I suppose the number of fans who actually saw Sir Stan play are dwinling,time marches,anyone who has any memories of Sir Stan please come forward. Will we ever again see a player as gifted as Sir Stan? I do hope Wilf Zaha will get to know some of Sir Stan's great talents.

Played his last league game in February 1965, just after his 50th birthday - for Stoke v Fulham in the 1st Division (as in top flight). That was the only league game he played that season, having officially retired at the end of 63/4.

Zaha, Williams, Murray, Ambrose, Scannell.

A 5-man forward line who scored 3 goals in 10 minutes on 27th September 2011 at .......................

what a era of players from back then, Finney,Matthews
,Mortenson, Lofthouse, Dickinson, all would have been world stars had they been playing today.

Portillo's teeth removed to boost pound

Boy roasts himself in sacrifice to Chris Kelly

I believe he did play at Selhurst once or twice in floodlit friendlies in the 50's (we played a couple of games against an "International XI" - so any Palace fan in their 60's now may have seen him at Selhurst.

As did Duncan Edwards I think.

Zaha, Williams, Murray, Ambrose, Scannell.

A 5-man forward line who scored 3 goals in 10 minutes on 27th September 2011 at .......................

my old fella took me to stamford bridge in may 1963,to see chelsea v stoke in the old division2,sir stan could still beat the fullback,the crowd was 66,199 ,and the line ups were
bonnetti-shellito-mccreadie-venables-mortimore-harris-murray-tambling-bridges-moore-bluntstone
stoke was o'neill-allen-asprey-skeels-stuart-clamp-ratcliffe-mcllroy-mudie-violet-matthews
for the many of you younger than me,you'll all know about venables,tambling signed for us,and the 2 assasins of the day were chopper harris for chelsea,and eric skeels for stoke,remember getting lifted off my feet on the way out,had to get behind a pillar to get out of the crush

clowns to the left of me,jokers to the right

I saw a fair bit of Mathews as a boy as my Dad and Uncles use to take me to SB and Highbury, only when Palace were playing away, to watch top flight football and on one occasion saw the Busby's pre-Munich Babes beat Chelsea 5-6 at SB.

I recall well the 1953 Cup Final when Blackpool came from 1-3 down to beat Bolton 4-3, which was labelled the Mathews Final, although Mortensen scored a hat trick, Mathews tore their defence to bits.

I don't like comparing past players to those of today as the games changed, there was more physical contact then and a ball that would split your head open when wet.

For me he was the last player to truly "Dribble" as his style was unique. He would run with the ball, close to feet, directly to the defender and then slide his way past leaving the FB for dead, never seen the like since.

As I recall, it was a young Albert Quixall, who made his debut for England at 19, saying how he got a right ticking off from Mathews.
Apparently SM called for the ball and Quixall played the ball inside the FB, for Mathews to run onto, Mathews just stood where he was and told Quixall "when I call I want the ball played to my feet, not half way down the pitch"

It was this type of skill, not relying on just pace, which enabled him to go on playing way past middle age.

........................Then along came Johnny Byrne! and the rest, as they say, is history.....................