AS Blackburn prepare to face Blackpool in a crucial Premier League game tomorrow, we speak to Fred Pickering, the striker who starred for both clubs and who just missed out on England’s 1966 World Cup glory.

WITH 74 goals in 158 Blackburn Rovers appearances, Fred Pickering will always hold a special place in the hearts of the Ewood Park faithful – had fate been kinder to him he could easily have been a national darling too.

When hat-trick hero Geoff Hurst was firing England to World Cup final glory in 1966, an injured Pickering was left reflecting on what might have been after an incredible journey took him from Rovers reserves to international stardom.

After Everton smashed the British domestic transfer record when they paid Rovers £85,000 for him in 1964, his exploits in front of goal saw him gain international recognition, scoring five goals in his three England appearances.

Pickering, nicknamed Boomer for his powerful right foot, looked set for inclusion in the 1966 World Cup having been named in Sir Alf Ramsey’s provisional squad, until he suffered a knee injury in the FA Cup quarter final replay against Manchester City forcing his withdrawal and the subsequent demise of his career.

He said: “I played three games for England and I scored in every game I played, I scored five goals and I was playing well. I was named in the World Cup squads. I was going and from that day it was the following weekend when the knee started to go.

“I watched all the Brazil games at Goodison. England struggled in their first game against Uruguay and that is when Jimmy Greaves got injured.

“Obviously that is how Hurst got in, he wasn’t even really in the set up before. There was every chance if I had been fit it that might have been me who had got in. I wouldn’t say I would have done what Geoff Hurst did but you never know what might have happened.”

Pickering, who scored 70 goals in 115 appearances for Everton, started out as a fullback at boyhood club Rovers and he admits he was struggling to make an impression with the likes of Dave Whelan and Bill Eckersley ahead of him in the pecking order.

It was only a spot of sulking from the wantaway Derek Dougan that gave Pickering his chance as a centre forward and, from there, he never looked back.

He said: “At schoolboy level I was an inside forward but when I went to Rovers they were covered for that position and they asked me to play fullback. I was happy to play anywhere. We won the youth cup, beat West Ham and the likes of Peters and Moore in the final.

“Dougan was the first team centre forward and he had gone over to a club in Belgium or somewhere like that to look around. He came back on the Friday morning and I had been named in his place for the game against Manchester City.

“I had played centre forward for the reserves a few days before against Newcastle and I scored a few goals. I couldn’t understand what was going on and nor could Dougan. He shook my hand but he was shaking.

“We beat City 4-1 and I got a couple of goals. He went to Villa after that and I played the rest of that season. In the summer they bought Ian Lawther from Sunderland and I played with him and then I was partnered with Andy McEvoy.

“The records tell what a fantastic couple of seasons I had. At this time of the season then, McEvoy had scored about 34 goals and I had about 27 goals.

“You could have expected teams like Spurs with Jimmy Greaves and United with Dennis Law to do that but for McEvoy and Pickering nobody would have thought of it.

“It was a big turning point for me to be playing centre forward. Especially when you consider in 1961, Dally Duncan told me that Plymouth wanted me and that I was free to leave. I didn’t want to go because Blackburn was my club.

“I only left in the end because the club wouldn’t give me a rise of a couple of quid. It was absurd.”

Pickering, 70, who lives in Mill Hill, will be at Ewood Park tomorrow to see Rovers take on another of his former clubs Blackpool, as both sides battle for Premier League survival.

He said: “If Jack Walker hadn’t done what he did, we would probably be playing at the level Accrington Stanley are now.

“The big shame is what his family have done since, because they haven’t given the club much for the last six years or so.

“I don’t watch much football now but I will be there tomorrow.

“I don’t know what to think because I had good times at both clubs.”