Stan Palk

Palk was a right-winger who arrived at Anfield after one of his teammates put in a good word for him to Liverpool. One day when he was in the factory that he had worked at during the war, George Kay, Liverpool's manager, came to talk to him. After impressing at training Palk was signed for £1.50-a-week. Palk made six League appearances in the second half of the 1946/47 season, the first post-war championship eventually going to Liverpool. He was called on seven times the following season but then moved on to Gordon Hodgson's Port Vale in July 1948 as he told LFC.tv in 2005. "I'd just come back from the States [from Liverpool's summer tour] and I got the shock of my life. Tom Bush, a former centre-half, who was then working on the office staff, knocked on my door and said I was wanted down at the ground. I turned up and standing there was Gordon Hodgson, the legendary Liverpool centre-forward, who managed Port Vale. I really wanted to stay with Liverpool but the opportunity of first team football was too tempting and I eventually decided to go." Palk was Vale's skipper for four years and made 159 League appearances, scoring 14 goals.