"I played against Brian Clough a couple of times. He was around my time. He played for Middlesbrough.
"The only thing that you could say about his goalscoring record, nearly all of his goals [future managerial great Clough scored over 250 league goals mostly for hometown Middlesbrough but also for Sunderland before injury ended his career in 1964] were in the Second Division. Now that's not taking that much away but they were all in the Second Division.
"He played for a Middlesbrough team that were never promoted despite all the goals he scored. But he was a good goalscorer but he wouldn't have been regarded as a team player.
"The first time I saw him play, I was injured and I was at Manchester United and they played Middlesbrough in a cup match and he never got a kick of the ball. But his goalscoring record was phenomenal.
"He was very young when he finished. He got a very bad knee injury with a goalkeeper on a winter's day and he did go to Sunderland and he helped them get promotion.
"I think he was injured. He never played much in the First Division and had to retire very, very early which was a shame. But his goalscoring record was unbelievable."
John was speaking to Off The Ball as always on Thursday Night Football.
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