Three things made the 1961-2 season particularly memorable for me. There was the honour of skippering Burnley in the FA Cup final, the Footballer of the Year award and then my appointment as coach to the England team for the World Cup finals in Chile. It then all fell a bit flat because we were beaten at Wembley, and failed to perform as well as we might have done in the World Cup.

But nobody could take away from me the Footballer of the Year statuette, nor the fact that we had made it to the FA Cup final. Mind you, we had some scares along the way. We beat Queens Park Rangers 6-1, then had to go to a replay before beating Leyton Orient.

Our finest performance was eliminating an excellent Everton team in the fifth round. We accounted for Sheffield United in the quarter-finals and then had a close call with Fulham in the semi-finals, winning 2-1 in another replay. We were fighting an uphill battle against a magnificent Tottenham team in the final after the ace of goal-poachers Jimmy Greaves had scored in the third minute. I have to say that the 3-1 scoreline at the end of our match flattered them a little.

It was a season of near misses for Burnley. We finished runners-up to Alf Ramsey's Ipswich team in the League, playing with much the same side that captured the championship in 1959-60. I had claret and blue blood after all my years at Burnley, and it is very sad to see them no longer contesting the main prizes. Our success was built on teamwork, with individual stars like Jimmy Mcllroy, Ray Pointer, John Connelly and Gordon Harris functioning within a well-constructed formation. We were essentially a footballing team, and concentrated on skill ahead of brute force. They were wonderful years at Turf Moor, and I was content to spend all my playing days there.

I have stuck with players who I either played with or against, and so the likes of George Best, Kevin Keegan, Kenny Dalglish, Bryan Robson, Glenn Hoddle, Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer did not come into my consideration.

Gordon Banks is my choice as goalkeeper because of his incredible consistency. I cannot recall seeing him have a bad game at either club or country level, and he always seemed in command of his area. His handling was clean, and his distribution thoughtful and aimed at putting the opposition under pressure.

There is a strong strand of the Busby Babes team running through my side. Roger Byrne partners his predecessor as Manchester United captain, Johnny Carey, at full-back, while Duncan Edwards will play a free role just in front of the back line of the defence. He can operate alongside John Charles or come forward as a ball winner, as the circumstances demand. I would expect both John and Duncan to move upfield for set piece situations. John would win everything in the air, and Duncan could cause any goalkeeper problems with his powerful shooting.

Two Irishmen who always seemed to be around at key moments during my career are in command in midfield. Danny Blanchflower was a beautifully composed player for Tottenham, while Jimmy Mcllroy was majestic as the schemer in our Burnley team. Both played a prominent part in steering Northern Ireland through to the 1958 World Cup quarter-finals. Neither Danny nor Jimmy were particularly strong tacklers, but they will have the dynamic Duncan Edwards winning the ball for them. Once either of the two Irish conductors has the ball at his feet, he will control the pace and the pattern of the game with passes that would be positive and deadly accurate.

Stanley Matthews was a giant of the game for so long that his fame transcended football, and his dribbling wizardry would be a vital element in attack. Waiting to pounce on his passes would be two of the sharpest finishers I ever saw in Jimmy Greaves and Denis Law. Jimmy was a thorn in the side of the Burnley defence in many games when he was poaching goals for Chelsea and Tottenham. Denis had incredibly quick reflexes and could turn a half chance into a goal in the blinking of an eye.

I had the torture of choosing between two gentlemen of the game for the No. 11 shirt in Tom Finney and Bobby Charlton. My vote finally went to Bobby because I watched his career with interest from the moment he first emerged as a prodigy while growing up in my home North East territory of Ashington. He was outstanding for England and Manchester United, whether bombing on the wing, playing an orthodox inside-forward role or as a deep-lying schemer who was always looking to strike from long range. Our game has rarely had a better ambassador, and his knighthood was a fitting reward for his services to football. My team would be a delight to watch and a joy to manage.

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