Jeff Winter, man in the middle of that mesmeric Arsenal performance on Saturday night, reports a candid conversation with Thierry Henry.

"I said to him as we were waiting to start the second half that it was difficult to referee teams when they were playing that well. You get caught up in the quality of football rather than refereeing what's happening.

"I told Thierry that if I lost concentration, he'd have to tell me if I was making any mistakes."

Thirty seconds into the second half, Henry was on the ref's shoulder, disputing a throw-in. "Well," said the Frenchman, "you did tell me...."

The Teesside referee, in his last Premiership season, reckons never to have seen a better display in 25 years wetting his whistle. "It was just awesome, no other word, the most complete football performance I've ever seen.

"Being beaten 5-1 wasn't perhaps a fair reflection on Portsmouth, but no-one could have lived with Arsenal that night.

"The way that Reyes has fitted in, the way they touch, pass and move the ball about is just a joy to behold."

Like everyone else, Winter was also loud in his praise of the Portsmouth crowd. "I've been to many big occasions in the North-East and elsewhere but never seen or heard anything like that.

"Even when they were 5-0 down they were chanting that they were going to win 6-5. It was surreal, a simply wonderful occasion."

Still a football fanatic, he referees Middlesbrough College tomorrow, Cardiff v Norwich on Saturday and the East London head-to- head between Millwall and West Ham the following weekend.

"I seem to be getting games with a little bit of bite to them, if you like. I regard it as a compliment."

Until his beloved Boro got there, he was strongly tipped to referee the Carling Cup final - "I'm certainly not complaining about that" - but plays down his chances of being given the FA Cup final.

"I don't even know if Sunderland getting there would affect me, but we'll just have to wait and see. Whatever happens, after Arsenal on Saturday I'll be going out on a high."

John Charles's death reminded Steve Smith of the double whammy days of 1962-63 when Leeds United - ever the Yorkshiremen - tried to cash in on his £53,000 return from Juventus with a 100 per cent increase in admission prices.

The minimum charge went up to 7/6d - about 37p - seats as much as 25 shillings. The second victims were Sunderland.

Just 14,119 tight-fisted Tykes had turned out for King John's return, the opening second division match against Rotherham.

Three days later, Sunderland brought 5,000 from Wearside but still the ground was half empty - official attendance 17,753 - prompting Leeds chairman Harry Reynolds to issue an apology to his own and a vote of thanks to Sunderland.

The Echo billed it as the long- awaited confrontation between King John and King Charlie but the match may have been decided after 25 minutes when 19-year-old Sunderland inside forward Willie McPheat broke his leg. Billy Bremner hit Leeds' winner.

The next match at Elland Road was against Bury, by which time even Harry Reynolds had to offer an admission of defeat. Prices back to normal, over 28,000 supporters parted willingly with their brass.

After just three goals in 11 games, however, Charles was sold to Roma for a £12,000 profit. "Maybe he'd heard the English long-range weather forecast," says Steve Smith. More of that very shortly.

August 25 1962? The North-East's biggish three were all in the second division, Boro's 5-0 home defeat by Huddersfield Town prompting Ray Robertson to write that the defence gave away goals like a benevolent aunt.

Newcastle fans endured a wretched 1-1 draw with Portsmouth, Hartlepool lost 6-2 at fourth division newcomers Oxford and Darlington's Deaf Hill-born manager Eddie Carr was given a Welsh hero's welcome on his return to Newport County - "our most popular player ever," said the programme. The match ended 2-2.

Sunderland's return match with Leeds was on December 22 1962, Anderson and Hooper on target in the 2-1 victory.

For Leeds it was the last League game until March 2, the winter break wholly involuntary, though Sunderland did slightly better.

They managed the Boxing Day fixture with Bury - the one which finished Brian Clough - played the return three days later but were then out in the cold until February 23, save for the replayed FA Cup tie with Gravesend and the home leg of the League Cup semi-final with Aston Villa.

The first leg, a 3-1 defeat, was played on January 12. The second, a goalless draw, was at Villa Park more than three months later. As a gap between the legs, it is doubtless a record.

Sunderland, joint second with Chelsea at the end of the season, were denied promotion on goal average - Chelsea for 81 against 42, Sunderland 84-55. Both they and Leeds went up the following season.

On Friday night to Whickham's sportsmen's dinner - Ronnie Whelan guest speaker for 20 minutes - the incomparable David Greener compere.

Dave, long-familiar in North-East cricket circles - he who took a catch while wearing flip-flops because of gout - is off in April on a month-long speaking tour of Australia with Ron "Chopper" Harris, 655 Football league appearances for Chelsea, and former Premiership referee Dermot Gallagher.

It'll mean that he misses the start of the cricket season but also - since he boasts what might be termed a broad North Durham accent - that those down under might struggle to understand a word he says.

"I know," says Dave, "it'll be just like being at home."

Getting on 40 years after he was a key member of Spennymoor United's Northern League championship winning side in the 1960s, Graeme Defty is still involved - general manager at Kennek Ryhope.

Younger club officials, however, are given to suggesting that no- one's ever actually seen him in a football strip.

Graeme, at any rate, arrived for training one freezing February night to find the pitch feeder tap damaged, jammed and pouring out water. One goal area and the adjoining building site were already flooded when he got his tools and went to work.

Job done and literally soaked to the skin, Graeme was in the clubhouse two hours later wearing nothing but a frozen smile and wondering what on earth he could go home in.

All that was around was a Ryhope kit, gratefully accepted. "At long last," club secretary Owen Haley tells the Albany Northern League magazine, "we'd seen him in a football shirt."

...and finally

The manager who observed that when he opened the trophy cabinet he found half a dozen prisoners of war inside (Backtrack, March 5) was Tommy Docherty, when at Wolves.

Brian Shaw in Shildon today seeks the identity of the only FA Cup winning captain in the 1990s who never won an international cap.

Queen and country, the column returns on Friday.

Published: 09/03/2004