When boots were boots... and there were five forwards

The Mansfield-Hotspur with reinforced toe cap.

No doubt many of my senior readers who played football in their younger days can remember when boots were boots and compatable with the heavy leather balls of the time.

I can just about remember seeing them being worn at Fratton Park and on local parks’ pitches, but by the time I started to play the modern lightweight boot had come into being.

Mind you, even compared to the Adidas boots of the 1960s today’s even more featherweight boots, or shoes as they are often called, would fall into a heavy boot culture.

Looking at these boots from a 1952 advert in The Evening News, you would think they were made for miners to wear down the pit – non-stretch, with toughened toecap and six studs nailed in by the club cobbler no doubt.

No wonder the players wore massive shin guards to protect themselves from a kick.