion to his late wife, children and grandchildren and his general sense of decency. Alan and his family have had it rougher than most in recent years and now he's gone as well. Everton may be the People's Club but Alan Ball is the People's Player, a true champion for the man in the street, whatever his allegiance but especially for those of us in blue and white. I'd imagine there'll be a good few across the park who'll also shed a tear for him as well. That was the kind of man he was. God bless Alan and his family. Paul

David Nugent says: "My dad was virtually in tears this morning when he found out. He was one of his heroes when he used to go at watch them. It's a sad day for Evertonians, he was a legend."