Big Billy Whitehurst, to go on to be a number nine at Newcastle would have certainly been classified as moving on to bigger and better things at the time, maybe not quite so much currently.
I bet he's never been asked to speak to the corporate crowd at a Hull City game. Also when we had 'The Legends' walk out at Boothferry Park on the 50 anniversary of the ground we saw Jeff Barmby on the pitch but no Stuart Pearson???? Which, I for one, found to be odd.
Apparently, he called the linesman a "****ing onion." I was at that game with my girlfriend, an owl supporter, but I loved her despite that
tony norman.billy whitehurst.garry parker.brian marwood.that young Anderson fella went to liverpool. jon walters.not many recently i can think of.
There's a lot of mythology surrounding Big Billy. There's no doubt he was one of City's most popular players, but that was mainly due to his hard-man rep in an era when every team needed a hard man. His skills were almost non-existent and when Newcastle offered £232K for him most City fans were rubbing their hands. Alternatively most Newcastle fans were in shock when they realised what they had bought and he wasn't very popular during his brief spell up north.
Scored 1 in 4 for them. There's been many a lot shi.tter strikers seen on Tyneside since then, a fair few better as well of course.
Think you`d be surprised at just how popular he was up there, even Peter Beardsley rated him as his favourite forward to play along side, simply because if he got any **** during a game he`d have a word with big Billy and that certain offender would be `spoken` to by Billy, our Billy wasn`t popular for his goal scoring feats, however he was loved because of his attitude to the game and effort he put in.
Sorry mate, but that's bollocks. Most City fans were gutted to see him go. I was devastated. Selling him also threw away our chance to get into the old 1st Division. I'm pretty sure most Newcastle fans took to him too.
Peter Daniel. Hull City to Wolves when Wolves were a first division club. Aaron Wilbraham ? Played in the Premier League. Damien Delaney, left City, QPR now Palace and still a Premier League player.