Former Liverpool hard man Ron Yeats has paid tribute to Alan Ball by recalling the future England World Cup winner´s league debut at Anfield as a slight 17-year-old.Yeats - nicknamed ´The Colossus´ due to his physical presence - admitted he was baffled by Ball as his Blackpool team tore up the formbook to secure an unlikely 2-1 win on the opening day of the 1962 season.Ball died suddenly in the early hours of Wednesday morning at the age of 61, after battling to put out a bonfire at his home in Hampshire, and Yeats said: "We couldn´t believe such a small and light lad could withstand so many hard tackles."
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