'He was the ultimate legend': Wolves keepers past and present pay tribute to Bert Williams

"I remember meeting him properly for the first time when I'd got in the team as a 21-year-old, which was a big honour," said former Wolves keeper Matt Murray, who enjoyed a lasting friendship with the great man.

"Ever since then he has always been a source of great support for me when I was playing and when I was injured.

"My granddad was a Derbyshire man, not a Wolverhampton man, but one day I took him a book round and said: 'Hey granddad, I've got a signed book for you – I know Bert Williams.'

"And he said: "What??! You know 'The Cat'?!" I don't think there was anything I could have impressed him with more than that.

"That's how big Bert was. He wasn't just a star man at Wolves but across the country and overseas as well. He was massive.

"The word 'legend' gets bandied about too easily these days but in Bert's case he was the ultimate legend.

"He was, without question, Wolves' greatest goalkeeper and a top, top man.

"While Bert may have gone, his legacy will never be forgotten and his memory will always live on. His role playing for Wolves when they were one of the best teams in the world with all the floodlit friendlies mean he will quite rightly go into club folklore.

"It's so long since he played but still everyone talks about Bert Williams and Wolves and I think that is how it will always be and rightly so. He was an incredible man and an incredible goalkeeper.

"We are all very proud of him, I think, because he was so special."

Bert – a hugely successful businessman outside the game – never earned more than £15 a week during his playing career.

But, ever the gentleman, he never begrudged the millions lavished on today's stars – only the behaviour of those who let themselves down, something he never did.

"You knew he never resented the earnings of the modern day footballers," said Murray. "He wouldn't swap his time. He was happy with that.

"But I do think you could sense how disappointed he would be sometimes in some of their behaviour as role models.

"Bert always used to say to me that what you did out on the pitch was important, of course it was.

"But how you conducted yourself off the pitch was just as important and I think he was right."

Congratulations

Thoughtfulness and consideration for others was another one of Bert's traits and Murray, who was forced to retire through injury in 2010, revealed the legend was always there for him when he needed him most.

"When I had a bad injury one of the first calls I'd get would be from Bert, telling me to keep my chin up and asking me if I wanted to pop around for a cup of tea!" he said.

"I would regularly go and see him and have that cup of tea and look through all his memorabilia. At the same time he'd also call me if I was doing well to pass on his congratulations, or tell me to keep going if I'd had a bad game.

"You could always see as well that he got a buzz about giving something back after he'd finished playing. To me it was a massive inspiration to be getting that advice and feedback from someone who was such a top player. He was also such a humble man as well.

"He always talked to me about how privileged he'd felt to have played football and how blessed he was to have had such a good family and a good career.

"You know the game has changed so much. There was Bert, 5ft 9in, and today's guys are 6ft 5in.

"Maybe the ball flies around and bends in the air more than it did in Bert's day – but I would take that over centre-forwards trying to kick you into the net, or diving into some of those boots on some of those surfaces with a ball as hard as that and hardly any protection from the gloves.

"Bert loved his time though, and wouldn't change it. You could always see as well that he got a buzz about giving something back after he had finished playing."

So highly did Murray think of Bert that he was only too happy to hand over a five-figure sum from his testimonial for Alzheimer's Society, the charity Bert devoted his efforts to in his later years following the death of his wife Evelyn in 2002. "He wanted to make a difference and to see him get out there at his age and raise so much is just a testament to the man that he was," said Murray.

"I was delighted to be able to add a donation as part of my testimonial year to his fund.

"I loved the guy. I knew that this moment was coming because I was with the family at an awards evening at Christmas time.

"When the text came through that he had died peacefully surrounded by his family I just thought that was how it should be – Bert has a beautiful family because he raised his children the right way."

Former Wolves keeper Fred Davies today claimed he owed his career to Bert.

Davies was a young shotstopper coming through the ranks at Molineux in the late 1950s and Bert had recently retired from playing.

The pair met in Bert's sports shop in Worcester Street, Wolverhampton, and it was the start of a friendship which lasted until his dying day.

"Without him, I would never had a career," said Liverpool-born Davies, who played 177 games for Wolves between 1961-68.

"In our day there were no goalkeeping coaches – it was a matter of teaching yourself. I'd gone to Wolves as a 17-year-old with people smashing balls against me and I went to him in his shop in Wolverhampton.

"I'd been at the club for about 12 months and was in the youth team but I couldn't see myself learning anything because I had no one to learn from, but he gave me reasons for doing what I was doing.

"I always remember saying to him 'you don't know who I am' and he said 'I do know who you are – you're Fred Davies'.

"I couldn't believe he already knew me.

"I told him I needed his help and he said 'get Jack Dowen, the reserve-team trainer, to put a bag of balls outside the away team dressing room on Waterloo Road and I'll meet you there and take you to Castlecroft' (Wolves' old training ground).

"He taught me so much it was amazing.

"He would teach me how to dive for a ball so that I always landed on my thighs and could roll, rather than landing on my backside.

"That way you never suffered injuries to your knees or hips, and even now, at the age of 74, I still haven't had problems there, so he knew what he was talking about.

"He was going to shoot at me once and he suddenly stopped so I said 'what's the matter?'

"He had a phrase which has always stayed with me – 'why are trees like that - straight?

"He said 'your legs are wide open – keep your legs closed. You should always be able to go wider but you shouldn't be able to go narrower.

"These things gave me a lot of confidence for when I went out there.

"We'd go through mistakes and correct things.

"He used to say 'it's all about your feet', saying that good goalkeeping was about good footwork – that's where his agility came in and enabled him to reach balls going into the top corner of the net.

"He always used to try to make sure his legs weren't apart.

"He taught me how to catch a ball too. I always remember at Cyril Sidlow's funeral (another former Wolves goalkeeper) a few of us were talking and a guy came up to me and said to me 'you made one of the best saves I've ever seen. How did you do it?'

"I couldn't remember it but said to him, pointing to Bert, 'you'd better go and ask that guy over there because he taught me'."

Davies believes Williams was a one-off talent. "He was unique, a one-off – you don't come across people like that very often in your life," he added.

"He has to rank as one of the best because he was self-taught."

The former goalkeepers rekindled their relationship when Davies moved back to the area after his playing career finished following spells with Cardiff and Bournemouth.

"It was as if I'd never been away – he was always giving me little bits of advice," he said.

"Even in the last few years he wanted to know this and that and I was always trying to make him laugh.

"He was nearly 20 years older than me but we used to talk about different goalkeepers and their styles."

Davies believes Bert's passing came at the right time after became frail and he lost weight recently.

"I used to see him regularly but he'd lost a lot of weight and at least now he's in peace and not in any pain.

"It's very sad – I shall miss him terribly."

Former Wolves goalkeeping coach Bobby Mimms believes Bert Williams set the standard for generations of English keepers to follow.

Mimms didn't meet Williams until he joined Wolves in 2001 but was already well aware of his legend.

"I knew of him," said Mimms, who was born in 1963 – six years after Williams retired.

"My father was a goalkeeper and used to talk about Bert all the time. I can still remember it."

He added: "Bert helped set the standard for English goalkeepers, he was so highly thought of.

"The thing about Bert is he was regarded as a great goalkeeper at a time when we had a reputation for producing a lot of great goalkeepers.

"He was one of the best of that group who were around at the time. The career he had, he was a true legend."

Mimms, who left Molineux in 2008 and is currently on the coaching staff at Oldham, recalls first meeting Williams following Wolves' first promotion to the Premier League in 2003.

And he also remembers the close relationship the legend had with then Wolves keeper Matt Murray.

"Bert had quite a soft spot for Matt and they always used to have chats about the game," he said.

"He was just such a gentleman, a lovely fellow and it really was a pleasure to know him.

"You just couldn't believe some of the stories Graham Hughes (Wolves historian) used to tell us about the games Bert had played in."

Mimms also acknowledged the part Williams played in the community following his retirement from the game.

"Back when Bert was playing people used to stay at the same club and they were closer to the fans," he said.

"Bert became such a key part of the community, anyone could talk to him about his career and so many people knew him because of his shop.

"He is going to be sorely missed."