Tony White, Anthony Watson and Worrell Sterling at the Done Our Bit club

YOUNG footballers are taking the game too seriously and would do better to enjoy “playing for the love” rather than driving a fancy sports car and thinking about the money.

That’s according to legends of an “unbeatable” school football team who were reunited after 40 years over the weekend.

The side from Hampstead School in Westbere Road blew away all opposition in the late 1970s and 1980s and enjoyed a magical winning streak which lasted more than a year-and-a-half.

Top players in the side, which included Tony White, Anthony Watson and Worrell Sterling – who went on to play top-tier football as a winger at Watford – made sure they got a selfie at the event in the Done Our Bit club in Maygrove Road, Kilburn.

Mark Stein, who ended up playing up front for Luton and Chelsea, was also part of the school side that was managed by Hampstead School’s sports teacher, Terry Dyson –  who had been an unsung hero of Tottenham Hotspur’s double winners in 1961.

Mr Watson, who grew up in Messina Avenue and still lives nearby, said: “Sometimes you look back and think, what could have been? Maybe it would have been easier for me to buy a Ferrari?

“But I like to think we all had a beautiful time. That’s the most important thing when you are young. Sometimes I think clubs these days, they start them off so young. There is a lot of pressure on kids to be pro by five years of age.”

Mr Watson, who became a tennis coach and works self-employed for his electrical company, recalled how on top of the Hampstead School side, the best players from around Kilburn also ran out for a club called Phoenix.

He said: “We had a lot of offers when we were young to play football at big clubs like Arsenal and Palace. We used to take it all as a bit of a joke. For me, life just got in the way a bit.”

He added: “I called it a day when I was 33. I had had so much enjoyment out of it but I liked to play tennis and I’ve done other things to keep myself fit. People still ring me up to see if I’ll join their five-a-side though.”

Talking about the reunion and his time at Hampstead, he said: “It was all punks, rockers, soul boys. So much mixture – mods and everything. “It was a big melting pot back in the day. But it was a school that let people with talent flourish. “What I really liked about talking to people again was to see how they all went on and did very well.”

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