Derek Stokes was the Nahki Wells of 1960.
Okay, he’s from Normanton not Bermuda, but he made the same move from Bradford City, shares with Wells a Bantams club record of netting in eight successive games, and like the 23-year-old managed against Millwall last Saturday, scored on his Town debut.
The fees were a bit different – a £22,500 package which included fellow forward Stan Howard going the other way compared with £1.3m – but Stokes, who notched 55 times in 106 City matches to attract Leeds Road manager Eddie Boot, would love to see Wells (53 goals in 112 games) follow in his footsteps by flourishing at Town.
Just don't repeat those sentiments to his sons Garry and Martin!
“They’re both big City fans,” explained Stokes, now 74, who moved to Dorset in 2004. “So I realise the move hasn’t gone down too well in Bradford.
“It was all a bit different when I did it. Football didn’t generate the same kind of bitter rivalry between supporters for a start.
“And back in 1960, there was no doubt it was a big step up. With City, I was playing in the Third Division. Town had never been out of the top two and the clubs only played each other in the West Riding Cup.”
Having had two spells at Valley Parade – he returned in the exchange deal which brought centre-back Roy Ellam to Town in January 1966 – Stokes, who was working on the railways when Bradford first signed him as a part-time professional in April 1957, has a soft spot for City, but also remembers the bulk of his time with Town fondly.
Signed by Boot as he tried to cope with the loss of the sublime skills of Denis Law, who had gone to Manchester City for a British record �55,000 three months earlier, Stokes top-scored in each of his first four seasons at the club (despite doing his National Service in the RAF) and finished up with a handsome haul of 69 goals in 170 games.
“It was a great place to be,” he said. “I was getting paid for doing something I really enjoyed, Leeds Road was a marvellous ground, we had some very good players, like Ray Wilson, Kevin McHale, Les Massie and Mike O’Grady, and we were involved in some memorable matches in front of really big crowds.”
Stokes still recalls his debut goal in the 1-1 draw with Luton at Leeds Road in August 1960, and later that season, the FA Cup third-round meeting with holders Wolves.
He scored as Town fought out a 1-1 draw down at Molineux, then again in the 2-1 replay win which marked the club’s first floodlit home game and was watched by 46,155.
Stokes, who had scored a club-best of 10 goals in the FA Cup for Bradford the season before (he chalked up 35 in all competitions), also netted twice in Town’s 4-1 Division II (now Championship) win at Leeds in 1960-61 – Jack Charlton scored an own goal – and recorded hat tricks against Walsall in 61-62 and Orient in 63-64.
He had won four England Under 23 caps in 1962-63, scoring on his first appearance against Belgium and also versus Greece, and things only turned sour after the resignation of Boot early in the 64-65 campaign and the arrival of Tom Johnston as manager.
“I’d got on well with Eddie, and I was sorry when he left the club,” continued Stokes. “But with Tom, you could say we took an instant dislike to each other, and I became more and more marginalised.”
With the £22,000 signing of Barnsley frontman Tony Leighton in December 1964, the writing was in the wall for Stokes, but it was another 13 months before he went back to Bradford.
Just as for City the first time around, Town, England Under 23s and later Dundalk, there was a debut goal, and his second spell as a Bantam brought 11 in 35 games before the switch to Irish football.
Despite the distance between Charmouth – “just a couple of minutes from the South coast” – and West Yorkshire, Stokes, who was a golf club steward after his football career ended, still follows his two former clubs closely, and is delighted by the success of each in recent seasons.
“Town’s (League I) play-off win over Sheffield United was amazing, and it’s good to see them back at the level they should be,” he said.
“For City, it’s been a real roller-coaster of being up in the Premier League then right down in League II.
“Last season was fantastic with the League Cup final appearance and then the return to Wembley in the play-offs, and hopefully it’s got them back on track.
“Nahki Wells has played a big part in that, although I have to say it’s nice that he didn’t quite knock me off the record board by scoring in nine straight games!
“He is clearly a good player and a big talent, and while I wouldn’t say it to my two lads, I hope he does really well for Town.”
