The feedback on this event as reflected in the comments in the Guest Book and the actual sentiments in the St James Room was excellent. Ray stood up and entertained us for an hour with stories of his career from West Ham to Fulham to Oxford United to Liverpool to Crystal Palace to playing for the Republic of Ireland . The Irish contingent in our club were especially interested to hear tales of their great days under Jack Charlton.
Ray Houghton played 129 games for us in the superb side of Malcolm Macdonald. Ray paid credit to Malcolm but also to coach Ray Harford who said to this Ray that with the system of wide players drawn inside of O’Driscoll and him, Ray Lewington the holding midfielder and Robert Wilson pushing up the pitch we at Fulham were the first to play the diamond system.
Having spoken for an hour and it was now 4 o’clock Ray would be entitled to say his goodbyes and leave which I had to do to catch a train but as I left he was chatting away to guests across the table. It was a memorable occasion and I am sure our new members as well as the older ones appreciate the intimacy, fine food food and wine, exceptional venue in which we can savour the company of a genuine Fulham legend, nice guy and intelligent and humorous observer of the football world.
We welcomed Graham Brooker and Peter Smith as new members.
DR