ONE of the very few blessings for having spent a substantial amount of time on this planet, apart from having boy scouts help you across the road, is the ability to recall seeing some the greatest sportsmen in history perform in their prime, writes Tony Lanigan.

Not all in the flesh regrettably, but boyhood memories of seeing Joe Louis and Henry Armstrong, Donald Bradman and Keith Miller, Henry Cotton and Ben Hogan, Stanley Matthews and TG Jones in live action, in person or on film, are memories that will live forever.

Yet there is one great regret - and that will be evoked on Monday, the 100th anniversary of the birth of William Ralph Dean.

The legendary Dixie, Everton centre-forward supreme, ended his career a few years before I began a lifelong dedication to the Goodison Park club and I never saw him play.

Yet there were thousands who witnessed the incredible deeds of the great man, ready to relate his finest moments.

Every committed football follower knows that Dixie scored a record 60 league goals in the 1927-28 season at the age of 21.

They may not be aware that he needed to score seven in the final two games to achieve that landmark and he did it with four at Burnley and three at home to Arsenal.

His final tally for Everton was 349 in 399 league games with 37 hat-tricks.

Numerous other mind-boggling statistics prove that we will never see Dixie's like again and I would heartily recommend a glimpse of Dixie's football life story to Wayne Rooney.

I have great admiration for Wazza's (not quite the same ring as Dixie has it?) football skills and as a former Everton striker, albeit briefly, he could not help be aware of Dean's achievements.

Apart from his goal-scoring feats, Dixie was never booked or sent off, never argued with referees and never reacted to physical abuse.

What is more, without any hint of arrogance, he never for a moment lost confidence in his ability to score goals.

Young master Rooney appears to be afflicted by a dip in that belief at present, needing that extra touch before his strikes on goal - and his problem will not be solved by taking his frustration out on opponents and earning bookings.

Maybe on Monday Wayne could contemplate the Dixie legacy and perhaps pass on his views to Didier Drogba.

DIDN'T take advantage of the five quid entrance at Eastlands on Tuesday and maybe just as well as City again turned us into nervous wrecks before completing an exciting FA Cup third round replay win over Sheffield Wednesday. I wouldn't have found my way home.

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