Former Crewe player Dean Greygoose reminisces about Crewe Alexandra heyday in new book
By Alex Greensmith
2nd Oct 2024 | Local Sport
A Crewe Alexandra legend has featured in a new book, detailing a Cheshire man's journey round all 92 Football League grounds.
Dean Greygoose, who played for The Alex from 1987 to 1993, has reminisced about his time between the sticks at Gresty Road.
The 59-year-old, who is now a goalkeeping coach at Luton Town, is one of 70 professionals who have spoken fondly about football in the late eighties, in the new book Head for the Floodlights: Around the 92 in the 1980s.
The new publication is penned by Cheshire East resident Giles Goford, (pictured below) who works as a global development producer for BBC Sport.
The 216-page book talks about Giles' childhood, where in just 14 months, Giles and his late father Jeremy visited every Football League ground.
Giles spoke to 70 former professional footballers for the book, with ex-Alex player Dean Greygoose being one of few goalkeepers who he spoke to for the book.
"I turned 50 last year. I wanted to do something big as I was approaching 50, it is a landmark year," said Giles.
"Some people have a party, I wrote a book!
"My dad passed away in 2017, we did this big trip together around all 92 Football League grounds in the late eighties. And I had all these photos collecting dust in the loft.
"It was not something we talked about a lot over the years, but it is something that I remember really well. It was a really good bonding experience we had."
Giles and his dad visited every Football League ground from April 1988 to August 1989, or in footballing terms, every team included within the top 92 from the 1987-88 season to the 1989-1990 season.
Almost 40 years on, the book is an important historical document, as much as it is the story of the love between father-and-son.
"We started the trip on Good Friday, April 1 1988," said Giles.
"We drove up from where we were living at the time in Buckinghamshire, and started the day at Carlisle United FC.
"We then went to as many clubs as we could that day, with the idea to stop at one to watch a match.
"It just so happened that on the first day of this 14-month journey, we went to watch Crewe Alexandra play."
At the time, Crewe Alexandra were playing in the old Fourth Division, alongside the likes of modern day Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers, and now defunct club Scarborough FC.
On the day of Giles' visit, he was 14 years old, and had never been to Cheshire before.
However, he would end up moving here in 2011, for his job with BBC Sport.
"We went to see a game Good Friday 1988, on our first day of the trip," recalled Giles.
"Crewe played out a rainy draw with Hereford United in front of 1833 fans. It was classic English football. Dean Greygoose played in that match, so I saw him keep a clean sheet, and then spoke to him for the book some 36 years later!
And indeed, the result probably did not lie, as Crewe and Hereford finished 17th and 19th respectively, by the season's end.
The Crewe starting eleven that day was: 1. Dean Greygoose 2. Roger Eli 3. Ian Macowat 4. Stuart Ritchie 5. Steve Wright 6. Wakeley Gage 7. Paul Fishenden 8. Neil Morton 9. Chris Cutler 10. Terry Milligan 11. Rob Wakenshaw.
"For the book, I wanted to talk to a player from each club, for context, for their memories of the ground," explained Giles.
"For Crewe, I spoke to Dean Greygoose," said Giles.
"I found Dean on LinkedIn, he loved his time at Crewe.
"He spoke of how the crowd used to sing 'Blue Moon'. [Before the song became synonymous with Manchester City.]
"He said the smell of fish and chip shop when he was in goal at the Gresty Road end was 'amazing', and just thinking about it 'made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up'."
Dean Greygoose is regarded by some Crewe fans as the team's best-ever keeper. He joined from Crystal Place in 1987, and went to fellow Cheshire side Northwich Victoria in 1993, after playing over 200 matches for The Railwaymen.
You can watch fascinating archival footage of the Dean Greygoose testimonial at the top of this article.
Other local clubs Giles visited near to Crewe with his old man in the late 1980s, ranged from then-Third Division club Chester City, to Second-Division side Stoke City. But Gresty Road clearly left an impression on the father-and-son, as they decided to take multiple photos at Crewe, and visit it again later on in the trip, a statement that cannot be said for every Football League ground.
"Nowadays, you would take 40 pictures at one club, but back then it was on film," recalled Giles.
"So at some clubs we just took one photo. Buying and developing film cost a lot of money!
"I love in our photos you can see the old sponsors. 'Aaron Landscape and Garden Supplies' still exist as a company, for example.
"We decided to go back to Crewe in 1989. The reason was that we didn't get a photo of me under the 'Crewe' club sign on our 1988 trip to the match. That was important to us, to have a complete set, so that's why we went back.
Crewe has always been known as a place for great connections to other places, and indeed, that may be perhaps why Giles visited twice. Or, he was charmed by Gresty Road!
"As the photos show I as quite a gawky teenager to start with," said Giles.
"I changed a lot in that sixteen month period, from ages 14 to 16 [as evidenced by The Smiths shirt Giles is wearing at Crewe Alex].
"We wanted to see how far we could get, to give ourselves that challenge. And travel expands the mind.
"I hadn't been to Manchester, I hadn't been to Newcastle. When we could, we would stop off at local culture points like the Humber Bridge or Hadrian's Wall. One day, we did 19 clubs in one day, and we didn't contact any club in advance.
"Sadly we didn't get into all the grounds, and some of them we just had to take pictures of the outside. The main focal point was to take pictures of me underneath the sign."
And indeed, Giles returned to Gresty Road for a third time in 2000, when he decided to visit every Football League ground again.
"By that time I was 27. I was living in London. I went with three mates, but as we planned to do it all in four days, my dad politely declined the offer," added Giles.
"Once we had done all the grounds in 2000, we finished at Wembley Stadium, as Old Wembley was about to be demolished then, so I actually did one more ground than in the 1980s!"
The second time around, Giles and his friends did the 92 Football League club ground tour in aid of a charity which tackles racism in football.
And while the trip in the 1999-00 season is mentioned in the book, it is predominantly the heyday of that late-1980s pre-Premier League era, that features mostly in this nostalgic new book.
"With the truncated schedule of doing it all in four days, we were visiting Anfield and Goodison Park at 3am in the morning," recalled Giles.
"Roker Park [Sunderland] and Ayresome Park [Middlesbrough] had both gone by then, we had the shiny new grounds of the Stadium of Light and Riverside Stadium.
"Football had to change after Bradford and Hillsborough [stadium disasters], it was clear a lot of the grounds I went to in 1988, 1989, were not fit for purpose. These new stadiums had to be built and I'm glad they were.
"I like the way that some stadiums have been redesigned appropriately. Deepdale in Preston is a really good example. It looks nothing like it did, but it is still on the original site.
"Especially the players for the lower league teams, because they have such great stories of how football was back then.
"A lot of the clubs in those days didn't even have receptions or club shops! It was a very different time."
And 24 years on since he last did the last ''92 Challenge', could Giles do it a third time?
"We have talked about doing it with my son," teased Giles.
"He is 13 now, so a year away from how old I was when I first started the challenge.
"And there are lots of new Football League sides since then, like Fleetwood, Morecambe, and Accrington, for example. [Teams that Crewe play now!]
"Thank you to the players who contributed their quotes to the book.
"Especially the players for the lower league teams, because they have such great stories of how football was back then.
"For many clubs, it was a hand-to-mouth existence, where clubs were struggling financially, but the players just loved playing for those clubs.
"Getting promotion or being on live TV meant so much to them."
The book costs £16 can be purchased on THIS LINK.
You can learn more about Giles on social media.
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