Cambridge United people were saddened to hear this week of the death, at the age of 85, of John Gregson, who played for the club either side of its election to the Football League in 1970...
Known to fellow professionals as Rolls-Royce because of the smooth, elegant manner in which he covered the ground, John was a classy, hard-working inside forward who could also play on the wing and even filled in once as a sweeper.
Between 1968 and 1971 he started 131 games in amber, made six substitute appearances and scored 18 goals.
A native of Skelmersdale in Lancashire, John was playing for his local club when he was signed by Blackpool. He made his Division One debut as a winger at the age of 18 in 1957, and gained the distinction of deputising for the great Stanley Matthews in eight games.
After a stint of National Service he moved on to Chester City, Shrewsbury Town and Mansfield Town, the latter two clubs both paying £5,000 for his services, before joining Lincoln City in 1967. While at Sincil Bank the blond John was compared by one newspaper reporter to “UNCLE” agent Ilya Kuryakin – a reference to lookalike actor David McCallum’s role in the TV series The Man from UNCLE.
After 36 League games and six goal for the Imps, 28-year-old John was released in 1968 to the delight of United manager Bill Leivers, who brought him to the Abbey. He started the first Southern League Premier Division game of the season at Poole Town, limping off with a hamstring injury late on, and scored his first SL goal in a 1-1 draw at Kettering on November 27.
Throughout the ensuing two seasons, in both of which United won the Southern League title, John made himself a favourite of the Abbey crowds through his cultured interventions, defence-splitting passes and coolness in front of goal.
When United were elected to the Football League in the summer of 1970, he found himself taking on an unusual role, saying: “I have yet to play at Sunderland, Southampton, West Bromwich Albion and Chelsea, but my knowledge of the other grounds means that I will be official guide for the club next season!”
Sadly, that role was short-lived. He suffered a broken leg in a match at Oldham Athletic in April 1971, and bad news came the following October when a specialist reported that he would never play professional football again. The incident had seen his ankle dislocated, his shin and tendons broken and ligaments pulled through the break.
An upset Leivers said: “It is a tragedy that a player who is known in the game as Rolls-Royce, because of his wonderful movement, should be reduced to such a state by a foul tackle.”
After a testimonial match at the Abbey in January 1972 that featured Ron and Graham Atkinson among other well-known names, John wrote to Leivers saying that, after spending all of his working life in football, “working the night shift isn’t going down very well.”
He died, surrounded by his family, on April 27.