As Bad As Things Got; Port Vale, 20th February 1968

Under the counter payments led to a very strange expulsion from the Football League which... didn't last for very long.

When former England international (and arguably British football’s first true celebrity) Stanley Matthews finally ended his playing career with Stoke City in 1965, there was much conjecture as to what his post-football career might look like. Matthews insitally couldn’t quite resist the temptation to carry on playing, and travelled to Canada to play a few matches in the Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League.

This opportunity had come about thanks to a close friendship with another former Stoke player, Jackie Mudie, and when Mudie returned to England to take the manager’s job at Stoke’s local rivals Port Vale Matthews went too, accepting the job of General Manager alongside him.