Eric Jones: The Preston North End fans booed me when I was stand-in for Tom Finney!
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As Eric, 88, stood looking over Deepdale, the famous ground where he spent six seasons, he reminisced about his time with PNE legend Finney ahead of the sixth anniversary of Sir Tom’s death on Friday.
Finney played more than 400 times for North End between 1946 and 1960 and won 76 caps for England.
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Hide AdThe pair weren’t only great friends during their time together with the Lilywhites, but that relationship carried through to the England international’s latter years when Eric would go and visit him.
Jones said: “I have met many gentlemen in my life, but after my father, I rated Sir Tom as the nicest man I’ve ever met and this was not because of football but because of how he conducted himself outside from football.
“I don’t think it needs to be said how he’s revered in this particular town or in the country or the world at large, because he was certainly the greatest player I have ever seen and been lucky to play with. He was Preston North End – always was, always will be – and always one of my greatest men in sport.
“He was something very, very special and today I don’t think you could put a price on the man. He would be priceless.”
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Hide AdJones joined PNE just days after he left the Royal Air Force, where he had spent two years, and was stunned by the warm welcome he received from the man he felt was the world’s best.
Jones said: “Sir Tom had a peg two pegs away from me and I was absolutely astounded. He said, ‘Welcome Eric, you’re a local lad like myself, I hear you’ve got quite a bit of skill and you will develop it at this club’.
“I thought, ‘What a wonderful greeting’, the greatest player in the world greeting me as if I’m one of them. It was possibly one of the nicest moments of my life certainly in sport.”
They both played in the same position and, for the most part, Sir Tom was the reason why Eric was kept out of the first team in the 1950s.
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Hide AdJones was given his chance when Finney picked up a groin strain, although the supporters who came to see PNE’s derby against Burnley were not aware they wouldn’t see Sir Tom play.
Jones said: “We had a big audience that came down from Lancaster way and the Lake District to see the great man and I don’t blame them. It was well worth the journey.
“We were in the tunnel and I heard, ‘Change to the North End programme, Jones in place of Finney’. Well, they all started booing.
“They’d not come to see a snotty-nosed kid from Deepdale, they’d come to see the great man. I thought, ‘Blooming heck I’m not even on the field yet – give us a chance’.”