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Get well soon Horse.

By Chris Lepkowski on Oct 10, 08 09:56 AM


A few years ago Albion stayed up on the final day of the season. You may remember it.

Radios were attached to ears, Palace drew, Southampton lost, Norwich were hammered, Albion beat Portsmouth and Bryan Robson spent the following day needing to find a dry cleaners for his suit.

One of my own most vivid memories of the day was receiving a text message from my colleague Colin during the second half. He informed me that Blues fans were singing 'Feed the Horse...' during Birmingham's game against Arsenal.

Funnily enough the play list was similar at The Hawthorns.

It was only right that one of football's 'Boy's Own' heroes should score one of the two goals - with his first touch of the ball - in a game where the Premier League script book was simply ripped up.

Predictably, the Horse had a story to tell after the game.

While most players prepared for one of Albion's biggest games of all time by putting their feet up, he turned to a spot of DIY.

Which was bad news for a brick wall at his house.

He said at the time: "I knocked a wall out on Saturday for five hours - anything to keep my mind off it.

"I've got a house that I'm doing up so I just wanted to keep occupied.

"I just needed to get my head around something. I used to do it as a job so I'm used to it."

A bricklayer and builder by trade, Horse has spent all of his football career working as hard as he would if he was still on the site.

He regards football as a privilege. Considering he was a Premier League performer and hero to thousands, he has always remained refreshingly down-to-earth. He remains 'one of the lads' to team-mates, Albion staff members, the press and generally anyone he meets. The Horse also got promoted with four different clubs (including Blues and Albion) - an incredible achievement in itself.

Geoff has just been diagnosed with testicular cancer.

Let's hope he deals with it in the same manner he disposed of that wall.

Get well soon Horse.

5 Comments

Chris Perry said:

Ahh, that goal against Portsmouth; he'll always be a hero at the Albion for scoring that. I had a great photo of his boot connecting with the ball to send it on it's way to that opener as my desktop for months!

Horse was always a great advert for everything a footballer should be. Humble, hard working and always had time for the fans. Some of the over-paid, over-hyped 'superstars' could learn a lot from him.

A real shame for his career to end in this manner, but it''s good to read that he has caught it early enough to make it treatable and a full recovery is likely. The same disease took my kid's grandad before they were born. My thoughts and best wishes go out to him and his family.

Ben said:

All the best Geoff.

mann family said:

gd luck the horse hope all goes well thinking of u and all your family your in our thoughts and prayers.michelle ashley and daisy fulham supporters

daz said:

Top bloke The Horse! He's a big gutsy strong lad
that never shirked anything on the pitch & he'll
battle this in much the same manner.
I wouldn't bet against him beating it & getting
back into the game as a coach somewhere. Hope he
does too, the game needs characters like him!

All the best Horse.

Alan Edmonds said:

Just wanted to say all the best to Geoff I hope all goes well for him in the coming months. He was a great guy ate the Albion an dhe deserve all our support and prays.

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