It was 40 years ago today – that Brooking header

Phil Parkes remembers Trevor Brooking’s brilliant header which won the 1980 Cup Final 40 years ago today as if it were yesterday.

A 28 year old Parkesy describes the day as the best moment in his footballing career and that Brooking header as ” a very clever header given he was falling backwards at the time.”

He said: “I remember Bill Bonds telling me to remember every minute of the day – he’d been there before of course five years earlier against Fulham and said it all passed him by so quickly.”

So Parkesy absorbed every moment from the second the team  left the Hendon Hall Hotel until the after match celebrations and there was an omen of what was to come maybe when the coach was stuck in a traffic jam just outside of Wembley ahead of the game.

Phil told CandH: ” Amazingly, I looked out the window of the coach and there was my wife and kids walking towards the ground. In a crowd of going on for 100,000 that I should see my family seemed to tell me something special – amazing moment.”

He added: We were the underdogs of course but we had great belief and confidence in ourselves and it became the best day of my life – lifting that Cup was very, very special.

Since a kid of 14 it was my dream to appear in the Cup Final but to win it was amazing when you consider the incredible players who have never managed that.”