Fair play Shay, Super Shay Given plays on in an emotional day for all!

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Football was united yesterday in the grief over the death of Gary Speed aged just 42.

It was hard viewing for all as Aston Villa played Swansea shortly after the sad news of Gary Speed’s passing. For all fans of Shay Given it was hard to hold back the tears when seeing the top stopper in tears at the Liberty Stadium yesterday lunchtime as fans united to chant “there is only one Gary Speed” as the minutes silence turned into a round of applause.

Villa boss Alex McLeish admitted Shay was close to pulling out of yesterday’s game after finding out the devastating only minutes before the game. Given was a close friend of Speed’s after their time together at Newcastle. Shay as we all saw was in tears during the pre-match tribute and Villa manager McLeish revealed it was touch-and-go whether the Republic of Ireland international was going to be able to play.

“It was Shay who told me about the news,” explained McLeish. “He told me about 10 minutes before I was due to give my team talk and my blood ran cold.

“My players were very upset and I was worried about the effect on Shay. During the minute’s silence that turned into applause I was worried about losing Given.

“There were others; James Collins was white as a sheet and Jenas played as his midfield partner at Newcastle so these guys were extremely distraught.

“I did ask them if they wanted to play. Shay was getting his head around it as he had been told earlier in the day.

“It would have been more devastating for him if he had heard it in the stadium itself when the messages were reverberating around the corridors and the stands.

“But he managed to get his head round it. You felt for them as Shay had to go and tell James and they’ve lost such a great person.

“There were tears and there’ll be a few more shed, there’s no doubt about that.

“But I’m glad it didn’t affect their performances.

“Shay showed his concentration and pulled off a great save when we needed it. They both had to be on top form and part of their motivation for playing was to make it a tribute to Gary; to play at the top level and play at your best and let that drive you.

“But it doesn’t take away the fact this is a devastating loss for football and my heart goes out to Gary Speed’s family.”

“I never played against Gary, he was a bit younger than me,” said McLeish. “But I remember seeing him scoring goals for every club he played for. Coming through from midfield and timing his runs to perfection. He was brilliant in the air, he played until he was nearly 40, he was a fantastic professional and everyone in the game loved him.

“And he was doing a brilliant job with the national team. Wales are flying at the moment and they would not have wanted the Euro 2012 qualifiers to stop the way they were playing. It’s a big loss for Wales and football but the biggest loss is to his family.”

McLeish admitted he was braced for a possible postponement and that he would have accepted things if Swansea had pushed for a cancellation.

He said: “We would have understood if Swansea had wanted to cancel the game, we would certainly have agreed with that but I think there were too many wheels in motion.

“That was the official line I heard, but I would have understood.”

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