The day Kevin Keegan caused pandemonium outside Bromborough sports shop
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Noel Kelly Sports Shop on Allport Lane in Bromborough had recently extended its premises and, through football boot manufacturer Stylo Matchmakers, managed to persuade the club's newest signing to officially open the shop.Margaret, who was 33 at the time and is now aged 88, from Little Neston, told the ECHO: "The Stylo Matchmakers football rep used to come in and sell us boots, and one day we'd had an extension, and the rep said to us he would try and get Kevin Keegan to come and open the shop.“To be fair to the rep, Kevin Keegan duly arrived. We expected a small crowd, but the whole of Allport Lane was absolutely packed.”Within minutes, hundreds of youngsters had descended on the shop, desperate for a glimpse of Liverpool's new star.Keegan arrived in a bright red Datsun sports car, only for children to swarm around it before he'd even made it inside.Margaret said: "They were in the car, on top of the car - they were swarming all over it.
It was quite funny.”Standing on the door trying to manage the crowds was former Vauxhall Motors FC general secretary Dave Edmunds.Margaret said: “He was a tall lad and we thought he’d be able to control it, but by the end of the day, he didn't have a button left on his blazer because the kids were all coming in and pushing past him, and we couldn’t get them out of the shop.”Despite the chaos, Margaret said Keegan never complained.She said: "He was absolutely brilliant. Sitting down for a well-earned cup of tea with Keegan, he recalled his first meeting with legendary Liverpool manager Bill Shankly.Margaret said: "He said he'd gone to Shankly's house with the Matchmaker rep, and when the door opened, Shankly had a handkerchief tucked into his collar and a rissole on the end of his fork."He said, 'Come on in, son, and have a cup of tea and a rissole’.
Can you imagine a Liverpool player doing that now?”The visit came during the era when Keegan famously wore the distinctive black-and-white Stylo Matchmaker football boots alongside England World Cup winner and Everton legend Alan Ball.Margaret said: "It wasn’t long after that he went over to Patrick, one of the other makers, and had a contract with them."Following the announcement of Keegan’s death on Monday (July 20), Margaret said the memories came flooding back.She said: “It’s very sad. He was such a good footballer"I said to my husband that someone should know the story about Kevin coming to the shop and the story about Shanks.