'The biggest game of my life and I missed it': Photographer missed 1966 final to snap weddings

Sunday's big final has brought inevitable comparisons with that day in 1966, and those old enough to remember have been prompted to cast their minds back to where they were when the 'They think it's all over' moment came.

Big football fan Dave was a 17-year-old photographer on the Shropshire Star at the time of England's crowning glory. And he had spent most of the afternoon photographing weddings.

"It was the biggest game of my life, and I missed it," says Dave, 72, who lives in Ironbridge.

"I listened to it on the wireless, just keeping tabs on the score, but I didn't get the chance to hear much of it, I was working,"

As the game went into extra time, he headed back to the office at Ketley, in Telford, where his colleagues were all crowded round a small television set on the sports desk.

"It was the only TV in the office, and there were so many people crowded round it, I could hardly see a thing. I remember I was in the dark room when this massive cheer went up – I could hear everyone shouting, and I realised it must be a goal."

While he was able to catch up with the goals on the news later that night, it was several months before he was able to watch the game in its entirety.

"The first time I saw the game properly was at the Clifton Cinema in Wellington," he says.

"That was a big thing, because they showed the whole of it in full colour, and nobody had colour television then. It was fantastic."

Surprisingly, he did not feel too disappointed to miss the game at the time.

"I think because I was young and new to the job, I was enjoying the work so much that I didn't mind. I probably liked my job too much,"

Dave believes the atmosphere at Sunday's Euro Final will, if anything, be even more exciting than it was in 1966.

And he will be sitting back to enjoy it, making sure there are no diversions this time.

The fact Euro 2020 has become such a global occasion also brings comparisons to 1966, when you either followed the action live or missed it. The social media age means it will be difficult for anyone to escape the action on Sunday night, even if that want to. And images from Wembley will be firing across the media instantly, capturing all the drama as it happens.

"There is so much more coverage now than there was then," says Dave.

"If you look at what it was like then, there were just a handful of photographers around the ground.

"Today, at least pre-pandemic, you see 40 or 50 photographers at every match. You have got all the agencies, and all the different TV stations."