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| Matt- never was there greater a fans' favourite |
ONE of the greatest and most popular players in the history of Grimsby Town FC has died.
The sad news about Matt Tees, who recently turned 81, was announced earlier today on the club's website.
Whatever their age, every Grimsby Town fan is aware of Matt's momentous goal-scoring feats in two spells with the Mariners - 1963-67 and 1970-73 - and those lucky enough to have seen him play will have their own special individual memories.
His first match was a pre-season friendly against Leicester City - he scored after just 20 seconds.
Some years later, there was an epic away quarter-final League Cup replay in 1966 against a West Ham side containing Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters when Town went down to a single late goal.
"It was great match," he once recalled. "Alhough we lost, I think we were the better team on the day."
Matt, a shy, modest man who had a kind word for everyone, always looked back on his career with fondness, recognising that downs as well as ups are all part of the tapestry of a career playing football - one to which many aspire but few attain.
He picked up a few bookings along the way but was only once sent off - in a match for the Mariners against Bury when he gave as good as he got after being elbowed in the face.
He and the opponent were both dismissed - but even that incident had a silver lining.
Nursing a bruised jaw and concerned that he might have let the side down, he was cheered up afterwards by is teammates who teased him the incident had probably cost Bury their best player on the pitch!
Rewinding to Matt's childhood in Johnstone, west of Glasgow, his dad worked for an engineering firm and he has two older brothers, Alec and Hugh, were also useful footballers.
But Matt never played for his school team - because it did not have one!
Laying down jackets as goalposts, he and his relatives and schoolmates used to play on a bare patch of ground - with the start of play invariably delayed by the need to pump up the bladder and tighten the laces of the battered leather ball.
When a cousin went on to formed a side to play in the local league, Matt was not even selected! He was deemed to small and frail.
He left school at 15 and went to work as a machinist in a carpet factory - the highlights being the lunch breaks when the 50-strong workforce swallowed down a quick bite to eat, then got on with a kickabout - 25-a-side!
Matt did eventually find his way into organised football with a club called Penilee Athletic who put him on the left wing "out of danger of the midfield rough and tumble" as he put it.
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But he performed well enough to be spotted by Cambuslang - a move which proved the springboard first for his transfer to Airdrie, where he spent three years, then to the Mariners in time for the start of the 1963-64 season.
Despite scoring both in the Leicester friendly and in his first match in the Football League - a 1-1 draw at Swansea - his early times in Cleethorpes and Grimsby were not the most enjoyable.
Not only was he unable to hold down a regular first-team place, but he was lodging in Queen Mary Avenue with a couple and their daughter but no one of the same age.
He was homesick to begin with it crossed his mind to pack his bags and go back home.
But he had been given the opportunity to play full-time professional football - he didn't want to let it slip.
Life perked up when he moved to new lodgings in Neville Street where not only was he sharing with another Town player, fellow-Scot George McLean, but he also had a perfect landlady, Inga McDonald, who was like a second mum."
After scoring only five goals in his first season, Matt was so concerned that Town might decide to offload him that he wrote to a friend, Douglas Wright, formerly of Partick Thistle but now playing in Sydney, who agreed to help him find a club in the Australian League.
However, much to his relief and delight, Jimmy McGuigan, who by now had taken over as Mariners manager, had confidence in Matt, and his contract was renewed - he would be staying with Town.
McGuigan's faith was not full restored until Matt's third season when, alongside strongly-built Rod Green - a signing from Gillingham - Matt more than fulfilled his potential, scoring no fewer than 37 league and cup goals.
The duo were so lethal that interest was generated from other clubs, including South London club Charlton Athletic whose manager Bob Stokoe - to the grief of Town fans - snapped the pair up for a total outlay of £23,000.
The transfer came as a bolt for the blue, not just for Town fans but also for the lady in Matt's life, fellow-Scot May Wright - an accountant at a solicitor's office and wife of former Town goalkeeper Charlie Wright who had been transferred to Charlton the previous season.
When the bid came, the couple were busy preparing not just for their marriage but also to make an offer on a house in Fillingham Crescent, Cleethorpes.
The wedding went ahead - in Scotland in June, 1967 - but the proposed proposed purchase had to go out of the window.
The move to a Charlton club house near Blackheath proved popular not just with the couple, who settled well, but also with family and friends who were eager to come to "Tees Hotel" to see the sights of the capital and to catch a West End show.
May found a job in the CIty, but when the opportunity arose, she and Matt also enjoyed the nightlife - for instance shows at the Palladium, seeing Sammy Davis Jnr and chart-topping crooner Englebert Humperdinck in pantomime.
But with Charlton strapped for cash and at risk of folding, the couple were soon on their travels again - this time when Matt was signed for Luton Town by Alec Stock, a gifted old-school manager who also enjoyed success with a number of other clubs, including QPR and Fulham.
At the time, comedian Eric Morecambe was a director of the Bedfordshire club, and he and Matt shared many laughs.
Despite their happy times down south, both Matt and May both missed the Cleethorpes area. They had made many friends here - both inside and outside football.
It was thus almost a dream come true when Town's player-manager Bobby Kennedy brought Matt back to Blundell Park in 1970.
It proved to be a glorious return - one that prevailed into the following season when, now with Lawrie McMenemy as manager, Matt scored 27 goals as the Mariners powered to the Division Four title.
As well as being a prodigious goalscorer, Matt was a personality both on and off the pitch - not least because he used to smoke a pipe during pre-match team talks.
But the world of football is often harsh. Though full of admiration for Matt's achievements, McMenemy reckoned that he had reached and passed his peak and decided to release him before age and injuries took their toll.
Matt then joined Boston United where he enjoyed another illustrious season, helping the Pilgrims to win the North Premier League title and playing in a memorable 3rd Round FA Cup match against Derby County, at that time one of the top sides in the land.
After hanging up his boots, Matt worked for shipping company DFDS before retirement.
When they moved back to the area, he and May raised their two boys Neil and Andrew.at a house in Chichester Road, Cleethorpes, before moving to another part of the town.
On the website of Grimsby Town FC, John Kirk today writes: "Few players have achieved the respect and legendary status of Matt Tees, Master Mariner.
"Almost half a century after his last game for Town, Tees is still lovingly remembered by hundreds, if not thousands of own fans who took him to their hearts not once, but twice, and again in his retirement.
"Five foot 10, and 10 stone 4 he might have been in his playing days, but for all who saw him, he was, and always will be remembered as a giant of a man.
"Matt: Thanks for all the memories and the joy you brought to football fans all over the country, but especially to we Mariners."
Matt Tees: 1939-2020
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