Big Pat is loved on both sides of North London

This week in 1983, Pat Jennings became the first Home Nations goalkeeper to win 100 international caps when he appeared in Northern Ireland’s win over Austria.

Having made his debut at 18 in 1964 in the same game that George Best also played for his country for the first time, Jennings was still playing international football at the age of 41, when he became the World Cup’s oldest-ever participant by facing Brazil in Mexico.

It was his 119th and final cap and by then, the man from Newry had played in either the qualifying rounds or finals of six different World Cups.

Yet great though his achievement for Northern Ireland was, it almost pales when compared with what he did at club level.

Big Pat was the man who crossed the divide and was loved equally on both sides.

From 1964 until 1977, Jennings was a Tottenham legend. He won the FA Cup, two League Cups and a UEFA Cup for the White Hart Lane club.

Then, at the age of 32 and with Spurs believing they’d seen the best he could offer, he was allowed to sign for arch-rivals Arsenal.

They didn’t reckon on Jennings’ longevity.

His natural talent and professionalism saw the Gunners get another eight seasons out of him, and in his first three, he helped them to the FA Cup Final.

By the time he’d finished in North London, he’d clocked up 709 appearances 472 for Tottenham and 237 for Arsenal.

Other players, though, have switched allegiances and been hated forever.

Indeed, some years later, Sol Campbell made a similar move and the Spurs fans burned effigies in protest.

But Jennings is welcome at either ground.

It’s simply down to the respect all football followers have for the man with hands like shovels.

But many also remember him for the goal he scored rather than those he saved.

During the 1967 Charity Shield, he launched a clearance from his own box that bounced over Manchester United’s Alex Stepney at the other end.

You could tell how good Pat was when he played for his local Under-19 team at the age of 11!

He was playing for Newry United when Watford brought him to England 48 games later, he was snapped up by Spurs, and the rest is goalkeeping history.