ONE of the finest goalkeepers ever to play for the Throstles, John Osborne, passed away after a battle with cancer the day after his 58th birthday.
Ossie was known as the “bionic man” because of a plastic finger joint, the injury causing him extreme pain in the winter cold, the goalkeeper often having to place his hands in almost boiling water to regain any feeling in them.
Osborne joined Albion from Chesterfield in January 1967 and went on to be the Throstles’ number one at Wembley in both the 1968 FA Cup Final and the League Cup Final of two years later, as well as playing in the promotion season of 1975/76.
All told, he played 312 games for the club in a distinguished career.
