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How a marriage bloomed through Red Rose love affair
IF it wasn't for people like Alf Goodison, grassroots football would simply struggle to function.
If it wasn't for a wife like Joan Goodison, then Alf wouldn't have managed to reach one of local football's most remarkable milestones.
That's because Alf is celebrating 50 years as a football club secretary, doing so for Ecclesfield Red Rose, one of the most evocative names on the South Yorkshire footballing scene in that time.
There are others with 50 years' service and above to the local game - and Alf too has been involved in football even longer than half a century - but when they talk of a one-club-man, then Alf is right up there at the very top.
It was the end of the 1958/59 season that Alf took over as secretary of Red Rose and the start of an era laden with trophy-winning success on a grand scale.
But Alf acknowledges that he couldn't have achieved it without the unstinting support and loyalty of devoted wide Joan.
"When I was asked to take the job on I said to her 'I'll do all the running about, you look after the paperwork' and that's how we've done it," he chuckled. "She's been brilliant."
A bit more than paperwork, though. The Red Rose kit still gets washed at their terraced house at Ecclesfield
But there's been a lot more besides across the years in what has to be the most successful and longest-running working partnership in local football.
Alf's dad, Harold, was involved with the original club, formed in 1915.
They took the name from an Ecclesfield Street, Red Row, and it is believed the name simply evolved from that into Red Rose.
Alf first got involved in 1956, marking out the pitch and generally giving a helping hand and a bit of first aid.
The following year he was on the selection committee and then, in 1959, he became secretary - thanks to that assurance from the missus!
It was the start of an amazing stint of service to one club and also of an amazing run of success for Red Rose, including winning the Sheffield Amateur League title in 12 seasons out of 13 from 1959 to 1972.
They also won the coveted Sheffield Junior Cup four times including the famous occasion 50 years ago when 6,000 were at the final at Hillsborough - an indication of the level of interest and the community support for the grassroots game, the 'amateur' level as was then.
There have been other league titles and cup successes too across the years.
But through the decades Alf became more than a one-club man as he began to spread his influence and put even more back into the game.
He was elected to the Sheffield and Hallamshire FA Council in 1972 (he's now a vice-president) served on the committee of four leagues and among the posts he holds is chairman of the County Senior League of which Rose are now a member.
In 2003 he received the FA's 50-year medal from then FA chairman Geoff Thompson because 1953 marked his first involvement in the game, as a player.
So, it's 56 years in all, with the last 50 as secretary and more to add.
Match day sees Alf still very active.
He gets kit ready, helps other committee members rope off the pitch, puts up nets and generally helps to do the loads of things required on a match day to enable his beloved Red Rose to carry on.
He still goes fund raising around the village.
And Joan is still backing him up all the way.
"I don't know what I'd have done without her," says Alf."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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