IT’S no surprise John Walter Lloyd became a big hit on the after-dinner-speakers’ circuit because the former referee tells sensational stories.

The ex-Wrexham footballer turned man in black once sent off John Fashanu while the big Wimbledon hardman was being stretchered off at Hillsborough, he only booked Vinnie Jones once for kicking Peter Beardsley up the backside but Everton v Coventry in the mid-Eighties is his story best-seller.

You almost feel like putting a ‘THIS IS A TRUE STORY’ banner across the top of the page because in a world that is so restricted, and we’re not just talking about the obvious lockdown, this is sheer brilliance.

“I wasn’t down to do a game that weekend so I was out on the Friday night,” said Lloyd, now 72 and still living in the Wrexham area. “There were eight off us and we were at John Hughes’ - the late North Wales coroner - where we’d gone through lots and lots of bottles of wine.

“Next morning, you can guess, I was a bit delicate. It’s half nine and the phone rings. Are you free today to referee Everton v Coventry? The referee has just rang in to say he’s sick.

“I look at my list to see who’s down to take charge and it’s Neville Ashley from Nantwich. He was a bit of a joker and I sensed a wind-up. So I rang him and he said he’d been up all night with the s***s.

“He finished the conversation by saying: ‘They haven’t asked you, have they?’ So I’ve got a massive hangover and I’m heading off to Goodison, hoping it will be a quiet one.

“Ten minutes in and Everton have cleared it out of the defence and I hear a squeal behind me. I turn around and there’s David Speedie screaming and shouting and rolling around on the floor. I haven’t seen anything, the linesmen hadn’t seen it and Speedie’s moaning at me that he’s been hit off the ball and that he’s going to get them back.

“I look around and John Bailey’s too far away. Derek Mountfield. No he’s too nice to that. Kevin Ratcliffe. Could be and then I see Pat van den Hauwe. It must have been him.

“Speedie’s still moaning and saying he’s going to kill him. But I tell him I can’t do anything because I’ve not seen it and if you do try and get him back and I see it, then you’re off.

“I tell you what why don’t you wait to the game at your place and when no-one’s watching, just help yourself.

“He looked up at me and said: ‘Fair enough’ and got back on with the game.”

Lloyd’s ability to talk to players and let the game run made him popular and saw him fast-tracked from Football League to Premier League.

He officiated at the top flight at a time when tackling was an art - a martial art in some cases especially when the ‘Crazy Gang’ from Wimbledon were involved.

“I sent John Fashanu off as he was being stretchered off at Sheffield Wednesday for pretending to be unconscious,” Lloyd recalled. “I think Viv Anderson owed him one from a previous encounter.

“He’s caught Fash and Fash has got him back. I’ve not seen it so I go and talk to the linesman, who has.

“I’m surrounded by players, Joe Kinnear is going up the touchline and the stretcher’s on with Fashanu on it.

“He’s being carried towards the tunnel and still pretending to be out of it. So I tell him, I’m sending you off and showed him the red card. As he gets the end of the tunnel and towards the dressing room, he jumps straight off!

“I restart the game and Sheffield Wednesday score to make it 1-0. So it’s all happening and now the other linesman’s flagging.

“What’s happened I say. The goalie’s called me a cheat!

“I looked at him and said shall we just get one with it. Then to cap it all Wimbledon level it in injury time so I’ve got Trevor Francis waiting for me after I’ve showered and changed.

“I want to talk to the referee but I don’t suppose he will, I heard him say. So I said I’ll speak to you and I went in his office and didn’t leave the ground until half past midnight!”

Lloyd, who also refereed in 21 different countries in European competitions and international matches, revealed being in lockdown had given him the chance to dig out old match videos of games he took charge of.

“There was one at Chelsea,” he added. “It finished 4-3, I gave three penalties and booked John Spencer for a really horrible challenge that he should have got a red for. Eventful to say the least.

“I just liked the players to get on with it - a lesson I learnt when I reffed a game between Everton and Manchester United.

“Andy Gray against Gordon McQueen. The first 10 minutes, it was foul after foul as they kicked lumps out of each other. Gray came up to me and said ‘just let us get on with it and we’ll tell you if we need you!’”

But what made Lloyd, who also showed his all-round sporting ability as one of Brymbo Cricket Club’s all-time best players, take up refereeing?

“I was playing at Porthmadog at the time and Tom Parry from Prestatyn was the referee for a semi-final tie we were playing in. He was the worst referee I’ve seen.

“But talking to him after the game he told us that he was off to Wembley that week to be a linesman for the England v Northern Ireland home international.

“That was it. If he could do then I’m going to become a referee!”

Working his way up from local leagues to Northern Premier League and the old Central League which featured reserve teams from the top-flight clubs, Lloyd was soon taking charge of Football League matches.

One of only three former professional footballers to become a Football League referee - Bob Matthewson and Steve Baines were the other two - Lloyd played twice for his hometown club Wrexham in the mid-Sixties.

He made his debut in a 6-3 win over Barnsley at The Racecourse in January 1966 where Keith Webber hit a hat-trick.

“That was the only game I played that season although I remember a game at Hartlepool a couple of weeks later,” he said. “I was a sub and I’ve never been so cold in my life. The toilet in the away dressing room didn’t have a door and I just remember seeing Albert Kinsey sat on the pot, with his shorts round his ankles, reading the programme with his massive overcoat on!”

Lloyd had to wait more than a year for his second and final first team game - a 2-0 defeat at Aldershot.

“They had a big ginger-haired, tough-tackling defender called Dick Renwick. Chester had played them and two players suffered broken legs against them.

“I’m playing outside right and I’m quick so I flew past Renwick, leaving him on the floor behind me. ‘Don’t do that again’ he said to me and I replied ‘why, you’re not going to catch me’. He did and I ended up on the shale at the side of the pitch!”

Wrexham career over, Lloyd signed for Rhyl, who attracted 5,000 gates at the time and were managed at the time by former Wales and Everton star TG Jones.

Playing for and managing Porthmadog for a time followed before that cup semi-final on the North Wales coast whistled in a new era in Lloyd’s football life.