Gordon Banks funeral: England World Cup-winners join mourners for final farewell at Stoke Minster

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Tom Dutton4 March 2019

Team-mates from England's 1966 World Cup-winning side joined mourners to pay a final farewell to one of football's greatest goalkeepers Gordon Banks on Monday.

The former England international died, aged 81, on February 12 and is to be laid to rest following a funeral service at Stoke Minster on Monday afternoon.

Sir Geoff Hurst, Sir Bobby Charlton, Roger Hunt and George Cohen were among those in attendance from Sir Alf Ramsey's famous Three Lions side.

Banks made 73 appearances for England between 1963-72, playing every game in 1966 as England won the Jules Rimet Trophy with victory over West Germany at the old Wembley Stadium.

His save to thwart Brazilian icon Pele at the 1970 tournament in Mexico is still regarded as one of the very best in football history.

Hundreds gathered at the bet365 Stadium to pay tribute to Banks ahead of his funeral.

A five-car funeral cortege passed through Stoke's stadium, stopping at the pitchside dugout for a few minutes, to sustained applause from the assembled crowd.

The various achievements of Banks, who won the League Cup with Stoke and Leicester, were displayed on the big screen as a chant of "England's number one" broke out

Stoke goalkeeper Jack Butland will carry the coffin into Stoke Mister along with Joe Hart (England), Kasper Schmeichel (Leicester City) and Joe Anyon (Chesterfield). Each will represent the shirts worn by Banks during an impressive career both domestically and internationally.

Speaking ahead of the funeral on Monday, the goalkeeper's daughter Wendy Banks told the BBC: "We are very surprised at how world-wide [the support] has been.

"He was absolutely brilliant, he had a lot of time for us all, we had a lot of fun, the house was always full of laughter and jokes.

"It was football, Match of the Day and laughs, I miss everything already.

Gordon Banks - In pictures

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"Stoke City were all we talked about, we would have the whole match debrief and we'd argue over players.

"It was football, football, football."

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